Category: Landscape

Posted on

2018-08-19: Creative white balance

I recently watched a Luminar editing tutorial discussing technically correct vs creative white balance.  Since I am almost always shooting outside, in changing light conditions, I don’t have a shots with a grey card in it to actually come up with the technically correct white balance.  I tend to leave my camera on auto WB, and then adjust it as needed in post processing.  But the tutorial still got me thinking about the different mood and feel that an image can have, depending on the choice of colour temperature.

I decided to play around with this concept a bit with a few images that I took on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.  We took a short flight from camp to the coast and took a drive through the dunes, where it was warm and sunny with clear blue skies, but once we were at the coast line, low cloud and fog swirled around in strong winds, causing subtle, but rapidly changing light conditions as we visited a seal colony, explored a few of the wrecks along the coast, and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach.

On a previous trip I had flown over a portion of the Skeleton Coast, and found the abandoned buildings and shipwrecks fascinating to see, so having the change to see some of the wrecks up close was really interesting for me.  The different colours and textures of the rusted, twisted metal against the natural sand, rock and water provided lots of options for photos.

20170426-P1020709
A portion of wrecked boat on the Skeleton Coast.  Here I chose to play up the blue of the background water and intensify the textures in the rusted metal.  I feel the cooler tone of this image intensifies the feeling of desolation I get from this image.
20170426-P1020710
Taking things in a different direction, this image is much warmer, as well as a bit faded and matte.  Combined with the subject, I think it lends a sense of age to the image.  You begin to wonder just how long this boat has been breaking apart on the coast.
20170426-P1020716
This image would be closest to a technically correct white balance, though given the changing light conditions, all of the images are representative of how the area actually looked at different moments throughout the day.  I thought this small piece of metal looked a bit like the blade portion of a ice skate.

 

Posted on

2018-08-18: Smoky Skies

Like last year, Northern BC has been hit hard with wildfires.  It’s actually pretty scary looking at the wildfire maps, as it looks like most of the province is currently on fire.  Thankfully, there is currently no danger in our immediate vicinity, other than extremely poor air quality from the substantial amount of smoke that has settled in the region, and the airborne ash that lately has been coating my car every night.

Yesterday morning started out normal enough for the past few weeks, a bit smoky but nothing too terrible.  But then as the morning wore on, it got darker rather than brighter, and at 9:10am it looked like we were in the midst of some type of solar eclipse event.  I went outside to try and capture a few images; it was extremely smoky, cold like it would be in the middle of the night, and all the photo sensitive lights had come on.  It was spooky quiet as all the birds had dropped to complete silence.

By 10am the darkness had passed but it remained incredibly smoky throughout the day.

I was in the middle of work so I didn’t have the opportunity to drive anywhere more interesting to take pictures; this is a view down my driveway to the road… not that you can really even see the driveway in the image.  It was just the sky I was focused on.

This shot was taken on my Fuji camera with the 18-55 lens, shot at f2.8, ISO 2000 and 1/60 sec.  I created the merged panorama in On1 Photo Raw, and for efficiency edited it in On1 (back to the Luminar processing tomorrow).  The merged panorama was a bit of a challenge because the images were so dark.  I had to up the exposure slider on all the individual images, and then reverse that on the panorama.  My camera is basically always set to auto white balance, and I changed it in editing to daylight, and that got the sky to be true to life.

Just to give some perspective, sunrise this week is around 5:55am.

DSCF1421 Pano.jpg
A merged panorama of 5 images shot at 9:18am yesterday morning.  A single shot definitely captured the spookiness of the colour of the sky, but having the panorama really shows the variation in different areas of the sky.

 

All of us here are praying for the safety of all the incredibly brave people working to put these fires out, and hoping that some favourable weather will be heading their way soon.

 

Posted on

2018-05-20: Painterly Effects Project – Namibia

I was inspired this week to explore images from Namibia with my painterly effects project for the month.  In the brief time I have spent there, I have found it to be a magical place. The light is beautiful and the landscapes are at times surreal.  From the air, the vast open spaces seem lifeless, but on the ground, it is a completely different story.

