Abstract Purple And Blue Background
Eagle Flying Over Trees In Autumn
Stocksy Top 5 – February 2019
Tag: forest
1000 Stocksy images
Last month, the 1000th photo by PhotoCosma got accepted on Stocksy United. The collection keeps growing every month and I’m really happy about the quality and variety of them. Here are also the top 5 images from last month – December 2018:
Snow Flakes Falling In Winter Wonderland Woods
Stocksy Top 5 of the Month – October 2018
Rusty Autumn Mountain At Sunset
Mysterious Forest Lake Reflection
Shutterstock Blog Feature -Creepy Places
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
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
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:
Stocksy Top 5 of the Month – September 2018
It’s time for my Stocksy Top 5 of the month, where I select five photos that I like best from what has been accepted on Stocksy United the previous month. This time we have some mountain photos that evoke freedom, some interesting night ghost apparitions, some roads in autumn forests, some hiking in morning light and some strange abstract glowing shapes. Here are some of my best photos from September 2018:
Man At The Edge Of Mountain Cliff
Ghost At The End Of Light Tunnel
Man Hiking In The Morning On Trail
Use the “ANDO20” code when purchasing your first photo from my Stocksy gallery!
Stocksy Top 5 of the Month – July 2018
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
Stocksy Top 5 of the Month – June 2018
It seems that the top for last month has taken a turn for the dark. There were a lot of great new additions to the Stocksy collection in June but these seem the most interesting because they go hand in hand and they all share this dreamy dark surreal esthetique. It’s almost a mini series of surreal imagery. The only image that is a bit merrier is the one with the winding road going through the enchanted forest, but it too is full of mystery. Here is my Stocksy Top 5 for June 2018:
Abstract fire texture background
3 photos curated by Stocksy
Glad that Stocksy United liked my last batch of photos and even added 3 of them to the curated feed. All full of mysterious surreal vibes, so that makes me even more happy!
The fist one is Mysterious dark autumn forest lake, the second one Centipede insect close-up and the third one is Sunset river
Great to see something a bit different from the usual getting a bit of the spotlight 😉
Witching Hour
This image is one of the favorites of people who visit my website and browse through the categories, so I thought I’d write a bit about how it was made. The timing should be great too – what better time to write about a dark scary image than Halloween?
Although it was June, the weather had been particularly cold so the weather conditions were great for mysterious foggy forest shots. Me and my brother had been wandering all day through the forest. The weather changed a lot of times from sun to rain so this brought a lot of opportunities. We ran like mad searching for light rays to capture and hid everything away looking for shelter when rain came pouring down. This happened throughout the day so later in the day we were pretty tired.
After chasing sun rays through the forest we reached a part that we didn’t know really well and were amazed to find some giant old trees with big twisted roots. It was really one of those special moments, one in which we felt our steps were guided there. One of those old trees stood out and I knew we had to make something special with it.
I’ve mounted my tripod in a strange position so I was afraid the camera was going to fall over, but it was worth it. I used a wide angle lens at 19 mm, an aperture of f/8 and an exposure of 1/3 seconds because the woods were really dark at that time. I had used hands before in photos to create a creepy surreal atmosphere and to make it seem like some kind of monsters were coming out from the ground. This time I used the hands of my brother coming from the sides of the frame and to the center. The final shot is a composite of 4 photos to make up for the fact that I didn’t have so many “hands models”. I love the darkness, the surreal feel and the overall mood of this photo.
That place really felt surreal and special so I am glad people like the image. For those of you who want to license dark scary surreal images, you can find it exclusively here: https://www.stocksy.com/1334681
PhotoCosma 