charlesbrooks
FollowCathedral Cove in New Zealand. We left home at 4am and walked for 40 minutes through dark bush to get to this beach at dawn, before it got packed with tourists!...
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Cathedral Cove in New Zealand. We left home at 4am and walked for 40 minutes through dark bush to get to this beach at dawn, before it got packed with tourists!
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Awards
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Unique Landscapes Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Meditation Places Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Outdoor Galore Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in The Art of the Silhouettes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Amazing People Amazing Places Photo Contest
Superb Composition
Peer Award
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This is New Zealand's Cathedral Cove on the North Island. It's a nature reserve with crystal clear water and a lot of fish. This is a large natural arch (open at both ends). It floods at certain times but you can walk right through it at low tide.Time
There's a 40 minute walk from the carpark to this beach and we wanted to take photos at sunrise. So we left at about 4am... Didn't get the sunrise we were after but we were lucky to have the beach completely to ourselves.Lighting
I exposed for the outside of the cave as I knew that I wanted the model (my fiancee) to be a silhouette.Equipment
This was taken with a small Panasonic GX7 and the wonderful (and cheap) Samyang 7.5mm fisheye (every m4/3 camera user should own that one). No tripod as you generally don't need them when you're shooting this wide. The lens is manual focus only, but that's also rarely a problem with super wide angle lenses as anything more than 1 meter from the camera is infinity on the lens.Inspiration
The natural environment was plenty of inspiration. I do like a human element in my photos so it was important for me to have a model on the rock.Editing
A little photoshop to remove the footprints we left getting into position. I use luminosity masks to bring out the texture in certain areas of the photo. I also had to do a little chromatic aberration removal in Lightroom as the extreme contrast where sky meets arch created a thin purple line.In my camera bag
I carry a Panasonic GX8. I have the 14-150 lens attached most of the time. If I'm doing studio work I'll often use primes so they're in my bag a lot also. I don't carry a tripod unless I know I'm going to be shooting into the evening. I carry plenty of spare batteries and SD cards always. I use a small Bowery bag from ONA. It doesn't look like a camera bag which was essential when I lived in South America.Feedback
Get up early! Go and scout location during normal daylight hours. Download a sun position app and a tide app to your smartphone, they're indispensable for this kind of work. Remember to check your histograms. There was little light under the arch and my eyes had adjusted to that, so if I just went off the brightness of my camera screen I would have probably underexposed everything...