https://mastodon.social/@nbrandsberg/112050004355268819 nbrandsberg@mastodon.social - Frankfurt am Main skyline sunset abstract at sunset, available here:
https://www.pictorem.com/984178/Frankfurt Germany Skyline Abstract.html
#germany #frankfurt #skyline #sunset #cityskyline #architecture #europe #fineart #sunset #landscapephotography #photography #landscapes #landscape #travel #travelphotography #buyintoart #ayearforart #nature #MastoArt #elegantfinephotography #normabrandsberg
https://mastodon.social/@JimDeFazioArt/111845344984998925 JimDeFazioArt@mastodon.social - "Sunset Extraordinaire" by James DeFazio
Prints and more available at:
https://james-defazio.pixels.com/featured/sunset-extraordinaire-james-defazio.html
#sunset #sunsetart #abstract #abstractart #modern #modernart #contemporary #contemporaryart #fineart #artwork #art #wallart #homedecor #sunsetprints
#mastoart #BuyIntoArt #ayearforart
(Living in the countryside)
#wohnen-im-grünen #living-in-the-countryside #christineellger #german #fineart #photography #photo #nature #grass #tree #birds #sky #house
Playa libre
80x40 cm
#oilpainting and #sand on #canvas
disponibile
#landscape #beach #MarTirreno #Roma #painting #contemporaryart #hyperrealism #art #fineart #mywork #myart #figuration #JulioOjea
#available
Copisme
#Monet #art #artwork #artist #artistic #Joséphin #Bastière #artHyperBrut #HyperBrutalisme #minimalism #minimalismart #funart #tattooart #blackline #oneline #blindcontour #blindcontourart #blackandwhite #artgallery #photooftheday #instagood #fineart #picoftheday #ligneclaire #dessin #drawing #dibujo
Mediterraneo
60x60 cm
#oilpainting and #sand on #canvas
disponibile
#landscape #beach #Mallorca #painting #contemporaryart #hyperrealism #art #fineart #mywork #myart #figuration #JulioOjea
#available
Ce tirage de ma série Bord de mer (visible sur mon site, dans le portfolio) claque vraiment dans ce cadre noir. Il s'agit d'un détail de la plage d'Ilbarritz je pense, en tout cas c'est la côte basque.
C'est un format 20x20 cm dans un papier légèrement texturé Baryta ni mat ni brillant, ici dans un cadre bois noir.
Je l'ajoute dans la boutique. C'est le premier exemplaire sur 30 maximum. Il peut être tiré en plus grand ou plus petit aussi.
Une belle idée cadeau pour soi ou pour offrir.
#tiragedart #tiragephoto #fineart #qualite #qualitemusee #baryta #hahnemuhle #photographie #photographe #ocean #plage #cotebasque #paysbasque #sable #cailloux #print #artprint #museumquality #photography #photographer #beach #sand #basquecoast #atlantic #atlanticocean #atlanticcoast #pyreneesatlantiques #nouvelleaquitaine
Création mixmedia avec tirage photo fine art sur papier mat Hahnemühle Hemp à base de chanvre, dessin à l'encre de Chine et encre pigmentée.
Format 10x10 cm, mini oeuvre.
#creation #photographieartistique #dessin #techniquesmixtes #mixmedia #encredechine #fineart #hahnemuhle #nikon #photographe #artiste #plasticienne #drawing #artphotography #artsplastiques #ink #workinprogress #photographer #artist #photo #art
Reprise avec mon style du " Cri " d'Edvard Munch, tout cela en couleur.
#Munch #EdvardMunch #cri #art #artwork #artistic #frenchartist #Joséphin #Bastière #JoséphinBastière #artHyperBrut #HyperBrutalisme #minimalism #minimalismart #funart #tattooart #blackline #oneline #blindcontour #blindcontourart #blackandwhite #artgallery #photooftheday #instagood #fineart #picoftheday #ligneclaire #dessin #drawing #dibujo
Hasselblad has announced the winners of the 2021 Masters photography competition across 12 categories. The winning photographers gain the title of "Hasselblad Master" and receive a medium format mirrorless Hasselblad camera.
