francescogola
FollowIceland is incredible, especially in winter when you can hear the silence of the snow to hush the roar of the sea..
Iceland is incredible, especially in winter when you can hear the silence of the snow to hush the roar of the sea..
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Contest Finalist in Composing With Arches Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Finding Arches In Nature Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Blurry Captures Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Winter Wonderland Photo Contest
Runner Up in The Magic Of Moving Water Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in The Magic Of Moving Water Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Winter Landscapes Photo Contest 2015
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Absolute Masterpiece
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Behind The Lens
Location
"Frozen" was captured during a trip to Iceland in late winter, a wonderful moment to enjoy the beauty of this country. The exact location is the arch near Arnastarpi village, in the Snæfellsnes peninsula. During this period of the year, snow cover all the landscape and the atmosphere is just magical!Time
The shoot is taken at sunrise. When I woke up I was not sure to try this shot as I was sleeping at 1-hour drive from this spot and it was snowing pretty hard. I decided in any case to try as according to the satellite, the storm was supposed to end just before sunrise. While driving, I got stuck in the road due to the snow...luckily just a few minutes after I was rescued by a snowplow that not only pushed me out from the snow but literally opened the road in front of me. Thaks to him I was able to reach this spot in time for the sunrise!Lighting
As usual, my idea was to capture a long exposure. The storm just ended left everything white, and the sky was clearing up letting the sunrise light to light up the higher clouds. The only concern was the sea that apparently was too choppy for a long exposure. But then I tried to visualize the shot in my mind and I understood that the white halo on the water could have looked like ice in this particular situation, and so I set my 2 minutes exposure. The result is this picture, that's one of my personal favoritesEquipment
At that time I was using a Canon 5D Mk III camera. The Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/18mm was my lens choice, as it's so wide and sharp. A sturdy tripod was mandatory in this situation, as they were filters: here I used a NiSi GND 3 stop Hard and a NiSi ND64, plus the polarizer.Inspiration
I wanted to capture something that was able to transmit not only the beauty of a location but also the feeling behind. Ice and cold were of the main characters in Iceland in that season, and so I wanted to make them the subject of my image too. If while you look at the picture you think something like "Oh, that was cold for sure", I nailed itEditing
Yes, post-processing is always mandatory for every shot, but I applied just a light one. This shot is the result of a single exposure thanks of the use of the filters, so using Adobe Lightroom was enough. Basically, it was a 15 min job.In my camera bag
I love to travel as light as I can, also because when you have too much gear with you it's always hard to decide which one to use. In my backpack you can find just a body and two prime lenses. Yes, using prime lenses is a great exercise to train your vision, because you are not anymore in the comfort zone of a zoom lens: to compose, you have to move. Then the tripod and the filter bag are absolutely a must for my long exposures, as accessories like spare batteries (especially with the cold outside) and a remote shutter. A bottle of water, some chocolate, a headlamp and a first aid kit complete my backpackFeedback
Capturing a long exposure could be really frustrating, especially if you don't use a specific technique to calculate the shutter speed and you go only by chance. Always try first to take a good shot (good focus, good composition, good histogram) without the ND filter and only after install the ND filter. To calculate the shutter speed with ND filter, take the shutter speed of the shot taken without and compensate it for the density introduced by the ND filter. You don't have to be good at math, just use a conversion table or an app for your smartphone!