In a lapse time
When the winter sunset meets the December heavy fog during winter solstice, it's such a magical time for a photographer. Can you see why? Me trying to wor...
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When the winter sunset meets the December heavy fog during winter solstice, it's such a magical time for a photographer. Can you see why? Me trying to work on my composition as much as possible in this ghostly freezing cold December twilight amidst a snowy field in Norway. Unique magical moments to remember.
Copyright Info © Morgan-Lou Art Photography All rights reserved, 15 December 2013, Norway.
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Copyright Info © Morgan-Lou Art Photography All rights reserved, 15 December 2013, Norway.
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Dec, 2021Views
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People's Choice in Solstice 2021 Photo Challenge
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Behind The Lens
Location
This magical moment was captured in the field (pastures) just facing our house in Norway. I remember this heavy fog lifting during this winter solstice sunset. I was mesmerized by this wintry scenery.Time
As you can see in the photograph, it’s during the early winter sunset in the northern hemisphere. Days are very short here up north in the winter. Nights are very long.Lighting
The field facing our house is very large, we had aspens trees, spruces, rowan trees. I was moving a lot because I wanted to make sure that the glowing sun coming intermittently through the heavy fog, had a good position in the composition. I made a series of different shots with different trees, and all my shots are really unique because of the place of the sun and the quality added by the different trees. Check out my gallery for the variety of compositions with different trees during solstice lights.Equipment
I used 2 different cameras (Olympus E5 and EM1) ; these cameras have the best stabilizators you can ever get, and they are waterproof. Not that I wanted to take a shower with my Olympus camera, but it is reassuring to know that my Olympus cameras will not get ruined by the extra humidity, or snowfall, and northern strong storms. I could easily focus on my well thought compositions without having to carry a heavy tripod around in the snowy field where the visibility was very poor. No flash of course. I do work exclusively with natural light in natural settings. So I walked a lot around in the snowy field to capture the trees and foggy sunset that was moving very fast as well.Inspiration
These are truly my dream kind of sceneries. This was the first time that I was moving to the rythm of the moving fog waves around the setting sun. As I said, the visibility was very poor, I could only see my subjects of interest amidst the snowy pastures. I had to move a lot with my camera to follow the fast moving sunset. This particular photo with the spruces made me think about Christmas that was to come a week later. These particular shots mean a lot to me during solstice and Christmas.Editing
Of course, I did basic post-processing for this series of photographs. To keep the mysterious foggy atmosphere, I didn’t add too much contrast. I usually don’t like too contrasty photographs, they are far too dark, and in this specific situation, the trees would have lost their textures, the fog would have been dodged, and the trees would have been far too dark for my taste. What I usually do is I uplift the shadows/highlights to get some textures in the highlights and shadows and I also get rid of the black and white areas that don’t add anything to the landscapes. In that way, I can get the natural halo around the sun. I want my images to be very soft, with no harsh lights and no challenging hard constrast. Painterly like. I, then add some vibrance, selective saturation if needed, levels, and depending on the outcome, I can work with the curves very lightly. I wanted to keep this smokey fog, greyish, giving some different textures and hues to the trees. You can see the slightly darker shrubs in the foreground. I also removed a little bit of the extra blue on the snow, as you might know the Olympus blue is sometimes a tad too much added with the arctic light.In my camera bag
For this particular image, I just ran across the snowy pastures with my Olympus E5, and EM1, and the ZUIKO 200mm F/ 2.5 and 35mm. The gear is waterproof and has a great stabilizator. Depending on what I am aiming for, I do take different lenses along. Here, the scenery was just in front of my house in Norway in these very wide snowy pastures.Feedback
I personally do like to capture intimate landscapes with an atmospheric feeling. I believe that we can do much with very little around. I think the key is to be reactive when the time comes. It can be very fleeting. It can last a few minutes, a few seconds, or when you are lucky a couple of hours. I did see these kind of sceneries from my window; the view can be breathtaking colorful for a few minutes, then grey again. So the key is to be patient and ready with a few different lenses. From my house standpoint, we have the sunrise in the morning, and the sunset as well in the winter. The days in winter are very short but can be very colorful during the few hours of the day. I just open the southern window when possible, and I can enjoy a sunrise at 10 am and a sunset at 3pm. An ultra wide angle is perfect for this kind of situation. However, the composition has to be very well thought with an ultra-wide. Always watch your composition especially when scenery is minimalist and intimate.