The Hasselblad Masters competition is regarded as one of the world's most prestigious professional photography competitions, and winners are selected through a combination of a public vote and a professional Hasselblad Masters Jury comprised of internationally renowned photographers and imaging experts. A full list of Jury members can be viewed on Hasselblad's website.
Hasselblad says that this year's competition was larger than previous years and expanded to 12 categories to include Heritage, which commemorated Hasselblad's 80-year anniversary. The 2021 competition received a record-breaking number of over 63,000 submitted images, double the amount of uploaded images compared to 2018. Entrants do not need to have taken the photos with a Hasselblad camera.
In addition to the title of Hasselblad Master and a new medium format camera, winners will shoot for a collaborative project that is then published on all Hasselblad channels and in a high-quality commemorative Hasselblad Masters book, which will also contain a special feature on each of the 12 winners along with a selection of their images.
“It was incredible to see the number of professional photographers, Hasselblad and non-Hasselblad users, that participated in the 2021 competition. Not only was this year’s competition extra special due to the celebration of our anniversary, there were more than 89,000 votes overall!” said Hans Cornet, Hasselblad Client Relationship Manager. “With the abundance of creative participants and unique submissions, this gave all the judges involved a difficult task in determining the Hasselblad Masters 2021 winners.”
Below are all the winning photos:
Aerial - Photo by Florian Ledoux 
Architecture - Photo by Albrecht Voss 
Art - Photo by Gavin Goodman 
Beauty Fashion - Photo by Ramon Vaquero 
Heritage - Photo by Marcus Bitsch 
Landscape/Nature - Photo by Honghua Shi 
Portrait - Photo by Marek Würfl 
Product - Photo by Paul Fuentes 
Project 21 - Photo by Yihao Wang 
Street Urban - Photo by Nikolay_Schegolev 
Wedding - Photo by Matthäus Machner 
Wildlife - Photo by Alice Zilberberg
The full gamut of 2021 finalists can be viewed on Hasselblad's website as well as all of the official rules and a full timeline of the competition from its acceptance of entrants through voting.
_Image credits: All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of Hasselblad Masters 2021. _
#news #spotlight #aerial #architecturephotography #competition #fineart #hasselblad #hasselbladmasters #hasselbladmasters2021 #landscape #landscapephotography #portraits #portraiture #product #wedding #weddingphotography #wildlife
The year was 2014. I was seven years younger and because of that, it was a very good year. Do you remember the time when it didn’t hurt to get out of bed? When camera bags didn’t feel like bags of wet cement, and when your eyesight was so good you could spot a discounted Cabernet Sauvignon from one hundred paces? Ah those were the days. I shall remember them fondly.
So how did I get this shot? I am glad you asked. It wasn’t without some serious risk-taking on my part. As you may know from previous lies, I mean stories, I take landscape photography very seriously – so much so my wife has recently purchased Frankincense and Rosehip oil to help straighten out my frown lines. Remember when you didn’t have frown lines?
So really, how was this photograph taken?
First, let me set the scene. It was in Torndirrup National Park at a spot called the Gap not far from the southern town of Albany in Western Australia. The coastline here is battered relentlessly by the Southern Ocean. If you go south from this spot the next landmass you hit is Antarctica. When the swell arrives, it is huge and angry. To say death is a likely outcome when photographing here might be an exaggeration, but it does help set the mood and make things rather more dramatic. What you don’t see behind the camera is the sheer drop into the cold dark water. If you take that drop, you won’t be developing the negs, if you know what I mean!
The coastline, because of all this extreme weather, is rugged and photogenic. This group of rocks are larger than they look. In fact, if you fell off these you would probably die horribly. Luckily, I was born with common sense, or is it just common? Anyway, I didn’t think the view from the top was as nice as the view from the bottom. I was then interested in trying to balance the composition and offer interest in the foreground that would lead your eye to the rocks behind. I used a vertical crop to allow more of the foreground to tell the story. This also allowed me to balance the three rocks with the central one as the main point of interest.
The image was shot on my Phase One IQ280 with the 28mm Phase One lens. The shutter was 2.5 seconds with an aperture of f/12 and ISO 35. The camera was secured to a tripod as the light was low; it was before sunrise. Now you say, “Those clouds look to be moving way more than the 2.5-second exposure would imply.” You would be right in that and please let me offer up a defense.
