Exercise: Light through the day.

" You will need a sunny day for this exercise, or else sun at different times on different days. You are going to photograph one scene from dawn to dusk. The number of pictures you take will depend on the time of year, but get at least one per hour, and more at the end of the day when the light is changing faster."

The course notes say to select a landscape with a fairly definite subject that will catch the sunlight even when the sun is close to the horizon. I wanted to use something that was easy to access as I felt that it had to be very close to my house if I was having to photograph at least once and hour. Also if I was to go somewhere I would find it quite difficult to set up in exactly the same place each time. I therefore decided that my best option was to probably photograph a view from my house. Now unfortunately where I live it is quite open and there is not really a particular subject to focus on. I live right opposite a stud which has a foaling unit, so there are horses there much of the year. Behind this is open heath which the racehorse train on each morning. I have tried to focus on the stallion yard and house which had trees and hedges surrounding it. There is also a tree in the foreground which I hoped would catch the light well and make changes in lighting more obvious. The paddocks also tend to show this quite well as you get a paler or richer green depending on how bright or high the sun is.
All of the images were shot with the WB set to daylight and the ISO 400, this is really because I didn't check the settings from the last time I used the camera and just started shooting. I really need to check which settings I am using, this is the second time I have done this and had got in the habit of looking. I blame having to try and get organised so early!

1. 6:52

2. 7:46

3. 8:51

4. 9:51

5. 11.01

6. 12:06

7. 12:52

8. 14:18

9. 14:51

10. 15:57

11. 16:52

12. 17:27

13. 17:55

14. 18:15

15. 18:25

Once I had got set up and organised, this project went quite well. It has made me much more aware of how the light changes throughout the day. I had been watching the weather reports the previous day and it said that it would be clear and bright so I was not expecting it to be foggy when I got up. I decided to persevere in the hope that the sun would quickly burn through, which did happen. I have also never photographed when the weather has been foggy so I did not really know what effect this would have. The day seemed much sunnier and brighter than it has shown on the photos. I think that if I was to do this project again i would probably pick a scene which had more in it. Having trees or a particular object in the frame would create more shadows and give a greater effect. 
I feel that photos 5 and 6 are the most accurate to how I remember the day. As the sun got higher and brighter it has washed out photo 7 in particular which I didn't really notice at the time.
I think that my favourite images are 13 and 14 as I find these the most interesting. I like the shadows cast across the paddocks on number 13 and the sunset effect on number 14. I had never really realised how rapidly the light changes towards the end of the day and had never considered photographing at this time before.