Yosemite Valley, December 2019
Yosemite Valley, December 2019
One of my favourites from three weeks Down Under – right in front of my holiday home near Apollo Bay was this spectacular beach setting all sorts of intriguing stone formations free once the tide recedes.
This long exposure in black and white I feel conveys best the mystical atmosphere in the air on a lovely late afternoon where the night is slowly creeping in.
17mm, ISO 100, f/22, 20 sec – Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-50mm
Shanghai, December 2016
This photograph of Shanghai is one of my favourites from a recent trip to China. Not because it stands out through sensational lighting, dramatic clouds or an immensely captivation scene.
No – it’s because I feel the image illustrates the progress I have a made as a photographer in 2016. Why? Well, first of all this was a day as dull as it gets. Imagine the most boring, grey & flat light ever!
In the past I would have been disheartened, losing any interest in photography encountering this type of conditions. However in 2016 I really learned to embrace – in fact love – those grey, dull days.
Why? They challenge me as a photographer!
Those days are not about being at the right time at the right place, i.e. at the top of the mountain half an hour before sunset. No, it’s so much more about creativity…. you know, I feel days like this lend themselves perfectly to try new things, to imagine, to think big…. or simply shoot something a bit more “arty”.
And that’s what I wanted to achieve on this particular morning when I went out in Shanghai. I dreamed big – literally! The idea in my had was a huge , atmospheric panorama in black and white – give some sense to the dramatic scale of this mega city.
Looking at the photograph – which is actually four images stitched together to one panorama (ISO 100, F11, 1/50s) – I feel like I fulfilled the vision. And that is another point: imagining, visualising & creating, not merely taking a photo. Something I’m still learning to get better at.
Four seasons in one a single day? Maybe even in one single hour? Yes, that’s Ireland. Sun, storm, wind, rain or hail – it all can go as quickly as it came at any given time. Be prepared!
Hiking the Roque Nublo was the initial goal, but turned out to be a mission impossible. The iconic mountain of Gran Canaria is fully covered in thick layers of fog. Rain is relentless, lashing down from the dark sky.
I’m soaked, seeking shelter, so I climb up right into the dry safety of a cave inside a gigantic rock formation. Little holes in the wall, some filled with little sticks and leaves combined to nests.
So far I didn’t get a single shot. No point getting the cam out. Light’s bad, rain’s bad, visibility’s bad. I turn around and the whole beauty of the forest presents itself in front of me, fittingly framed by the walls of the cave. Finally an image!
Shoot It Now 