The clouds weren’t moving fast enough and as a result, the sky looked a little, as an Aussie would say, “poxie.” Roughly translated it means pretty average! So being the purist I am and by asking the viewers to “look away, nothing to see here,” I possibly, maybe, definitely added a bit of motion blur to the sky in Photoshop. I know, I know, I can see you now shaking your fists at the screen screaming, “WHY, WHY?” I guess I just got lazy and must have left the ND filter back in the Lamborghini. Still, it is only a little thing, and the real heroes are the rocks. I have also focus-stacked this image from five individual frames, all focused on different points and combined using PT GUI.
In Capture One I messed around (i.e., carefully selected) the white balance to set the color I wanted. I also wanted to lighten and bring out the detail in the rock. By having blues and oranges, two complementary colors, it added to the visual harmony and overall pleasing aesthetic. Photoshop was used to continue to refine the image and I used simple dodging and burning techniques to lighten the light areas and darken the shadows. This allowed me to make the rocks look more dimensional and increase depth and three-dimensionality.
I hope you have enjoyed my completely honest and unbiased technical report on how this image came together. What I haven’t mentioned was how I love what I do and how much fun I have doing it. Life is too short, so get out and enjoy the pure pleasure of making photographs. There are no rules, just pixels -- do with them what you want!
The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. ELEMENTS is the monthly magazine dedicated to the finest landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Bruce Barnbaum, Edward Burtynsky, Michael Kenna, Erin Babnik, Chuck Kimmerle, Rachael Talibart, Charles Cramer, Hans Strand and Lynn Radeka, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
About the author: Christian Fletcher has been a professional photographer for over 27 years, and remains dedicated to using photography as a way to reinforce our connection to our natural environment. Christian runs an award-winning gallery in Dunsborough, Western Australia, and teaches workshops both at home in Australia and internationally.
#spotlight #abstractlandscapephotography #elementsmagazine #fineart #fineartlandscapephotography #howitwasshot #landscapephotography #photographytechnique #technique
Photographer Geoff Decker has spent the last two years creating what he calls Nexus Panoramas: vertical photos that use the Milky Way to link two landscape foregrounds in a single image.
All images below can be clicked and viewed in higher resolution.
Decker calls the images Nexus Panoramas for two reasons. One, the term nexus is defined as "a connection or series of connections linking two or more things." He says he wanted to clearly define this type of images as a panorama where the Milky Way is used to link two lanscape forgrounds using a single series of images.
The second reason?
"Nexus honestly just sounds spacey," he tells PetaPixel. "It's used by a various number of space organizations and Sci-Fi material so it just fit the definition."
Decker says that he got the idea for these images in August of 2019 while going through old equipment. He came across an old Nodal Ninja, which is a spherical panorama head that was used to create "tiny planet" photos and virtual walkthroughs for realty companies before the modern methods used today became available. On that note, Decker says that about a month after he rediscovered his Nodal Ninja, the company announced it was closing its United States offices.
"At the time I was also practicing astrophotography, learning how to stack images to clean up noise and such. When I found it, a bit of inspiration just kind of hit that, in theory, I should be able to use this type of head to achieve a perfect vertical shot of the Milky Way," he says.
The idea made sense, but creating finished images was more of a challenge and revolved around his tripod setup and software issues.
"At the time, I was using an older steel Manfrotto tripod I had lying around. As I came to learn, the tripod was going to be pivotal to getting the image quickly and easily and this was not it. The thing, while sturdy, was impossible to level, and with these panoramas, you only have so long before the Milky Way is out of ideal alignment. I was still able to get my first Nexus Panorama the first go-around but it took a bit longer than what was ideal," Decker says.
"I went through a couple of test setups before I found the ideal one. I use a 3 Legged Thing Punks Brian as it's quite lightweight and fairly stable at its tallest setting (which comes in useful). I still use my Nodal Ninja, and between the Nodal Ninja and the tripod, I have a leveling base to expedite leveling the entire setup," he explains.
