P15: Planning your portfolio

I have already blogged on my selection of location and framing for the 4 seasonal images.  Since then I have spent some time trying to capture an image that works with Summer, not as easy as I thought it might be.

First of all I want to return to the location and place it into context.  In the middle on the Eastern side of the Englischer Garten is the Monopteros, a Victorian romantic vision of a Greek temple.

From the top a good view is offered looking South into the park

What I like about the view from this point is that it captures the park, the city, and the people of Munich from a unique vantage point and one that is fairly easily replicated.  I have chosen to use a focal length of 100mm with the path crossing the photo acting as the foot of the photo and the skyline as the top.  The interest in the image is provided by the variety of people and foliage that occupies the middle ground.  The trees in the left and right foreground vary during the year, but never obscure the view.

The immediate challenge was to get a good image that would be representative of Summer,  here I met my first challenge.  By shooting South I was always shooting partially into the sun and ending up with a  weak sky and high contrast.  At other times of year this is less of a problem as I would shoot early or late in the day.  In the summer I needed to shoot in the afternoon as that is when people are in the park.  Summer needs to be reflected in the people who throng the park.  The other seasons will be better represented by the changes in the landscape.  Here are my 4 candidate images for Summer:

None of them are ideal, contrast and colour are problems, I think the first of the set is probably the best.  I like the people and I have a better sky than in others.  I suspect that the summer shot will be the weakest, I have shot here before at other times of the year and know how good the landscape can look, so am confident that I can build a good set of photographs.