NL,
Very quickly my kit is becom...
Anonymous on
Camera Bags – They Are Always Too Small
A Tale of Two Images
As most of you know I am not a landscape guy. Don’t have the patience for it but If I happen to be there, sure I’ll give it a shot. That happens very rarely, especially where I live. Don’t get me wrong, the bay and surrounding area are quite beautiful but if there is nothing in the sky it is kind of flat and very difficult to get a good landscape image that represents the feeling of the place. I have been working on a super secret project this summer – eventually it will be a book about the area. Not just the landscape but of the people, etc. in and around the area. I am going to try to get this done by next year. Hey I live here so why not.
On to the photos. Yesterday was a horrible day, storms rain, clouds but I had my antennae up because when that kind of crap starts to breakup it is usually a photographic gold mine no matter what the time of day. It’s good right before it starts as well but I was asleep. Real landscape photographers go somewhere and wait for things like this. Me, I’m good if it is outside my front door. So early evening yesterday I look out my window and wham the storm started to breakup. I swear 10 minutes before this the sky was completely grey – not a good grey a flat plain ugly grey. Now the light was perfect on boats in the harbor and the clouds and colors unbelievable. I grabbed my camera and literally ran out my front door 200 or so yards to the harbor. I could see the light on the boats and the water quickly moving off of them. I fired off 2 or 3 quick shots, ran about 25 yards up the cliff a little so I could shoot a little wider without brush in the foreground. Fired of 2 more shots and it was over. The light vanished. This was the best I could do.
The shot at the top of the post was the last shot I took before the boats and water went dead. This shot was the first one I took. They are probably about 2 minutes apart at the most and are not as good as the ones would have been when I looked out my window.
Simple post processing, nature took care of the colors for me. No kidding. Shot on a Nikon D200 with 12-24. RAW processed in ACR using a D2X mode three camera profile (a little less saturated than picture profile “standard”) and a daylight white balance. Minor dodge and burn in Photoshop CS4. Resized for your viewing pleasure.
Landscape people out there let me know what you think. Most of my stuff for the project is architecture, people, informal portraits, environmental, so I jump when I can do a local landscape.
RB
Nice!
I know the drill. These moments are gifts.
Michael,
The drill of running out your front door or the drill of camping out somewhere waiting for light?
RB
Both, but I like your way MUCH better, But as you point out these opportunities are often measured in seconds rather than minutes or hours.
Waiting is no guarantee of results, you don’t even get points for it. You can’t force a good landscape any more than you can force a good portrait.
As with all types of Photography it’s about being open, being there, and being ready.
When someone asked BB King why he practiced so much he said “I always figured that it’s better to be ready and NOT have an opportunity,than to have an opportunity and not be ready”
I like the first (top) image best. I like how the boats on the right of the frame are in shadow whereas the water and sky are both (relatively) brightly lit. the boats on the LH side are in the darkest part of the water and sky, but are bright. The boat in the middle is just that both from a composition and lighting standpoint. It provides a nice opposite to the water and sky.
Sorry for the pointless commentary, however we are encouraged in school to talk about why or what specifically we like about the image and to reflect on the first thing that we notice when we look at the image.
Jason – I like that one as well – it was getting darker real quick as I explained and was quite amazing that the boats on the right of the image were in shadow from the land and the ones on the left were being blasted by the very very low angle sun. Like I said this lasted seconds.
RB
Like the first one; find my attention is drawn towards the centre.