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Awards
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 21
Contest Finalist in Celebrating Nature Photo Contest Vol 7
Runner Up in Creative Landscapes Photo Contest vol3
Contest Finalist in Creative Landscapes Photo Contest vol3
Contest Finalist in The Wonders of the World Photo Contest
Community Choice Award
People's Choice in Stillness Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Stillness Photo Contest
Winner in Show Me New Zealand Photo Challenge
People's Choice in Nature's Love Photo Challenge
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Outstanding Creativity
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Paul-Stapleton
October 27, 2018
Stunning shot that made me stop in my tracks when looking through pictures. Congrats on your Challenge wins and getting into the final of the Stillness Contest
caitlyncannon
November 01, 2018
Beautiful!! I really love the purple colours through this landscape!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
I live in a tiny country called Singapore where there is not much of a landscape, so I had to travel to New Zealand, one of my favorite destinations to shoot this landscape scene when I learned about this place from Google search.Time
I planned to arrive at this location around sunset time, where if we had the right cloud conditions, a beautiful and colorful sky could be captured that would compliment the landscape. However, I arrived late at this location due to detour and unfamiliarity with the route, thus by the time I reach the exact location, the sunset was fading away. Since I was late to the scene, it became a little consolation to me that I didn't miss a great sunset. This shot was taken around 5.28pm in Aug 2017.Lighting
Landscape shots are best done around dawn or dusk period, where the sky is not harsh with too much brightness.In my mind, I wanted to capture the high and snow-covered mountain range with a rich sky color so as to complement the massive mountain scenery, so the timing of the shot was taken with softer sky light so as to avoid the reflection of the snow that could diminish the contrast between the sky and and the snow-buried mountain tops. It was slightly underexposed as well in order to prevent highlight clipping that would make recovery of details of the hue of sunset and clouds a difficult task.Equipment
I used the Sony A7II and the Sony FE 16-35mm f4.0 lens with a tripod to capture this shot at 16mm. I wanted to use the GND filter but because I didn't have the time to set it up due to rapidly changing light condition, I abandoned the GND setup and then managed to get a long exposure shot by setting the camera at the lowest ISO possible at small aperture of f16. In the end, I was quite happy with the result.Inspiration
From the Google Maps, I saw some photos posted by others. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful mountains with the lake in the foreground and the presence of icebergs. Thus I was excited to come to this place to get that dreamy landscape that I envisioned in my mind. The composition I had in mind was to evoke an epic landscape feel thus this was shot a wide angle, to capture the elements of the lake, iceberg, the mountains and the sky and clouds.Editing
Well I always try to capture a shot with as much detail as possible without the need for heavy post processing. In this shot, the main challenge was the dynamic range since the sky is always brighter than the foreground by significant orders of stops of light. So my approach was to shoot it under-exposed to the extent that I would avoid clipping the highlight in the sky portion while still able to recover enough details in the under-exposed foreground. So the raw image I captured managed to hit the sweet spot where the details in the darker region was recovered via raw image adjustment tool in sufficient details while maintaining the details of the highlights in in the sky and cloud region. Once the exposure was adjusted, other post processing steps were added to enhance the saturation, contrast, as well as the temperature of the image.In my camera bag
Being a landscape, cityscape and architectural genre lover, I would carry wide angle lens in my camera bag. GND filters sets are also important accessories that occupy my camera bag. As I like to travel as light as possible, I carry a small carbon tripod that could be snugly slotted into the side pouch of my camera bag. Spare batteries are also included to ensure I could shoot without the fear of running out of battery juice.Feedback
Well, for landscape, the composition and the lighting conditions, along with a nice sky are great ingredients for a visually pleasing image. Thus, research is important to scout out potentially good locations to capture that awesome landscape that you have always desired. Remember, the best time to shoot such landscape scene is around dusk or dawn, where the sunrise or sunset could dramatically enhance the overall image. Of course, the blue hour timing that occurs during the dusk and dawn transition period is another wonderful moment to compliment the scenery.