I took this photo in February 2006 in Montrose bay. It was a nice but freezing cold day that in Scotland results in very nice blue skies and intense warm colours due to the low sun.
What attracted me first are the colours. Even though it was taken mid-afternoon, the low sun in Northern Scotland in the winter means that it feels like sunset, with long shadows and warm colours.
I placed the two boats to have some sort of symmetry roughly around thirds, though I missed the thirds a bit because I didn’t have time to set up. I would have liked to have them a little bit closer together.
As I was walking, I saw the train appear at the start of the bridge. I thought it would be interesting to have it moving across the frame, so I aimed, framed quickly, waited for the train to be well visible somewhere near the centre of the frame, and took one photo. No second chance.
I was lucky that the shutter speed was slow enough to capture the train blurred so show the motion. the very wide angle lense made that possible handheld.
In terms of composition, I was interested in the triangle formed by the bridge at first. The very wide angle lens (Sigma 10-20mm) meant that perspective creates triangle.
Another triangle is created by the boats and the train on the bridge.
The shot is a bit wide. It includes too much of the foreground. I could crop it to a more cinematic format to get rid of some of the foreground and some of the sky, but it would create an unusual aspect ratio for camera photos, so I left it.
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