Impressionism in photography

Laajalahti view, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Looking through the photographs from today, quite a few were a bit like impressionistic paintings. This was mostly due to the autumn colors, which were providing some contrasting color in regular/nonregular patterns. Also, there was just anough wind to disturb the water a bit in the bay, and then there were some longer waves arriving from the more open water nearby.

It is interesting that in reality the eye was drawn to the small details, such as certain small-scale regularity in the grass. But the impression was missing in the photos where I tried to capture this. On the other hand, the bigger landscape provided the same kind of impression in the photos, although it was not as pronounced in reality.

The colors are actually a bit more muted in the photos than in reality, mainly due to the film mode I was using in the LX3, with decreased contrast, noise reduction and saturation. The colors could of course be emphasized in post-production, but I like these muted versions.

This is actually the first time I feel that photos I have captured seem to be more paintings than photographs. Of course, you can artificially produce such effects, but here none were needed.