Decker says that on the software side, anyone who tries to stitch photos together for panoramas understands that it can be a pain. He explains that with this particular panoramic image, it is very easy for some of the automated options to get "lost" in the stitching process and as a result, fail. He says he took a lot of time finding the right software that wouldn't be terribly time-consuming but would also retain high image quality with minimum compression.
"At the time, Photoshop had a difficult time (and still does). Surprisingly, I found Lightroom’s Panorama function could resolve it most of the time. And any time I have a difficult one, such as the Tombstone panorama, I use Affinity with no issues," he says.
The time for an edit can take a while, and Decker says he's edited one in as little as a few hours while others can take a week or more to get right -- editing on and off during that span, of course.
Decker explains that the process for creating these images breaks down into eleven steps.
The process starts just as most typical astrophotography expeditions do:
"With locations, it's hard to be picky because you have to be facing a very specific direction," he explains. "And honestly, I take a bit of a nomadic approach to astrophotography in general, where I find an area with a dark spot, travel there, and see what happens."
A good location for these photos means clear skies and low light pollution, which he says has been hard this past year in Colorado where he lives because of the smoke from forest fires.
"Next year, I do plan to experiment a bit more. Despite taken during a close to full moon, I do like the Tombstone panorama and plan on hitting up a few ghost towns to get some more interesting foregrounds."
After he has picked a location, next comes field planning:
Decker says that the number of photos he uses for his Nexus Panoramas varies depending on if he sets the camera in a landscape or portrait orientation. He says the landscape setup requires more images as it is a shorter image, but usually resolves better.
"At the Grand Tetons, I used 32 images in the session," he says. "Duplicates of the foreground were taken, one at the ISO used for the sky (1250) and one for a brighter foreground (4000)."
Decker says that ideally, the best medium to enjoy his photos is in print.
"I had one printed on metal this year for the annual Louisville Art Association National Photography show (won people’s choice award) and what's cool about these photos is that there is no right or wrong way to hang them. You can literally hang them on any side and each orientation makes it a different photo," he says. "You lose that in digital. Plus, they look really cool printed on metal.
"That being said, I bet they look great on ultra-wide monitors."
More of Decker's Nexus Panoramas and his full portfolio of photography can be seen on his website.
#features #inspiration #astronomy #astrophotography #fineart #fineartlandscapephotography #landscapephotography #milkyway #milkywaygalaxy #nodalninja #prints #space #ultrawide #vertical
By removing color, we change how the viewer’s eyes see the photograph. No longer dependent upon color cues, we must find our visual information in the physical characteristics of shape, form, texture, and lines.
In my presentations, I often ask why, if color photography were so wonderful, black and white was invented first. It is, of course, a joke. A little friendly rivalry. The truth is that I love color photographs. They can be meaningful and inspirational. I have the utmost respect for those who do it well. But I was never one of them.
I am not alone. There are many photographers who, like me, photograph almost exclusively in black and white. We are in the minority, however. There are even more who photograph in black and white part-time. We have each chosen to create and present some or all of our work this way, and we do so for our own reasons. Some are rebelling against the popularity of color photography and others have a love for what are considered traditional landscapes. But many, like me, simply don’t have a meaningful creative response to color.
In order to understand what black and white photography has to offer, we need to get some perspective. When we look at a color photograph, the first thing we mentally process is that the scene is depicted in color. Only after that do we begin to study the physical characteristics of the objects in the frame such as shapes, forms, textures, and lines.
These attributes, along with color, help define the look and feel of everything in front of our camera. When we remove the layer of color, either in the field or during processing, what remains are the four descriptive physical attributes. It is in the study and presentation of these – shape, form, texture, and line – in which black and white photography excels. I refer to it not as working without color but seeing beyond it.
So, how can we recognize and make use of these characteristics to improve our black and white photographs?
In art terminology, a form is simply an object that appears three-dimensional. Forms show a range of tones and represent their subject matter. A tree looks like a tree, a rock like a rock, and a platypus like a… well.. like a duck mixed with a beaver, but you get the point. They look what they are and what we expect them to be. Forms are what we most often see when we are looking at traditional landscape photographs.