I hope you enjoy my selections for the week.

_DSC7331 copy
A group of oryx walking in front of one of the impressive dunes in Sossusvlei.
20170425-DSC_0651 copy
A lone elephant moves through the desert, looking to catch up to her herd that had already reached the river.
20170426-DSC_0808 copy
Sunset over the desert in Hoanib.
20170426-P1020661 copy
A group of flamingos in flight over the Skeleton Coast.
20170429-DSC_1447 copy
The land of vast deserts sometimes surprises with lush greenery.  This lion was lounging in the cool grass with the rest of his pride nearby.
20170426-P1020676 copy
Large groups of seals awaited us when we visited the Skeleton Coast from Hoanib Camp.  Inland it was a clear, blue sky day, but on the coast, fog and mist obscured the view.
20170428-DSC_1146
A group of lions, newly evicted from their pride, roaming through Etosha National Park.
_DSC8656
In Damaraland, you can easily feel like you are the only people for miles around.

 

Posted on

2018-04-30: Monochrome Monday

The sun over the Boteti River.  Each time I have been to Botswana, I have found the sky there completely mesmerizing.  This past trip was no exception.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead – happy Monday 🙂

20180430_MM
Leroo La Tau Camp, May 2017.
Posted on

2018-04-29: Kenya Highlights Video

I’ve had a great time over the past 10 days reviewing all of my video clips from my time in Kenya and putting together some highlights as the last instalment of my wide angles only project.  With the exception of the lion cub video clip, which was shot on a Panasonic FX1000, all clips were done on the Gopro, and I edited and built the video using the free Gopro studio software.

 

If you missed the video from Uganda, you can find that here.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.  It’s time for me to ponder what my topic will be for May.

 

Posted on

2018-04-28: WPC Lines

The photo challenge topic for the week is lines (not the kind you were stuck writing in school if you were misbehaving in class…) 🙂

Here are a few images that I found that I feel have a strong linear element to them.  I hope you enjoy.

20170425-DSC_0592
A game trail through the desert leads up a hill and around a bend.  Don’t you find yourself wondering what might be just beyond the line of sight?  Namibia, April 2017.
20170425-1020349
Jagged hills zigzagging into the distance in this aerial shot above the Damaraland region of Namibia.  April, 2017.
20170427-P1020841
Game trails through the desert again, but this time leading us to a lioness heading towards the river for a drink.  Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, April 2017.
20170503-P1030063
A road through the Nxai Pan leading to the Baines Baobabs.  The image is deceiving, as the tree trunks are as wide as a vehicle.  Botswana, May 2017.
20170511-DSC_4192
I took this image of the sky while on a sundowner drinks stop; I was drawn to the way the setting sun was illuminating the linear clouds.  South Africa, May 2017.

WPC: Lines

Posted on

2018-04-22: Wide Angles Project

My wide angles only project took a bit of an unexpected detour this week, into video editing.  I took loads of GoPro stills and video during my 2016 trip to Uganda and Kenya, and never did anything with them.  I think I edited one, possibly two GoPro still images.   Since the GoPro is by design a very wide angle camera, I thought going through my archives to find some still shots might be fun, but it turned out that compiling a video was more compelling.

I’ve created a short video that follows my journey through Uganda; from Kihihi to Bwindi, onto Ishasha, the Kazinga Channel, the Kyambura Gorge, Kibale Forest and then ending in Entebbe.  The still image for the post and the video of the Batwa tribe were shot with my Nikon camera, but the balance was all with the GoPro, generally on a head mount or out the window of a vehicle.  Video is not something I’ve ever spent much time on, but it does provide a good feel for what the areas, and a little glimpse into what the gorilla and chimp treks are like.  Pardon the shakiness at times and awkward head bobbing; when I was with the gorillas I was taking stills with my Nikon while wearing the GoPro on a head mount.

I hope you enjoy this week’s project. I’ll be going through my Kenya videos for next week.

Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead.

 

 

 

 

Proudly powered by WordPress
error: Content is protected !!