Atmospheric nature photography and other visual endeavors. Blog companion of www.PhotoCosma.net
The Stocksy Top 5 of the month for July 2018 has a lot of variety: mysterious dark haunted forests, surreal abstract cosmic backgrounds, moody scenes of trains departing the station, silhouettes at night gazing at the stars and vintage moody still life scenes.
Here is my Stocksy Top 5 for July 2018. Remember to use the “ANDO20” code when purchasing your first photo from my Stocksy gallery!
Man in mysterious foggy forest with lake
Solar flare near planet in space
I really like taking photos in the night because it’s such a surreal and out of this world experience. I have posted before about the thrills of night photography here.
The photo above is made using a really long shutter speed – 60 minutes, so that the stars become star trails. This is due to the movement of the earth and the fact that the Northern Star (Polaris) is realtively still, so the whole night landscape is eerie, strange and beautiful. I’ve added a light source and a silhouette that could be the one of an alien so everything has the grandeur of the cosmos.
Although I usually like muted tones, earth colors and atmospheric landscapes, I also enjoy looking for special patches of color in nature, small details that can be easily omitted by the naked eye. I like searching for interesting colors and textures in nature and then capturing them with my macro lens. I won’t get too technical, I use a 90 mm macro lens that does it’s job quite well. Looking closely I can find subjects that evade my sight when I am out to find bigger landscapes.
The photo above was taken when I was exploring a very interesting and hidden valley, while resting for a couple of minutes. What caught my eye was the really thick spider web with sand grains in it, but I realized I was looking at something interesting when I spotted the colors in the background, so I spend some time trying to capture something unique, and I am really glad I did because this is one of the most appreciated abstract photos of mine. It manages to have a strange atmosphere even though the colors are happier than usual.
I think it’s the micro-cosmos that captivates me in these kinds of images. It’s all about scale. Our world is huge compared to the tiny micro world, but tiny when compared to the immensity of space, just a sand grain caught in the web of time and space. This is why I like these small worlds I encounter on my journeys.
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I love the peace and quiet of the night. While I’m out photographing at night it’s almost like a form of meditation. This has to do with the fact that night photography often requires really long exposure times, but I think it also has something to do with the fact that one can see our place between the stars and realize that we are part of a much bigger picture. This feeling is the most intense at night while gazing at the stars.
The photo above was taken on such a night of wandering on meadows and watching the stars and it has received a lot of attention trough the years, turning eyes and also selling a few prints. I think the reason for this is that it has a great subject – a strange looking tree in the foreground that almost seems to literally reach for the stars given it’s shape, but also because it captures another moment: the red moon rising. A lot of people asked if it is the sun or the moon that is visible. It’s actually the moon rising at midnight. If it were the sun, the whole scene would be too bright and the stars above would not be visible. I usually like horizontal prints, but this photo looks great as a print because the whole scene unfolds vertically: the darker area with the bright stars at the top of the photo, the middle blue part that is lighter and has fewer stars, and the bottom red part that has just a few visible stars. The exposure time was pretty short for a night photo – 46 seconds, so the stars won’t appear as light trails – I think I’ll make a post about star trails in the future as it is really interesting waiting for hours to see the final result. The night holds many mysteries. And even though night photography is difficult and takes time and patience – it is really worth it. I especially like the fact that I bring to light scenes that would otherwise remain hidden in the dark and would never be seen.
You can license this image here: https://www.stocksy.com/750368
Print available here: http://crated.com/art/266374/tree-under-starry-sky-by-photocosma?product=PO&size=14%7C10
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