IR day at the lake

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As I wrote in last post, it was calm day, almost no wind. It can be seen on grass in the left part of the photo.  I really wanted to get perfect reflection, without the grass and all, but I couldn’t be cause of the shore configuration. I’m satisfied with this, but it could be better. Smile
Never mind now, it’s really idyllic, isn’t it? The dark  boat on the right is the one from post before this. I really wanted to include the willow tree into that photo, but the boat wouldn’t fill the frame nicely so I gave up. If you’re wondering, it took 20 second exposure at f/8 and ISO 250 to get this photo. You can understand why it’s good not to have wind while I photograph IR photo.  The easiest way would be to buy an entry level DSLR and convert it, but right now I don’t have funds for that… Some day. Smile If you like this photo, share it with your friends on social networks! Thanks!

Infrared boat

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Last Saturday was good for IR photography, at least for me that is. Since my camera is not converted for IR photography, that means I have to use long exposure to capture enough IR light. Saturday was warm, almost hot and with very little wind! Meaning I can get decently sharp images. Smile As always I was roaming around my county on my bike, and on the way to the spot I wanted to check out for potential sunset photo position I saw this lake. I familiar with it, but never been there  when conditions were as that day. It’s a small lake something like 50×15 meters. On one side is edge of the woods and on the other side is end of the village. But with careful composition I got rather clear frames. This is last photo I took there, and the composition on this one is the best I got. In next blogs I’ll post others so you can compare them. Colours I got were little strange but I decided to leave them, only desaturate the whites and the clouds. Anyway, If you like it, or don’t give me a shout! Smile

Zeleni vir Workshop intro–Changing the point of view

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In previous post I’ve analysed photo of this waterfall taken from away in somewhat different composition. This photo is composed in different way too.

Let’s start with most obvious, the drops of water all over the photo. Usually we don’t want them visible on our photo, but I’ve left them for two reasons. First, I’m to lazy to do all the cloning, and second, it’s really damp under this (70 meter high!) waterfall, so the water drops are all over the lens as soon as you come under it. That is the reason I let them be.

Next, the composition. Using wide angle lens I got a part of cave ceiling and trees above it in the frame as well as the bottom and part of the waterfall.  I’m using the curvature of the rocks and their edge as interesting lines and waterfall to break these lines. There are also trees that are straight lines (but they are forming curve as well with the line of the treetops. I had to include some sky and although basically  it is boring bluish plane it is offering some calmness in contrast to all the lines around it.

Light, is again rather flat, but not as much as in previous photo. The sun was right over the line of the rocks and that part of photo is rather washed out, but it is providing some gradient on the sky, from lighter to darker. The main motive, the waterfall  is well lit, bright and glowing, and the rocks have enough light to reveal structure and patterns. Since I was using GND filter here I had to pull out some details from the shadows on left part of the photo. Not too much, I did want it to be little darker.

Exposure time was 1/30 sec at f/11. You can see how fast the water is falling as it’s all blurred at only 1/30 second!

In next post, I’ll cut it to pieces! Smile

Landscape photography workshop intro–Zeleni vir, Croatia

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As I wrote couple of entries ago, with Davorin Mance and Fotoklub Čakovec, I’m organizing workshop in Zeleni vir, marble of Gorski kotar, here in Croatia.
If you are interested, check it out here!

Next posts will be about locations that we will photograph, and my thoughts about them. I’ll start with tall waterfall near Zeleni vir well.

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I know, it’s looking strange! Waterfalls usually fall straight, Smile but I just loved how this looked, waterfall on it’s side and tree on the other. Lot’s of rules bended here, but never mind. Let’s analyse this photo.

It’s basically all about lines. Curved horizontal lines of the rocks that are flowing throughout the photo, lines of the waterfall and the tree are disrupting the rock lines and are forming triangle. Branches of the tree are adding even more lines, but at different angles.

I’ve pulled some lines to illustrate what I mean. (Drawing with mouse is not so easy!Smile

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And that is the simple reason why I think this photo is working good.

Next, let’s see the light.  Since this place is surrounded with high hills (this is almost a canyon) and tall trees, only light is the one coming from above. It was morning so the sun was behind me, but rather high. I’ve chosen not to include sky (it would be visible little over the beginning of the waterfall) to narrow the  dynamic range.  So I basically have flat light with not too much contrast that allowed to show all the details on the rocks and even to get some green colour of the cave in the lower part of the photo. That is how this place got it’s name. (Zeleni vir is translated as Green spring). Also, I could had longer exposure time to get that silky feel of the waterfall. But, not too long to avoid turning it in to white speck.

And the last, the lens I used was wide angle Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm. The angle of the waterfall and the tree is to be thanked to the effects of wide angle. Although this would be very undesirable in most of other situations, here is working nice because there aren’t any buildings or other human made elements that are usually strait. Beside the waterfall. Smile

So, there you have it! Do you agree with me? Maybe not? Feel free to comment!

Mess in the square

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Unlike the last three posts, and first three photos in the series, this is completely different! It’s messy,bright, nervous I could say.
This is telephoto lens shot taken in late afternoon, of the shore across the lake.  While it might be boring to someone, I find it interesting with all the layers. Bluish layers of water, then black spikes of dead trees, and then warm reed, and again green leaves. After all that, two layers of hills, and blue sky.  And let’s not forget all those birds. Smile As I already said, it’s a mess but I like it.
Nikon d7000 + Tamron 70-300. No filters used.