patrick7778
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Behind The Lens
Location
While doing a photography course with Australian photographer Michael Scott Lees in October last year. This photo was taken at about 730am on a Saturday morning. The location was near the Thredbo River in Kosciusko National Park, New South Wales, Australia. October is spring in Australia, but we were up in the mountains, so it was a crisp morning with a fog/mist that took a while to lift. Michael had organized a horse and rider for us to shoot live action shots, this was taken at a bit of a distance on continuous shooting, just as the fog/mist was lifting and I managed to capture the horse almost in mid air. Very happy with the shot, not the landscape photo I was hoping to take, but probably my best photo from the course.Time
Early morning. The sun was up, but we were shooting in bush land along the Thredbo river, so it took a while for the sun to penetrate into the valley. The fog/mist had been hanging quite low and was only just starting to lift. We were in a clearing to allow the rider move to maneuver easily. The sun was starting to appear in the clearing through the mist/fog and I was able to capture an amazing action shot.Lighting
Very lucky with the light. Sun was peaking into the valley and coming through the haze of mist and fog, and at the distance the photo was taken the light worked quite perfectly. Because the target had been moving around a bit, and the sun had started to appear, my white balance was all wrong, thank god for photoshop.Equipment
My Sony SLT-A57 with a 55-200mm lens, no tripod or flash used.Inspiration
To be honest, I wasn't particularity interested in shooting a horse and rider, I was there to learn about landscape photography. the photos I started taking of the horse and rider were more for the practice of shooting a moving target. When I was going through the photos in afterwards, I realised that this was the best shot I took all weekend and did some post production work to bring out the true brilliance in the photo.Editing
I took the photo in raw. The big trick was trying to bring out the washed out foreground colours while not over producing the colours in the background. I sharpened up the foreground and got the tree in detail, while being able to leave as much fog hanging in the background. Mainly it all involved bringing out the vibrant colours more, sharpening the detail and while allowing the shadows and midtones to retain their prominence.In my camera bag
18-55mm lens, 55-200mm lens and a 24mm portrait lens. A few lens filters and some cleaning material to maintain my camera.Feedback
Continuous shooting allows you to take rapid photos of a moving target. This allows you to take a series of photos to review later. I didn't spend time reviewing photos as I went but waited until later to go through find the shots that worked. If I had tried to take a great photo every time, I doubt that I ever would have captured this photo. Quantity allows for some quality to seep through. Lucky for me I captured this photo in amidst the 1000 plus photos of the rider I took. trust that you will capture a few good ones and allow yourself to enjoy the freedom of just taking photos for the fun of it.