Floodlights over the Valleys
A view over the valleys of Plaiul Foii, in Brasov County, Romania in June, 2014. Heavy storms we were expecting on Sharp Peak, Piatra Craiului Mountains, but in...
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A view over the valleys of Plaiul Foii, in Brasov County, Romania in June, 2014. Heavy storms we were expecting on Sharp Peak, Piatra Craiului Mountains, but instead we got floodlights over the valleys just when the sun was preparing to set. I've never seen a more dramatic show of lights in nature, over the mountains and valleys with heavy storm clouds preparing to blow hard on us.
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Mar, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I was at Sharp Peak (Varful Ascutit), Piatra Craiului Mountains in my country, Romania waiting for the sunset. I knew that with all those dramatic clouds I would have a crazy, colorful sunset, but it wasn't quite meant to be. Instead, I've got something else before it: great floodlights over the valleys. I was waiting for a great storm over the nearby mountain ranges and the greatest storm I saw was one of floodlights instead of floods of rain. This photograph depicts floodlights over Plaiul Foii, Brasov County, an area in the central part of the country with mountains, hills and hillocks, rivers, valleys and vast forests and mountain villages that give this place its picturesque popularity among the nature photographers in my country.Time
It was the 8th of June, 2014, in the Eve of the Resurrection of the Christ, a Orthodox Christian Celebration in my country. I made this photograph before sunset, watching the drama of the storms in the distant valleys unfolding. It was around 7 or 8 p.m., I guess.Lighting
The lighting conditions were extravagant as you can see. The clouds were very consistent, like any other clouds durring summertime in the temperate climate regions of our world, and the sun was preparing to set. At this time of day, the shafts of light are amazing provided the sky is filled with dramatic cumulus clouds and it is not overcast.Equipment
I used a Canon EOS 600D with a Sigma 17-50mm EX f2.8 lens attached on a Cullmann Nanomax 260 tripod.Inspiration
First of all, the vista was amazing due to the richness of the land, with its valleys, mountain ranges and hills, and second because of the plays of light and shadow over the landscape. It was a special moment no one could refuse to capture it with a camera.Editing
When I saw the scene I knew that this is a high dynamic range situation and I had to expand the intervals of luminosity in the final result so I first bracketed three shots (-2, 0 and +2) and, at home, I tonemapped them in post to get what I wanted from the three. Then I decided to turn it into black and white because the colors weren't spectacular. After all, this is all about lights, shadows, contrasts between the two, details and tones.. and what I felt, the symphony and the drama of nature playing before my eyes. After adjusting the contrasts a little bit I decided I have to revive what was lost in the RAW files, due to the fact that they were pretty much flat, and bring it back to what I saw and felt exactly. So I started to dodge and burn a little bit, here and there to accentuate the lights over the valley.In my camera bag
Like I said, I have a Canon 600D camera body with a Sigma 17-50mm EX f2.8, a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.6 mark III, a couple of UV filters, a circular polarizer, two ND1000 NiSi filters, a remote trigger, two batteries for the camera, a 32GB memory card and a kit for cleaning lenses. This is what I normally have in my bag.Feedback
Well, in photography each of us has to be opened to what is going on. When you go out there it is not about you doing landscape photography, or macro, or wildlife, or street photography for that matter, but it's about just photography. One has to be opened to all and not limited. But sometimes rare and special events happen and we witness them. Be prepared to have your gear with you, to take the shots if it is possible. You will have situations, events, things or people, beautiful vistas or unique moments that unfold in front of you. No matter where you are just be ready to witness it and make the photograph(s). There's always something out there, anywhere, that's worth photographing. Allthemore, if you study and practice photography everyday, including composition and learning exposure and lighting and so on, you will make even greater photographs. This is quite generally speaking but it applies in any situation, in any king of photography that we are making. So, be ready to photograph what's given to you without adding your intellectual commentary to it, be opened and fully receptive. And by the way, Nature is always beautiful, we are simply just recording it and adding our little artistical touch to the frame we captured. Last but not least, try to listen to your heart about what you want to create because post-processing (just like developing your roll of film) is important. The RAW files, or the negatives don't express anything you've seen but just a flat looking tonal range in the images you've captured. So, it is up to you to revive what you saw and felt. Even here practice is necessary. If you don't succeed the first time, try again and process your images, make adjustments where you see fit. That's it.