The boulders, branches, and mountains in this scene all show three-dimensional characteristics; thus, would be considered artistic forms. | 24mm, f/8 @ 30 seconds, ISO100
Forms are easily recognized so people have little trouble in understanding what they are looking at. That accessibility brings the viewer into the scene, evoking feelings of inclusion, appreciation, and comfort.
Forms can be categorized as either geometric or organic. Geometric forms have regular, precise, structured outlines and often appear, even if natural, as being manmade. They include buildings, roads, telephone poles or automobiles. Naturally occurring objects such as crystals or basalt formations, with their straight edges and sharp angles, can also be considered geometric.
rganic forms such as a leaf, mountain range or meandering stream have irregular or wavy outlines and often appear to be from the natural world. As their outline is less mathematical than a geometric form, they have a softer, more relaxing presence in the photograph.
Shapes are similar to forms but appear as two-dimensional and have little interior detail. For example, if a sphere were considered a form, then a simple, white circle would be considered a shape.
As with forms, shapes can be categorized as either geometric or organic. Due their precise structure, geometric shapes can be quite abstract and powerful. Organic shapes, because their outlines are more free form and less formulaic, are often less abstract but can still be a powerful compositional element, especially if juxtaposed against their geometric kin.
The organic shapes of the blown snow contrast with the decidedly geometric shapes of the parking lot lines. | 24mm, f/13 @ 1/60, ISO100
Of course, as with all things artistic, there is often no clear defining line between shapes and forms. Some elements, such as a smooth, dark tree trunk, might exhibit characteristics of both form and shape. The categorization, however, is not important. What is important is that we recognize the qualities of objects in our frame and what they add to or take away from our composition. Only then can we make smart and informed creative decisions while photographing and processing (printing).
Juxtaposing the accessibility of forms against the abstractness of shapes leads to unique and compelling compositions which will be sure to hold the viewer’s attention.
The uniformly spaced, rectangular windows against a dark background play against the haphazard brush marks on a bright white wall. | 45mm, f/8 @ 1/30, ISO100
When we think of lines, we often think of leading lines – roads, sunrays, fences, etc. – which orient us towards, and thus draw attention to, our main subject. But lines are much more. They are one of the most common elements in our compositions. Lines exist as individual objects which are often very strong and stark compositional elements, but also create the outlines and interiors of objects in our photograph and in this regard are often overlooked.
By getting a low angle, these wavy street lines become a strong focal point in an otherwise unremarkable scene. | 45mm, f/8 @ 1/60, ISO100 
This old grain elevator is, due to heavy post-processing, reduced almost entirely to a study of lines. | 85mm, f/5.6 @ 1/125, ISO100
Lines can be as straight as an arrow or curved like a bow. They can wind lazily, be sharply angular or even form a circle. Their orientation is important. Lines which are parallel or level with the frame appear static and dull, but lines which are angled up at to the right often appear dynamic and energetic (at least in Western cultures whose text reads from left to right).
The distant trees form lines which direct the viewer’s eye to the foreground evergreen which, in turn, points the eye towards the dynamic line at the top of the frame. | 24mm, f/11 @ 1/45, ISO100
Although not a stand-alone element like form, shape or line, texture plays a critical role in defining the visual characteristics of an object’s surface. Smooth objects such a birch tree or a patch of white snow on a cloudy day will show little texture, whereas rougher surfaces such as the trunk of an oak tree or a bale of hay may show rich texture.
The rough texture of these hay bales integrates with the rough textures of both the foreground grasses and the background saplings. | 50mm, f/11 @ 1 second, ISO100
Textures can also be manipulated by technique. A body of water on a windy day, photographed with a fast shutter speed, will emphasize details of the water’s surface (texture). That same body of water, photographed with a shutter speed measured in many seconds, appears smooth and silky. Either is a valid creative decision.
Texture is necessary to help define a form’s structure, and to give it a three-dimensional look. Without texture, objects appear flat, metallic, plastic or even glassy. That is why the heavily edited, overly smoothed faces of social media influencers look so phony to our eyes.
The visual impact of texture is highly dependent upon lighting and post-processing. It is essential to defining form so it is not something we can ignore. As with everything else in our frame, we need to be aware of the way it affects our composition. Too much texture may well be distracting. Go easy on that structure slider in Lightroom; likewise, too little may look odd.
