-16°C at the Baltic Sea in Gdynia, Poland.
Frozen groynes head towards the abandoned leftovers of the "Torpedowaffenplatz Hexengrund", World War II remains of the German airforce in the Bay of ...
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Frozen groynes head towards the abandoned leftovers of the "Torpedowaffenplatz Hexengrund", World War II remains of the German airforce in the Bay of Gdansk in Gdynia.
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Jan, 2016Views
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ianrobinson
January 12, 2018
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Behind The Lens
Location
This picture has been taken along the Baltic Sea in Gdynia Babie Do?y, North Poland. As it comes to the historic background of this location: These are the leftovers of a former torpedo trial station used by the Germans in World War II. After the war, a second trial station has been built 6km away in Gdynia Oksywie, which is still operative. The one in Babie Doly has been left in decay.Time
I took this picture in the early morning. To take this shot, I had to get up at 4am in winter. As already stated in the title, it was -16°C that morning. The shot has been taken probably around 6am. Among local landscape photographers, this is the number one location to go to during the cold winter season, as the frozen groynes are very picturesque and build great leading lines towards a mystic unique abandoned place in the sea. Sometimes even the whole Baltic Sea, not only the groynes of the Torpedownia freeze. But those freezing cold conditions usually do not last long. Mostly for one or two weeks. At the time I took the picture, I was having a full-time job, so the only chance to capture a sunrise in those conditions, was during a public holiday. But this came along with a new challenge: All photographers had a day off. As a consequence, all photographers of the city gathered in this one spot and jumbled around with their tripods, blocking each other away from the centre position. As you can imagine, I really had to fight for this spot.Lighting
As it comes to the lighting, it was rather disappointing. I got up that early in order to capture the sun. But as you can see, I could have taken this shot at any other time of the day, since the sky has been overcast.Equipment
As far as I remember, I used a Canon 600D with the Sigma 17-55mm F2.8 lens mounted onto a Mefoto travel tripod. I am not 100% sure though. But anyway, the gear is not the most important in photography. You just need to find a camera that suits your needs.Inspiration
I have had visited this spot already in the first year I came to Poland. So I simply wanted to revisit it when the ice was thicker than the last time I photographed it. Hence, i was mostly inspired by nature.Editing
In post-processing, I combined three bracketed exposures with an EV shift of 2 stops on both ends. In addition, I tried to add some fog / haze onto the water in Photoshop, as I was remembering a picture of this place with fog in the early morning. I did not get it on the spot, so I tried to emphasise the mood with an additional blur / haze in Photoshop. Last but not least, I had to get rid of some tripod legs of other photographers' tripods.In my camera bag
This shot has been taken a few years ago already. Nowadays, I don't carry a tripod with me. I mostly carry my Fujifilm X-T1 with me, with an attached 23mm F2.0 Fujinon lens, which gets me covered for most of my pictures. Just in case, I still carry with me a 12mm Samyang F2.0 lens as well as sometimes the 16-55mm F2.8 Fujinon lens.Feedback
Well..There's not much to say. Observe the weather, try to be the first one, wear warm clothes, bring hot beverages, stay warm and shoot :)
