Below Pienza, Tuscany
Fujifim GFX100S II, 700mm lens, f11 @ 1/15 second, ISO 80

Instagram followers may have seen this photo before. And newsletter readers may see it again as I feel it is still a work-in-progress. It’s a charming farm house in Tuscany, photographed from the city walls of Pienza in the early morning. I’m using a long telephoto lens to isolate the residence against a sea of freshly ploughed fields. There’s some light mist and possibly a little smoke which gains density in the distance. The more distinct line in roughly the middle of the photo is the crest of a field in the foreground, while the background being that much further away presents the mist and smoke more noticeably, creating extra softness.

So, what’s left to decide? To date I have played around with the ratio of contrast and density between the farmhouse and the fields. I love the airy lightness provided by extra exposure, but at the same time I am losing some of the fine detail in the mist; so I like it light, but not too light. (And if you’re looking at this on your laptop or mobile device, please splurge with your battery power and push your screen brightness up so you can see what I see!)

For the farmhouse, I can make it a lot stronger by darkening it, or adding more contrast, or increasing the colour saturation. At the moment, I have a love/hate relationship with the way it floats on the softer background. On the one hand, I’d like it to merge into the softness a little more, but on the other I’d like to give it a bit more pop.

So this is where I’m at the moment and I was prompted to share the image, unfinished as it is, because of a collection of thoughts I had on Sunday at the Head On Photo Festival down at Bondi. As always, some simply stunning work to enjoy, but I felt some of the exhibited work was a little unfinished. I’m intentionally not being too specific, but I wondered if many photographers today gelt they should pursue an ‘in camera’ look because with AI raising its ugly head, the days of carefully orchestrated post-production have passed. Will I eventually be influenced to follow a looser style myself?

Then again, as we finalise the International Landscape Photographer of the Year, the Top 101 are generally highly finished and refined. While the post-production is in no way overt, I can see the care and attention to detail in every pixel.

So don’t get me wrong, I’m very content working the way I am, but I wonder what the next ‘fashion’ in photography may become – and will I be swayed?