Pastoral Landscapes

John Ruskin would have hated this landscape. I love it ... Ruskin protested loudly against the building of the railway viaduct across Monsal Dale in the 1870s because of the damage he thought it would do to this unique environment and also because [I quote] it would only ensure that '... any fool from Bakewell can be in Buxton by lunchtime'. Fortunately, times and snobbery change and I think the viaduct is now an accepted and integral feature of this landscape and, just as time has mellowed both our perceptions and the landscape itself, I think we can adopt the viewpoint of this image and take in the central focus point of the weathered viaduct and the pastoral Wye valley below. This is a green and quietly mellow take on a famous beauty spot in the Peak District. A shoe-in to my Top Ten pastoral landscapes. Thank you ...

Almost John Constable country and the colours are almost John Constable's too. This atmospheric image could be so easily passed over in the quick click of a mouse that inevitably makes up the Photocrowd vote but, as I have the privilege of judging this contest, I also have the advantage of time and the opportunity to review images as often as I please and this entry also grew on me the more I looked at it. The subdued russet palette could have been lifted directly from the paintings of Flatford Mill or Dedham Lock and I love the way the photographer has kept their nerve here and avoided the temptation to lighten the shadows or increase the saturation. I'm not sure that I would have able to resist tweaking detail and, in doing so, probably losing the still atmospherics at work here. The changes of light on the footpath are subtle and the greens are tastefully restrained. The red, yellow and blue punctuations of colour on the narrowboat and the cruiser catch the eye and open up the rest of the photo. I am not convinced by the dark shape of the intervening boat. Maybe that is the one thing I would have tweaked. But that is a minor quibble. A worthy Top Ten winner.

The understated tones of the colours in the foreground fields and the leading line of the country road make this shot. I must confess that I scratched my head wondering if this was a 'pastoral landscape' as defined by my brief but ... why not?The subject matter is 'pastoral' in the broadest sense and, if we go back to the original masters of English landscape painting they were reacting in one way or another to what were then new technologies. JMW Turner, for example, was fascinated by hot air balloons and the speed of steam engines. The visual possibilities opened up for landscape photographers by low flying drones are endless and I really liked this shot ... but, on balance, I decided it was not quite 'pastoral' enough in the sense that it did not reflect enough of the 'idyllic' quality that I was looking for to make my Top Ten ... but it was a very close run thing. Highly commended nonetheless.

I love this composition and it was always hovering around my Top Ten but I couldn't decide if it met the brief for this contest. Was this image about the pastoral landscape or was it about the hot air balloon? That nagging question was resolved quite simply by appreciating that it is both - the whole is greater and more satisfyingly complete than the sum of its parts. But is it a composite and does that matter? Many of the greatest pastoral landscape paintings are composites. For example, landscape painters often reposition or remove inconvenient elements in paintings made outside and, even the over-reproduced 'The Hay Wain' was completely recreated from sketches in Constable's studio. The painting is a composite. Do we question the integrity of that composition because of the way it was painted or do we judge it on its own terms? I would suggest that we should do the latter and, for me, this composition works supremely well on its own terms. The line of the path leads us to the lone tree but that is immediately balanced by the colourful but relatively muted tones of the perfectly placed balloon. The diagonal stripe of yellow in the balloon is also in harmony with the yellow diagonal of the rapeseed growing in the field below. The clouds in the sky are perfectly exposed and provide just the right backdrop. For me, this composition captures the esssence of a perfect moment on a perfect day in a perfectly balanced pastoral landscape and that more than justifies its Top Ten placing. Superb work!

This entry makes my Top Ten for two key reasons: First, it's a great capture and, secondly, the focal point of the houses clustered below the rainbow help define the idyllic feel of this landscape and, for me, that sense of a peaceful idyll is another essential ingredient in the mix that helps define the pastoral. The scene works without the rainbow but the captured moment and the receding (or oncoming) rain shower in the middle distance amplifies the quiet haven of the buildings in the breaking light. A simply lovely pastoral scene and a great capture where even the rainbow is not allowed to overtake the balance of this green and peaceful rural landscape ...

