Light and Shade, Cinque Terre
Fujifilm GFX100S, GF500mm F5.6 R LM OIS, f8 @ 1/500 second, ISO 500

Looking around as the sun set at Manarola, the famous seaside town clinging to the cliff was directly behind me. On the other side of the bay, the evening light was catching a couple of buildings on distant cliff edge. However, what I noticed was an almost silhouetted village skyline with a church steeple. And then, there was another patch of light...

Photography is an interesting means of expression. I'm not sure that everyone will love this photo without an explanation of what I was attempting. And even with an explanation, still it may not endear you to the framing. However, the church steeple really caught my eye, but as I looked through the viewfinder, I couldn't isolate it. I had to include more of the scene due to the focal length of the lens.

Now, I could crop the image easily enough, but before I pressed the shutter, I looked around the scene. Was there another way I could feature the steeple? And for me, the answer was yes. I like the way the ups and downs of the hills lead the eye from the bright sunshine on the left to the silhouette on the right, and then just a hint of sunshine on the far right to balance the frame.

In post-production, I used shadow control to provide some detail in the village. The raw file rendered this area very dark and maybe that's another option, but I like that we can still see what the shapes are. And the coloured building walls in the shadows provide a link to the very warm colours of the buildings in the sunshine. Finally, I've put a light overlay over the top with an ageing colour grade - regular readers may remember this European series has been influenced by the Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces we all queue up to see on our European holidays.

And the format? It's a wide-screen format that resonates with me - no other reason than I like it. Of course, the format doesn't work for every subject and I still love squares and 4x5 verticals, but I confess this pano format is a bit of a bugger for book design!