Scarring Our Landscape - Pylons 29th May 2009

To add to my project, I have also decided to study how man has impacted on the environment by building objects which serve a purpose all across the landscape. Buildings such as Wheal Betsy, which I looked at a while back in my studies have previously served a purpose for the company which had the mine built, but it has now fallen into dis repair and has become a relic of Devon's mining past.

As for the pylon, this object serves a very important purpose for people in the modern world, it effortlessly transfers thousands of volts of electricity instantly across the country providing everyone with power for their televisins, irons, kettles and ovens, allowing daily chores to be carried out quickly and easily.

These pylons stand tall over our natural landscape here in devon and act as a manmade skeleton which scars the beautiful landscapes all around the area, although some may argue that their use is more important than their effects, with which I agree.

The inclusion of pylons into this project may not initially seem relevant to the rest of the project but when you look at what I have studied so far, the pylon is the obvious next step for me to study. As I have moved through from many ancient stone formations on Dartmoor, I have now made my way through newer constructions such as the mine shaft and now, the pylon at Bovey Tracey which completes my journey.

Anyway My first expedition took me to just outside Bovey Tracey on the Hennock Road where the large pylons run through the Teign Valley, I found an opening where I could see a decent viewpoint for Polaris.


Photo Factfile
Shutter Speed: 5 minutes
Aperture: f4.0
ISO: 1600

As always, I shot a sample photograph on the normal settings above to see what the conditions were like and understand what sort of settings I needed for the longer string of photographs, which would then be used for the image stacking technique.

I need to reshoot this photo and get another sample:

Photo Factfile
Shutter: 4 Minutes
Aperture: f5.0
ISO: 1600

The second photo is a better exposure so I went ahead with 3 minute exposures set at f 5.0 and an ISO setting of 100.

After shooting around 20 photographs I finished the trip and headed home.

Here is the result of a commbination of 7 good quality images which I chose from the batch:


Here is the image after I changed the exposure slightly to bring out more details:


Why Leave the light pollution?
I have left it this way as I want to show how human intervention has changed the appearance of our natural landscapes, whereas in the other images I wanted to reduce the effects of light pollution to create a more natural environment, this image contrasts the others in a bigger way. By keeping the light pollution in the background, it also provides a backlight for the pylon which makes it appear more 3d in the image rather than being lost into the dark sky above.