Record Emotions

Hello World,

Let's start photo blog.

I keep shooting pictures, upload them to galleries, post some on facebook. Collected already large number of them but some of my favourites miss the story behind them. Perhaps this way I will be able to record feelings associated with them. Maybe also will get some comments.

So let's start.

Danube waters overflowing the bank
(Schönau an der Donau)

Last two weeks or so I kept shooting indoor concerts. It almost became like a routine; every second day day, or actually night, spent in dark arena chasing guys jumping around stages. I will blog about that other time.

So I needed a break and see some light and feel some nature and water (I love water). On Sunday early evening drove to Schönau an der Donau - few kilometres east of Vienna by Danube river. I have been there number of times but this Sunday water was really high. Small stony island where I used to position myself was completely flooded and I was able to witness fantastic water bank overflow. Normally there is a path toward the trees you see in the background.

The day was not particularly colour inspiring. On top of that almost setting sun was in front of me to the right. So I was shooting into the sun. No way to get correct exposure. Could not use ND grads because there was no clear line to hold on to. I shot two pictures with different shutter speed setting exposing for the sky and trees. To get some better colour effect I put on my Gold-N-Blue polarizer. Then blended both pictures in post production. I shot also horizontal version of the scene but this one speaks more to me.

Danube Traffic

When you spend some time sitting by the river you can also see how busy Danube can be. At one stage I could count 6 ships passing or following each other including barges, passenger cruisers (if you can call them this way...). Anyway you can see quite a traffic. So I wanted to capture some of this at the same time showing the environment. This time sun is behind me and actually behind the trees also, quite low on the horizon. I have here almost perfect trees line separating foreground from the sky. Well, except fallen tree as seen far left side. But sky is still quite brighter than rover and stones in front of me. Mounted 2 stops ND hard grad and polarizer, framed and waited for ships to come. Focus set to manual and set to 1.5m with F16 and wide angle makes complete frame full in focus. Did not have to wait very long. This time only 2 ships but still better than one. Made several shots and chose this one. It really drags you in. A bit darker tree's roots further in the frame I brightened slightly in post production. Besides that I did not work on the picture almost at all, besides standard contrast, clarity and sharpening.

Having done those two, it is always good time to experiment a little bit. I turned the camera into opposite direction to face west and got myself in water.... he he I was smart I had my fishing waders on. They are always in the car and I use them quite often. I water walked 2-3 metres and placed the tripod making sure it is steady. I wanted long exposure to flatten the water, something you never see with your eyes. I put on 10 stops grey filter which allowed me to expose for 2 minutes! Sun has already set as you can see from sky colours. I like this picture, it nicely shows the peace of the place and the moment. What I am only surprised about is the small sort of wave you can notice by left edge of the frame. It must have been coming and coming in the same pattern and camera was able to record it. The water by my feet looks transparent and foggy as expected. No additional filters used. Trees shadows were recovered in post. Otherwise nothing else done beside usual (set as defaults in Lightroom)...

Till next time.

Cheers

Jerzy