Zeeland 2019. Exactly a year ago #sander_grefte, #nldazuu and myself took our cameras to Zeeland for a weekend of photography. We certainly were not expecting blue skies and temperatures up to 17 degrees in the middle of winter, but for sure enjoyed a goo
Feb, 2020Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken on the North sea shore close to Westkapelle, a town in the region Zeeland of the Netherlands. This is a great region to for seascape but also big architecture photography with loads of bridges, lighthouses and storm surge barriers.Time
This picture was taken at sunset, with the last sun rays reflecting on the water and wet stones through the wooden poles. With two friends we had planned a weekend fully dedicated to photography in the middle of February 2019 hoping for some rough weather, big waves and dramatic skies...it turned out to be a very sunny and far too warm (for the season) weather; we of course adapted, enjoyed being in t-shirts in the middle of northern Europe winter but could not ignore the clear signs of worrying climate change.Lighting
I wanted to use the reflection of the sun on the water as a leading light but the sun at the horizon was still too bright so I decided to play with the wooden poles in my composition to hide the direct sun but still have some ray of light reflecting in the water to guide the viewer in the picture.Equipment
The picture was taken on a Nikon D7100 equipped with a wide angle lens Sigma 10-20mm, both of them supported by a sturdy tripod Manfrotto 055. I used a 10 stop neutral density filter to allow a long exposition (10 seconds) to smoothen the water and increase the reflection of sun rays.Inspiration
The wooden poles on the shore of Zeeland are an interesting subject for leading lines and depth of field. Here I wanted to combined the poles but also the reflecting ray of sun as leading lines.Editing
I did not used a gradient filter so in order to balance the bright sky and darker foreground I have decreased the highlights and increased the shadows in post-processing. I have also increased a bit the clarity to bring more texture of the wooden poles.In my camera bag
I have only one camera, a Nikon D7100, so that's the easy part. As an outdoor photographer I shoot both landscape and wildlife photography, and sometimes can't resist to do a bit of macro. That means, a lot of lens on my back: a Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 for more or les everything, its quality is outstanding, no brainer. A wide angle Sigma 10-20mm, I don't use it that often but sometimes you need that extra width, and as the lens is pretty small it's always in my bag. Wildlife photography is still my first love so my "big bertha" Tamron 150-600mm is also usually in my bag. There it gets messy because I also have a Tamron 70-300, a bit redundant but somehow I love the tone it brings in the image, but my bag can't cope with both telelenses, so some tough choices to make. Finally I also have a Tamron Macro 90mm. Tripod Manfrotto 055 to get everything steady. Two circular filters, a polarizer and a 10-stop ND. A radio controlled remote.Feedback
Here you can do quite some digital preparation to search for the poles direction and sun orientation at different time of the year and select a spot depending on these parameters; then it is as always with photography, go out to the spot as often as possible to force your luck and improve the composition. Actually I find these spots with wooden poles in the sea really do work with any kind of weather.
