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Gold Rush

Some of the nicest beaches on Lofoten are not accessible by road. That means in winter, depending on weather conditions, they might not be accessible at all. We...
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Some of the nicest beaches on Lofoten are not accessible by road. That means in winter, depending on weather conditions, they might not be accessible at all. We tried anyway and after hiking for hours over a mountain pass through knee deep fresh snow we actually arrived at Kvalvika Beach and found... gold! Well ... maybe it was just sand in a puddle reflecting the winter sun, but it felt sure like gold anyway.
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SONY ILCE-7M2

settings

ISO 100 Shutter 1/20

upload_date

Apr, 2016

Views

2663

Likes

+641

Awards

Featured

Contest Finalist in Rule Of Thirds In Nature Photo Contest

Peer Award

+221

Superb Composition

+71

Absolute Masterpiece

+54

Top Choice

+40

Outstanding Creativity

+14

Superior Skill

All Star

Magnificent Capture

Genius

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

Kvalvika Beach on Lofoten islands.

Time

Afternoon, after a long hike through knee deep snow.

Lighting

As always: No flash! Only available light. The sun doesn't reach the northern beaches during winter at all. There's always shadow from the mountains. So the light is soft, even in the middle of the day.

Equipment

I am a wide angle junkie! The wider, the better. This was done using the 12 mm wide-angle Voigtlander Leica-M-mount lens mounted onto my Sony A72 with an adapter.

Inspiration

Editing

My post-processing workflow was quite involved and all about quality. Starting out with the best possible raw file I used DxO to convert the file into another raw format (.dng) using DxO's very good and gentle noise reduction, sharpening and my custom made lense profile for the Voigtländer 12mm on the Sony A7II. Then I opened the .dng in Lightroom and did 95% of the post-processing there, completely nondestructive, everything still in raw. At the latest possible point I finally opened the file in Photoshop as a 16 bit .tif for some final touches (like a slight Orton effect, some filters from Nik and Topaz, etc.). Then I saved it as a 16 bit .tif and added it to my Lightroom library. Never, ever did I convert to jpg. A jpg file has only 8 bit of information-depth as compared to the 14 bit I started out with in raw. That is only a tiny fraction, namely 1/64th, of the information I gathered with the camera (2 to the power of 6)! Therefore I do not consider jpgs as a decent photo format worth having in my library. The only time I touch jpg is when I export something to upload to the web.

In my camera bag

I used to have Nikon equipment, namely a D800 and later a D810 camera, the classic Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens and the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens, a Nikon D750 camera and the Nikon 70-200 f/4. But now I have sold all this and changed to Sony. I now have a Sony A7RII and a Sony A7II as cameras, the Sony 16-35 f/4 and the Sony 70-200 f/4 FE-lenses, also the Sony-Zeiss 55 f/1.8 lens and a Voigtlaender 12mm f/5.6 VM lens with a Leica-to-Sony adapter.

Feedback

Ultra-wide photography is not at all about 'getting it all into the frame'. It is about getting close... very close. And 12 mm is REALLY wide. So you gotta get REALLY close.

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Gold Rush

Some of the nicest beaches on Lofoten are not accessible by road. That means in winter, depending on weather conditions, they might not be accessible at all. We... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow hpd-fotografy

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Some of the nicest beaches on Lofoten are not accessible by road. That means in winter, depending on weather conditions, they might not be accessible at all. We...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.