Anthony Baines Photography

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Postcards from Harris: 6, shapes on the horizon

I think this is going to be one of those posts where the pictures, if not specifically Marmite, may provoke a reaction that is either "Meh" or "Terrific!"

One day on Harris, we were driving on the road from Rodel to Finsbay. I had noticed for some miles the silhouetted outlines of another landmass on the horizon - the Isle of Skye, about 14km away - but without a clear sight: when we rounded one particular corner they came into full view, and I had to get the others to stop the car. I was the only one that was at all enthusiastic about this sight, to the point that Phil went off to find the remains of more dead sheep to photograph, while I set up my tripod.

Through the viewfinder, I could see simple shapes with little other definition. I was entranced by them: they seemed to pick up the colour of the sea and the sky, and form a beautiful set of tones, each shape with its own tone.

For me, these pictures are purely abstract and have moved away from the representational; neither are there any hard blacks, nor any bright whites. For me, this is simple minimalism, and my reaction is that these pictures are very satisfying. There's something here that resonates deeply with me, and probably won't with you - but that is fine :-).

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The techie bits

We stopped at GPS:57.75713,-6.94744. The GPS altitude was 51m, plenty of height to see the Isle of Skye about 14km away (the horizon would be about 28km away at that height). The pictures were taken on a tripod using the D500, 70-200 f/2.8 and 2x-teleconverter (ie up to 600mm equivalent focal length).

The images shown here have had a little processing – in particular, I used curves in LAB to match the tones between pictures more closely (nothing below 50 on the L channel or above 86 – much more restricted than my usual approach of filling the entire range from 0 to 100). I have been debating with myself how much sky to leave in: I've perhaps left a bit more than others might, but, to me, this feels the right balance (although, of course, I will almost certainly change my mind on that some point soon).