Month: December 2016
Winter Mistery
Winter has a mysterious side matched by no other season. The fact that there are only a few hours of light might be a drawback, but for me this thing sets the right mood for the mind to imagine fantasy worlds that begin where the dark snowy woods begin, and where the roads become impassable for the vehicles.
I was out with my brother photographing the beauty of winter woods all day carefully timing everything so I wouldn’t get caught by the night as the plan was to get back to the car while the light was still enough, but just when I wanted to turn back it started snowing so I knew that I had to miss my schedule and stay a little longer. The snowflakes were falling heavily over the landscape so I took this chance and took as many photos as I could. In winter light falls fast so every minute the conditions were changing. It came to a point where I realized that it’s completely dark, so me and my brother started using our flashlights. The image of a man walking through the fog at night in the woods with snow flakes falling everywhere looked very theatrical, it was like we were seeing a movie so we had to capture this.
Using a wide angle lens and a tripod I opened aperture to f5,6 so I could have a shutter speed of 20 seconds and still have everything in focus. I used the flash multiple times to make the large snowflakes visible in the frame because otherwise they would not have been visible.
Like all the photos that remain in the mind of the viewer, this one has a special atmosphere. The man is wandering in the unknown. Anyone can make his own story out of it. Maybe the character is lost, or he is out seeking something in a haunted forest or it could even be that the silhouette belongs to a ghost or an alien. Imagination has no limit. I’m glad that a lot of people saw something in it too and made their own story.
You can find the image exclusively on Stocksy and you can find more of my works on www.photocosma.net
Nature Stock Photos Launch
Nature Stock Photos was created with the desire to offer our clients a collection of high quality curated nature images with a modern aesthetic and special atmosphere and to make it easier for them to find what they want. We are offering an alternative pricing and licensing system – one in which the client pays only for the size and usage he needs and a simple checkout process with no need for subscriptions or accounts.
We are a dedicated two man team striving to bring you some of the most spectacular nature images. We’ve built this platform in order to have a better connection and communication with our clients. We are not competing with anyone and are not offering you millions of mindless images. Instead we are taking the time to hand pick only the best and most valuable images for you because in our 8 years of experience we have always put quality over quantity.
The website is created on the Symbiostock platform and I am really pleased with the result. To find what you want you can browse the collections or use the search button. More photos will be added but the collection will remain relevant and legible trough the curation process.
I also have a surprise for my followers: 30% discount until the end of the year by using the “30%off” coupon at checkout! More to come.
Winter Dream
I dug up this winter photo from the archives, as it was made in 2008. I always liked winter because to me it’s the most special season of them all because it has snow and you can’t really beat that 🙂 Of course that shooting in the snow and cold makes things more difficult (more on that in a future post), but it’s totally worth it. I am usually searching for dreamy scenes and winter is great for them, so it’s only natural that I have a lot of dreamy winter photos.
This photo was taken at the beginning of my serious photographic endeavour, and it struck me after some years that the elements that I search for in a photo are there: the dreamy scene, a natural setting, the human element that gives a sense of scale/lost/awe. It has an eerie lost atmosphere to it, and it seems that the tree is almost in the middle of nowhere. It is a great way to attract the viewer and make him remember the photo, because at the end of the day it is a feeling that makes an image special and this is why I like atmospheric nature photography, and this is why I search for the scenes that make you feel something.
New images at Stocksy
I am delighted that 9 new images are now part of the Stocksy collection:
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244132
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244113
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244112
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244110
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244109
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244108
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244107
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244111
Purchase this image at https://www.stocksy.com/1244105
As you can see the dominant theme is the winter, courtesy of the holiday season that is approaching, but this latest batch is sprinkled with some autumn photos and also some interesting experiments.
You can get them and many others exclusively on Stocksy
Deer in Winter Forest
I don’t usually capture photos of wildlife, but in my search for special moments in nature I got a glimpse of them a few times. It’s always like seeing a chimera, a ghost. I know it’s something that many never see and that I don’t see everyday. I also know that these sightings get fewer as time goes by and as we humans destroy the places that wild animals inhabit, so it becomes more and more like seeing a ghost. I feel that I am wittnessing something rare. This is why this feels a bit bittersweet to me.
I was out in the woods in winter photographing when snow started to fall. I started shooting with a tele lens to get the dreamy snowflakes in the frame, and after a couple of minutes I saw this wild deer trough the trees. It didn’t take long before it noticed me and got further and further away from me, but I managed to capture the photo above, along with others. The trees made everything even more difficult, but I like how in the end the tree trunks frame the deer and also the fact that the dark trees contrast with the snowflakes falling. It truly was a magical moment.
It seems that the folks at Stocksy appreciated this special moment too, so now it is available for licensing here.
Sleeklens Photoshop Actions
I’ve had the chance of trying the Landscape Adventure Collection of Photoshop actions from Sleeklens. They are consisting of 56 landscape Photoshop actions which can be used for a variety of effects. I like the fact that they are grouped under several categories of adjustments like exposure, base editing, toning and enhancing. They also have “all in one” adjustments to simplify the work of the photographer and get the work done quicker, although this might not always work with on any photo. The actions that I’ve tried range from discreet adjustments to over the top dramatic ones. While the dramatic ones seem more interesting you have to keep in mind that the quality of a photo degrades the more adjustments are applied to it.
You can take a look at the Sleeklens website and see the several actions packs that they are offering for both Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as their other services like the professional photo editing service.
PhotoCosma 