Owl Archives - Simon Plant Photographer

Nov

Somerset Photographer Capturing Summer On The Moor

Sometimes I have an idea and before I know it I’ve captured all the images required and I’m sat in front of the computer bringing it to life.
Others, however, can sometimes sit around in my head for months or at best sketched out in Photoshop, this image is a little of both those.
As a Somerset Photographer over the years, I have been capturing people and animals for a personal project “Life In A Somerset Landscape“.
It had been a while since I had added to the work and I really wanted to capture Burrow Hill which is a situated close to Hambridge in South Somerset for part of the project.
I remember seeing Burrow Hill for the first time one summer’s day, a quaint small hill with a single tree on top complete with an idyllic rustic swing attached to one of its branches.
It felt slightly surreal like I had stepped into a Jack & Jill Ladybird book!

May

Creating The Last Harvest

This image was the first I produced in my project Life In A Somerset Landscape.
It was inspired by fascination with Maize fields and I wanted to create an image set around one.
I decided rather that capture a person within the scene I would approach local bird sanctuary Sharandy’s Bird Of Prey who had a lovely barn owl called Breeze who they kindly allowed me to Photograph.
All composite image throw up surprises and this one was no different. It wasn’t shooting the Owl or masking the fine details of the Maize heads although this was a challenge and I had to combine several techniques to solve it.
No the main issue was finding a rustic looking fence which living where I do I did not anticipate 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 mist that can often be found on the Somerset Levels around September time.

Behind The Scenes Video

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Feb

Creative Post Production The Making Of “The Last Harvest”

This image was inspired by my strange fascination with Maize fields which are abundant in the Somerset countryside from late summer to early autumn.
Of course, the idea developed in my imagination into something more than just photographing a field full of crops into the final image shown here.
The most difficult part of this image to perfect was the masking and transitions of the Maize heads onto the background.
After several but not perfect attempts I managed to come up with an unlikely solution to the problem which fulfilled my severe obsession for fine details in my images.

View more creative post production videos

Visit Sharandy Birds Of Prey Somerset

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The-last-harvest-owl-and-maize-field-glastonbury-tor-somerset

Barn Owl and maize crops under the ancient Glastonbury Tor Somerset.