Coming Down
The ending to a beautiful (and first time experience) journey on Burke Mountain, VT.
The ending to a beautiful (and first time experience) journey on Burke Mountain, VT.
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Dec, 2014Views
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margitulstrup
December 30, 2015
Great shot and I was enjoying your .. behind the lens story. . Thanks ?
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on my way down from Burke Mountain in Vermont. I feel like the environment I was in made it easy for me to take pictures being that it was one of the first times that I've been in a snowy environment. Thankfully now I am attending the University of Vermont so I can try my winter shutter a lot more and hopefully get more of these kinds of pictures in the surrounding mountains.Time
It's hard to remember the exact time this picture was taken because it was after a long four hour hike and we were coming back down. I noticed that the sun was throwing a beautiful lighting on the landscape, especially combined with the frozen surroundings and snapped this shot while we were walking. It must've been around 2 pm.Lighting
The lighting in this shot is all natural and all in the moment. Usually I'd advise picking your moments carefully, especially when using animals or wild scenery that you have little control over but in this case it just so happened that the end of our hike happened to match with the sun still high enough in the sky to offer shadows and a strong contrast to the tree tops as well as not being to bright as to explode the image with snow reflections.Equipment
I used my Canon Rebel T1i, which has been my go to over the last 5-6 years, with a typical 18-55mm lens. Sadly I hadn't had time to set up a tripod but I did get to mess around with the setting quite a bit (always use manual mode when shooting landscapes if you can!!) which let me take a crisp photo even with the underpreperation I underwent.Inspiration
The most honest answer I can give is ambition. Having lived in Brasil during the majority of my shooting lifespan I oft got the opportunity to shoot in swamps or jungles but never really got to see snow cover quite like this. Since I've wanted to master every single biome I told myself I'd have to start somewhere and that just so happened to be in the cold mountains of Vermont.Editing
I try my best to not post-process when I can avoid it. On this photo I messed around a bit with the brightness and a tad of contrast but so little that it makes not obvious changes to the image but does add a little to the 'wow' factor. Being that I never shot with snow before it was strange for me to have to deal with having very little color (no crazy colorful animals) so I felt like any other changes would have been for naught.In my camera bag
I usually enjoy hiking out to my photoshoot areas but also, being that I am only 18 and therefor have very little funds for shooting and time, I restrain myself to having the smallest pack possible so that I can reach remote areas for shooting and take pictures of otherwise elusive animals. With these conditions my bag usually only contains my Canon T1i body, the 18-55mm lens, a 60-300mm lens, a Nikon Coolpix (yes I know.. mixing the Canon and Nikon is a terrible offens), a sturdy outdoor tripod and usually a pair of binoculars. All of this usually fits in a small shoulder strap bag with the tripod in hand and make it easy for me to navigate through dense vegetation.Feedback
The best piece of advice I can give is to plan. Tell yourself when you'll go out because of the specific lighting you're looking for. Yet more importantly is once you have a plan set out don't be afraid to deviate. Follow instincts and take random snaps that spurr part of your interest. One reason I feel this photo is appealing is because of the soft turn of the road contrasted with the hard edges of the trees but more importantly than that is the human aspect to it. the steps in the snow make it easy to relate to and give it a unique look that would change by a single car driving down the road. None of this I had planned for when I went on my hike to the wild top of the mountain. Though most of my shoot was there this one picture came to me in a flash and ended up having qualities that appeal to people. I also would urge anyone trying to take snow photography to go out before there has been any human interference, during, and after because it changes the feel of these kinds of pictures drastically.
