The Last Harvest: The Full Story

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The Last Harvest, barn owl and Somerset maize field composite

The Last Harvest

The Somerset Levels

This image was the first I produced for this project. It was inspired by a fascination with maize fields, and I wanted to create an image set around one. Rather than capture a person within the scene, I approached local bird sanctuary Sharandy’s Birds of Prey, who had a lovely barn owl called Breeze, and kindly allowed me to photograph her.

Every composite image throws up surprises, and this one was no different. It wasn’t shooting the owl, or masking the fine details of the maize heads, that gave me the most trouble — though that was a challenge in itself, requiring several techniques to solve.

The main issue was finding a rustic-looking fence — which, living where I do, I hadn’t anticipated for one minute having a problem finding. In the end, I found a fairly new fence and had to age it in post-production and add extra foliage to create the vision I had for it. The final image came together well, complete with Glastonbury Tor and the mist that can often be found on the Somerset Levels around September.

Behind the Scenes

Based in Somerset, working across the UK and internationally.