Posts tagged “spring”

Wide FX again!

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It was a pleasure after too long, back to FX and the accompanying anti-crop feeling. Having used the DX format for years I still was not really happy with the cropping, on wide-angle shots that is. For telephoto sure it works a treat, but for anything a bit wide I felt ‘forced’ to use too short a lens with trees toppling over, and perspective too extreme in situation I did not want that. On the beautiful ‘cold gold morning’ I was first using my newly acquired D700 and felt freed again. It just feels better.

I might even go as far as that I fell a bit in love with this picture. I just looked at it with a big smile on my face. Everything seems to fit, the warm sun surrounded by the golden hue, the fog obscuring the horizon adding some mystique, and the crispness of the Purple Moor Grass (Molinia caerulea, Pijpenstro) in the front. They all came together in a good feeling of the morning. Maybe what could be added is a bit of the underwater world… Well, we always have something to wish for don’t we.

Nikon D700, 24-70/2.8, f16, 1/400s, ISO400, handheld

Gold, Cold, Morning!

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Wow, that was a good morning. For the last weeks I had been biking to work seeing all the gorgeousness that comes with this season. The cold nights and relatively high temperatures during day breeds morning fog and dew. Lovely mornings in the making. Getting up early (yawn) I wanted to beat the sun to the morning and get the usual heathland in a hopefully not so standard way. When I arrived there was lots of fog over patches of water spilling into the heathland.

While nice before the sun awoke it became almost golden after sunrise! All the fog radiated with this golden hue. After stepping just a bit too far into the water I got wet feet. Well, if its worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. Stepping into the water up to my knees into the (really) cold water I reached a spot with a pleasing visual composition. This provided both wide landscape shots and tight crops of pure color. Carefully composing the scene including the sun, it’s reflection and the fog provided an image showing the gold essence of the morning. I still have a smile on my face!

Nikon D700, 70-200/2.8, f11, 1/3200s, ISO400, handheld

Wild Cup-Lichen

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While you can get close to cup-lichen very easily, and they tend not to be moved by the wind, they make for an ideal type of macro subject. Doing something creative with them is quite something else, and sometimes others have good ideas (thanks Dik Hermes) like trying to create the feeling of spying on the cup-lichen as if they were some type of wildlife!

After some time searching I found just the group of cup-lichen to make this work. Making sure the lines of two groups of cup lichen, and grass in front crossed made for an interesting composition. I also wanted to make sure to include the blue sky. Adding the sky, I think, gives the color contras setting of the cup-lichen and adds variation to the usual earth background for this type of subject. To keep out the hard sunlight from the cup-lichen I used a foldable diffuser.

Nikon D200, 90/2.8, f10 1/15s, ISO200, extension tubes, foldable diffusor.

Miniature landscape (best when enlarged)

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Not quite winter, not spring yet either. This time of year is always a difficult time to find interesting subjects, and the macro-lens is my best friend in these days. Mostly in spring I am out at night hoping for some luck with amphibians, but this time I was out during daylight. I was inspired by the ‘top view’-post of Marijn Heuts image of february 27th. I am a fan of odd vantage points (I still like my 2009 image ‘from the ground up‘ a lot) and I liked the top view idea for a macro image. I am also often intrigued by photo’s that make the scale hard to get.

Most of the morning I was wrestling the tripod at making extreme close-ups of cup-lichen (Cladonia moss) using the most magnification I could find in my bag. Having worked the subject I found myself staring down, being surprised by the shadows cast by other moss.

Combining several ideas in this image I have tried to capture a miniature landscape as if from the sky. Using my not so macro 24-70 lens I decided to take the image from the top. I did not clean up the scene, but left some clues as to the scale. I think this makes the scene just real enough without detracting from the scalability (or lack thereof) of the photo.

Nikon D200, 24-70/2.8@24, f10, 1/100s, ISO200, handheld.

Hallerbos 2010

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Like last year I went to the Hallerbos near Brussels, however, this year I went a couple of weeks earlier to catch the first blossoming of the bluebells. While the moring was beatifull with great colors reflecting on the leaves it never quite seemed to fall upon the leaves or bluebells I had choosen to be part of my composition. A bit lost for ideas I tried some alternative photographs. Good or bad, you decide, at least I had a pleasant morning.

Laatste licht

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Nikon D200, Sigma 10-20, iso 200, polarizer, Feisol Tripod

Maart 2009

Hoe mooi het blauwe heikikker festijn ook kan zijn, elk jaar komt er weer een einde aan. Dit jaar kon ik het onder ‘genot van een nat pak’ zelfs in mooi licht op de plaat zetten. De sfeer was ook mooi, een laag zonnetje raakte nog net het wateroppervlak, terwijl de kikker dood tussen zijn aankomende nageslacht lag. Een afzwakkend koor van hoopvolle mannen deed de rest.

Het laatste licht voor deze heikikker is dan ook een symbolische keuze. Niet alleen mooi, het past ook bij de inhoud van de plaat.