my attempt to make a ugly crane beautiful in Ålesund city, norway
my attempt to make a ugly crane beautiful in Ålesund city, norway
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Contest Finalist in Lapse Of Time In The City Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is in the harbor of Ålesund where I'm on the the oldest pier in norway to the Molja Lighthouse. Very often photographed but normally not from this angle.Time
This is shot in the evening around seven o'clock while I was waiting around in the city sentrum to take the boat back to my town. Since it is winter it got dark early and gave me darkness to work with the city lights.Lighting
I had not planned to have the nice light trails in the image but as I started taking an HDR sequence I was frustrated with the movement of the cranes and then I decided to be patient and work with it and take bracketed images with each time it swung around. Though it meant hanging out and freezing my butt off to get enough exposures for the HDR.Equipment
My canon 550d and Sigma art 18-35mm and surui Tripod.Inspiration
As I mentioned it was a happy mistake. I was walking around in town trying to find something nice to photograph and I liked this composition but the cranes were problematic as they kept swinging but then I embraced their movement to make a unique and beautiful image of something usually seen as ugly.Editing
I edit my images in Lightroom first and then in Photoshop I use luminosity masks to make an HDR of the image. I did some retouching to clean up the image and played with colors to get the right balance of warmth and cold in the image but still to a realistic effect.In my camera bag
At the time it is only the canon 550d and sigma art 18-35mm f1.8 which I find a great balance for a nature photographer unless wanting to zoom far in and if you want wider scenes you can put in the time and make great large panoramas. I also have a Zeiss cleaning kit to keep the gear photo worthy at all times a Sirui tripod, a few snacks and drinks and one flash and flashlight, I have 3 flashes but on trips like these I never has use for more than one unless I have a very specific photo in mind. leaving it behinds lets me take more food or clothes for cold nights.Feedback
Get warm cloths, be patient and learn to anticipate the movements of the cranes to get the right movements you want. try different lengths of shutter speeds to get different lengths in the swing as well. have a Sturdy tripod so you can sit around and not worry about the composition changing at all. Take extra exposures as well to help average the exposures for a smooth HDR as well to have several examples to choose from.