This was a very difficult competition to judge with so many great landscapes submitted but this is my winner. In my opinion, this image captures all of the essential ingredients of the 'pastoral'. It is quiet and understated. The colours of the changing leaves on the tree catch the eye but they do not dominate the image. There is balance and harmony here and the tones are just right for a pastoral landscape. The grandeur of the Hall is suggested but it could also be a series of buildings on the edge of a village with the (almost) essential ingredient of sheep quietly grazing in the field. On first sight I thought I would have cropped some of the lake but I changed my mind on that as I kept returning to this image. The framing on the lake is actually revived by the suggestion of reeds in the right hand corner and the coot at bottom left acts as a visual punctuation mark to resolve this satisfying composition. I googled Fawsley Hall after I'd decided on my placings and discovered that the grounds had been landscaped by 'Capability' Brown in the 1760s and that fits with the brief too because pastoral landscapes are also very much about people at ease in landscapes moulded by human activity and design rather than the dramatic forces of geology and weather. A worthy winner ... Thank you.

I really liked this image because, for me, it is all about the 'peace in the valley' rather than the drama in the hills and that is an essential pastoral quality. The break in the grasses in the foreground provide a leading line through to the opening light around the farm buildings and the line of the rustic stone wall provides a balancing reverse echo of the smoothly contoured hills. At first, I wondered if I would have been tempted to tweak the lighting but I think that would have unbalanced the image and possibly added drama where none was needed. The image already works as a whole and the predominance of green is resolved with the differing shades of green combining with the clarity and the subtle changes of light in the scene. Much to look at ... Thank you.

We often see images that represent the dramatic side of the undulating Tuscan countryside. Those images are immediately recognisable but they are also becoming landscape clichés as more and more photographers adopt similar shot selection, in similar light at similar locations at pre-ordained times of day. This composition stands aside from that ready made blueprint and opens another more pastoral depiction of the lovely Tuscan countryside. The emphasis here is on the folds towards the quiet valley with its tree lined avenue, its copses and woodland. The flowered foreground slope, the lone tree and the contour ploughing of the field all point towards the valley in a landscape that is very much man made - geology and nature calmed through time by human use of the land. We feel at ease in this landscape and that is almost an essential requirement of the 'pastoral' which first developed as a visual art form as a response to industrialisation and the rise of our cities. But, unlike the work produced by pioneers of this genre, this composition does not dwell on nostalgia. The image feels both contemporary and airily confident and it also shows Tuscany in, qute literally, another light ... and that's the bonus which made it a Top Ten selection for me.

When I wrote my brief for this contest this was the style of pastoral image that I had in mind - images that are all too easily overlooked in the fast judgements of Photocrowd voting and maybe also easily overlooked even when we are all looking criically at pastoral landscapes. This composition almost passed me by but I stopped to look again ... and then again. These landscapes are not easy. As I asked in my brief: How do you portray so much green without it becoming merely bland? I suggested that changing light, subtlety and gradations of punctuated and understated colour often work best and all of that was evident to me here. The pastoral is not intended to excite. In a way, it depends upon the familiar tranquility of fields and streams, it celebrates quietness and maybe nostalgic reminiscence. That's why this image worked for me. A very subtle and well deserved Top Ten winner ...

A very creditable second place ... For me, all of the essential ingredients of a perfect pastoral landscape are here. The image also captures that moment when you have, almost aimlessly, followed a country lane on a perfect day and you are rewarded with the unexpected pleasure and quiet harmony of a sunlit bucolic scene. The photographer's title is spot on ... because, for me, the bucolic and the pastoral are not about 'shouty' images. When a pastoral landscape works it works as a whole. It offers quiet reflection, slows the eye down and gives us time to feel at one with the countryside. This image achieved all of that for me. Thank you ...

I really loved this image and could not let it pass by without comment. If I had a 'Highly Commended' button then I would be clicking on it right now because, although this amazing scene is only 'pastoral' in the broadest sense that it conveys some suggestions of the'idyllic' that is only one part of the classical pastoral vocabulary, and this composition goes way beyond that ... Apart from the commendable technique, this image evokes something of the qualities that I associate with Bruegel's famous Winter Landscape ... I am just so envious of this shot. Maybe I should write a different contest brief to include it in my Top Three ...

A 'sea' of green that could have been so easily misjudged but the shot selection here is excellent and, again, it is the harmony of the component parts that make this one of my Top Ten pastoral landscapes. The shades of green in the fields and the trees work together and the yellow of the rapeseed field in the distance provide an essential counterpoint to the yellows in the foreground field. The landscape would be 'flat' without that splash of stronger yellow. Need I mention the parallel lines of sight provided by the tracks through the crops and the wall to the left or the essential diagonal of the fence in the middle distance that adds essential depth to the composition. All very subtle and deceptively simple. Well framed! ...