Looking out for you
Dutch military on exercise in the Czech Republic.
Dutch military on exercise in the Czech Republic.
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Sep, 2014Views
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Awards
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
Featured
Contest Finalist in 300 Soldiers Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
Jaw Dropping
Magnificent Capture
All Star
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Top 30 rankTop 30 rank week 2
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This picture is taken during a military exercise in the Czech Republic. During this exercise there were a lot of interesting moments like this one. I'm not sure what the exact location was... Because I was in the military myself at that moment I was able to come so close.Time
The photo was taken during daytime, midday. It was a long day with an early rise. We were traveling in a jeep behind the armored vehicles. Suddenly some actions. Guys jumping out. This was my cue :) I darkened the photo a bit, to make it more stronger and to dimm the highlights / reflections.Lighting
At this moment in my career I was experimenting with different presets and gradings. I wanted a filmish look without overdue it. I wanted it to be strong that you are drawn into the moment without looking to colors. That you think: Wow!Equipment
The camera I used was a Nikon D7000 with a 35mm F1.8 on it. I really loved that lens! It forced me to work my surroundings instead of zooming into it. No tripod, no flash. I couldn't use a tripod because I had to run and move a lot. The camera and lens combination allowed me to run en take part of the action without having to worry about my otherwise big sluggish gear.Inspiration
I was always interested by the scope on top of the rifle. The little red dot that you can see if you look through it. Although I wasn't able to catch the red dot with my camera I was able to catch a moment. A soldier looking through it. The surroundings were beautiful, but it's all about the soldier in this moment looking through his rifle with al his thoughts. If you look through it, what do you think of?Editing
This picture is from some time ago, so I'm not completely sure what I did. The photo was edited in Lightroom en with a VSCO preset. Darkening the photo a bit to get rid of reflections and highlights in the backgrounds. I applied a vignette to draw the attention to the scope. Probably some white balance finetuning and finetuning of the brown and green colors.In my camera bag
At that time I didn't had a lot of photo equipment in my bag due to all the military things. Nowadays is carry 2 camera's, one with a 24-70 F2.8 and a 70-200 F2.8. A lot of battery's and memory cards. Some food bars if I'm away for a longer period of the day. Also I think I need to clean my bag haha. Since this photo I'm no longer in the military and become a professional wedding photographer. My gear has changed with me, but I still give hive value to portability. So all my camera's have straps from peak design or a different brand. This way I can carry the camera on my back. Change camera's quick and still carry a backpack with the rest of my gear with ease.Feedback
I'm not a big fan of staging something like this. If you want someone to feel te moment you have to be in te moment en that means that you have to work hard. Maybe running to be on the right location at the right time. What to you feel, don't think, but feel the moment en try catch that. In this case I had to run behind the guys, struggle through some bushes and a second after this photo the guy had to move again. So hard work (running) pays of :)
