Shutterstock Blog Feature -Creepy Places

dark_night_in_dark_spooky_forest
halloween night in dark spooky forest

Hello, it’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog, but I have some nice news and something to read on the Shutterstock blog: 6 Photographers on Shooting Their Favorite Creepy Places

In the article you’ll find three of my photos and a bit of info about them:

“Want to explore abandoned houses and lonely graves? Discover creepy places with tips from these six artists as they share their secrets for finding and photographing locations that haunt the senses.

Photography and superstition share a long history, dating all the way back to the “spirit photography” craze of the 19th century. While the “ghosts” that appeared in early camera experiments were in fact merely the results of long exposures, these eerie images were quite popular throughout the second half of the 1800s; many of them were widely published or sold as stereocards. And more than a century later, we still enjoy a good spooky photo.

In honor of the Halloween season, we put together this collection of spine-chilling photographs. We asked six Shutterstock contributors to tell us about the creepiest places they’ve visited, and they shared stories from around the world. While none of them spotted any “ghosts,” their images certainly raised the hair on the backs of our necks. Read on if you dare.

1. “You have to wait for nature to give you the perfect conditions.”

andreiuc88

6 Photographers on Shooting Their Favorite Creepy Places — Wait for Nature

Image by andreiuc88. Gear: Nikon D7200 camera, Sigma 10-20mm lens. Settings: Focal length 18mm; exposure 1/80 sec; f5.6; ISO 200.

What’s the story behind this photo?

I have been exploring a specific forest and photographing it for the past ten years. I live in the northwestern part of Transylvania, Romania, so there were always mysterious legends and myths about forests. That helps me set the mood in my mind.

On early autumn mornings, I go out and look at the mountain where this forest is. On this particular morning, it was colder than usual, and the rain was pouring. The whole mountain was shrouded in fog, and I knew it was a great day for mysterious forest photos. I always go out photographing with my brother, so we got our equipment and drove to the forest together.

As we entered the dark woods, I felt like I was in a surreal world with a haunting silence, full of mystery and wonder. After walking and taking photos for some time, we got to a place that has these old, ancient trees with twisted branches. This added to the spooky atmosphere and created a scary scene. I told my brother to walk between the trees, and I took this photo.

The light coming from the front transformed the trees into silhouettes, and the light was pretty dim, so it almost looks like a night photo. I love the surreal, dark mood and the overall atmosphere.”

Read the rest on the Shutterstock blog: https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/photos-favorite-creepy-places

 

Advertisement

Moody Autumn Vibes

I’ve recently edited a new series of mysterious forest photos. I always take and edit dark mysterious forest photos, but these seemed to fit together so well that I’ve decided to make them available in a Halloween Forest pack on Creative Market. I like that marketplace because it gives me total control over what I upload and how I organize my photos.

Here’s the Halloween Forest pack 2018

If you want it for your dark moody projects you can get it on Creative Market in two different size options:

High Resolution

Low Resolution

 

Stocksy Top 5 – September 2017

It’s time to make a top of the most notable photos added on Stocksy in the previous month. September was a great month and it’s always hard to choose only 5 of them, but these are my top 5 picks:

Colorful autumn tree in winter

colorful_autumn_tree_in_early_winter
Colorful autumn tree in winter

White butterfly

surreal_white_butterfly_on_dark_background
White butterfly

Dark mysterious mountain peak

dark_mysterious_mountain_peak_with_fog
Dark mysterious mountain peak

Abandoned football field at sunrise with fog

abandoned_football_field_at_sunrise_with_mysterious_fog
Abandoned football field at sunrise with fog

View from top of mountain on cloudy day

mountain_top_view_on_stormy_day
View from top of mountain on cloudy day

Thats it! If you like what you are seeing please don not hesitate to like, share or comment.

Stocksy Top 5 of the Month – March

It’s that time of the month again when I see how the last month has been and make a top of the most notable photos added to Stocksy. March was a great month in terms of uploads on Stocksy and these are my top 5 picks:

Sunset over spring trees in bloom

Spring sunset over trees in bloom
Sunset over spring trees in bloom

Scary hands on old tree roots

Scary hands in haunted forest
Scary hands on old tree roots

Forest fog sunrays

Enchanted magical fairy tale forest
Forest fog sunrays

Night sky with stars and man

Man watching night sky
Night sky with stars and man

Lake fog

Early morning lake fog
Lake fog

 

 

Apparition in Forest at Night

night forest ghost silhouette alien apparition
Silhouette at night in mysterious haunted dark forest

I’ve written about photographing star trails and other types of landscapes at night before on this blog, but there is another type of night photography that I like and find really interesting – photographing deep in the woods at night, in total darkness. It’s a unique experience and I have to admit that I really feel the grandeur of nature when doing this.

This works best when the air is a bit hazy but there isn’t any thick fog. Going deeper into the woods on forest roads and then leaving it always feels a bit like the premise of a horror movie. It’s a totally different experience than in the daylight because a lot of the forest creatures are nocturnal. There are strange noises  and little glowy eyes following you everywhere so imagination runs wild. Knowing that the “safety” of civilization is so far away and gets ever further makes for and interesting mix of emotions.

It was on one of these night hikes trough the forests of Transylvania that I made the photo “Apparition in Forest at Night”. As always, I was with my brother. We saw that the light from the flashlight is casting interesting shadows and tried to see how a lit silhouette would perform under such conditions. Like on all night photos I used a tripod and a wide angle lens. The problem here was that the light behind the silhouette was coming from a flashlight and was pretty low so the silhouette became blurry because of the tiny movements. I tried to keep the exposure as low as possible but still needed 50 seconds at f5,6 and ISO 400. Multiple tries later, the result was something surreal and dark that makes the mind wander. It could be a magical portal to another world, the materialization of a dark time, a ghost apparition or even an alien. It could also be a vision for the concept of spiritual enlightenment, time and space.

The image is available on NatureStockPhotos.net

 

Fog Over Mountain Forest

fog-over-mountain-forest
Fog rolling over the mountain forest

This year I’ve got caught by the rain a lot while out on the mountain. The rain is bad for the photographer and gear but really good for the photographs. After waiting for almost a day for the rain to stop, I was given to see with this image of the mist rising from the pine tree forest, the mysterious landscape changing every second. It was worth it.