Aiguille verte - Massif du mont blanc
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken on a hiking in Chamonix, french Alps. I was having a sip of fresh water after hours of walking up and couldn't believe the strength of nature I was seeing. I was bit on a higher ground and couldn't take a shot of this magnificent mountain without crush its massive form. so I went back on a lower ground to get a bit more of its structure in my shot. And it was the first time I shot anything with my Samyang 24mm f1.4Time
The time of the shot began at 4 am when we started to go to Chamonix. From 5h30 to 12 o'clock we walked up. So it was taken at midday but it reflects a magnificent wandering in nature. It was summer so it felt like hell, out of breath under a burning sun with nowhere to hide from the sun. It was a moment of humility and resignation,a moment where I only tried to click my shutter a bit blinded by the effort, by the beautiful sight and the absolut insignificance of my self. Going back was quite silent as this sight began to live within me.Lighting
Light was the horrific midday with nowhere to hide, the sun was crushing every detail, so I waited half an hour for any shadow to appear and took my shot to make the structure of the mountain pop a bit. At the same time, what interested me was the feeling of light everywhere, a gigantic mountain crushed by the sun in the middle of summer, make the blue sky having this dark feeling of eternity starting, even in the middle of the day.Equipment
Just my nikon D800 and Samyang 24mm F1.4Inspiration
Watching so much mouvements in stillness amazed me and I wanted to testify that in a shot.Editing
The image was much too flat compared to my memories. So, I played a bit with contrast and curvesto balance back the variety of textures and colors I could feel in front of it. The detailed revealed by the samyang where amazing and as the sun was really strong on sight I could close enough my lens up to f11 to retrieve the most richness of details possible while balancing better sky highlights and shadows. I haded a bit of aperture in post and that was it.In my camera bag
I shot with standerd lenses, I am not used to zoom lenses and never felt the need for it. So I have a 24mm or a 30mm f1.4, a 50 mm f1.4 and a 90mm f2.8 always with me and it covers my every needs.Feedback
Take time to see how light flows on sight and make the same picture at different times of the day if you can and you'll have on with clouds, one without, so many different versions, so you'll be able to choose the one speaking your vision of it. And have fun doing it.