Each of these four elements plays a critical role in black and white photography and is what the medium does best. It is our responsibility, as creative photographers, to not only recognize their presence and power, but to compose these various elements into a cohesive and compelling photograph.
The foreground lines and shapes direct the viewer’s eye to the start of the soft-textured, distant hills. | 120mm, f/11 @ 1/250, ISO100
P.S. -- There are some scenes – no matter how compelling the shapes, forms, textures or lines – in which color is important and so defining that the image fails without it. In that case, no matter the skill or talent of the dedicated black and white photographer, the fight was over before it even began. So if we can’t beat the color photographers we will, at least in these cases, join them.
The garish and contrasting colors of this room are vital to the identity of this image. If we remove these colors, this image is destined to fail. | 24mm, f/8 @ 1/6, ISO100
**The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. **ELEMENTS is the new monthly magazine dedicated to the finest landscape photography, insightful editorials, and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Freeman Patterson, Bruce Barnbaum, Rachael Talibart, Charles Cramer, Hans Strand, Erin Babnik, and Tony Hewitt, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
_About the author: Chuck Kimmerle is a U.S.-based, fine art landscape photographer who prefers to work in the reticent and quiet areas located in between the popular, overcrowded, and over photographed, destinations of grand beauty. While his style is rooted within the foundations of traditional landscape photography, his observations and interactions are both contemporary and introspective.
If you feel a connection to Chuck's work, please consider supporting him by purchasing one of his exquisitely crafted prints, or by simply sending a note of appreciation. _
#editorial #educational #blackandwhite #chuckkimmerle #elements #elementsmagazine #fineart #fineartlandscapephotography #fineartphotography #landscapephotography #techniques
Waves are some of the most rewarding subjects for photography that I know. For starters, if you miss one, another will be along very soon! Of course, they are also unpredictable and can be dangerous. What is fascinating is that no single wave will be exactly the same as any other wave that has existed since the beginning of time. Mind-blowing stuff.
When you’re starting out in wave photography, it is helpful to have a rudimentary understanding of different types of waves and what you’re likely to encounter on different beaches. Wide beaches with shallow falls typically experience long, rolling breakers. These graceful waves are a pleasure to photograph. The curl of a rolling wave is attractive but this perspective can be elusive as the topography of the coast often fails to offer a side-on angle.
This story is brought to you byELEMENTS Magazine. ELEMENTS is the new monthly magazine dedicated to the finest landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
Some photographers take to the water with waterproof camera housings and capture amazing moments within or even underneath waves (although not on the beaches where I make photos!). Obviously, this approach is for confident swimmers and, if you want to try it out, I strongly recommend that you first spend time getting to know your location and how to navigate the waves there safely. However, if it isn’t safe to swim or you’d simply prefer to stay on terra firma, don’t give up just because you can’t access the popular “curl.” A front-on perspective can also work; the moment a breaker starts to drop is often all that’s needed to break the line and add visual interest.
On steeper, narrower beaches, there may be backwash. This is when water that has travelled up the beach falls back with enough power that, when it meets another wave, the water is pushed upwards, creating a wall. This is a marvellous subject and you can go wide to show the impact in its setting or zoom in tight to explore the textures. “Clapotis” is a sort of backwash wave. This lovely French word describes the moment that a wave, having bounced off a quay or cliff, crashes into another wave. The shapes often seem to defy gravity. This sort of photography is more like sports or wildlife than landscape work. Fast shutter speeds, responsive focusing and quick reflexes are the order of the day. I suggest you use high-speed continuous or burst mode and run off 3 or four frames for each wave.
As with everything, it pays to know your location and to have done your research. For example, if the wind is blowing from the north, there’s little point in visiting a south-facing beach backed by cliffs. However, if the land behind the beach is flat, a strong offshore wind may be ideal as it will hold back the waves, making them pile higher, and you’ll get spindrift off the top. Equally, think about the tide and the light. There are usually fewer waves at low tide. Harsh midday sun is difficult, and you’ll likely need a polariser to mitigate the shiny patches of water whereas backlit waves can be gorgeous when the sun is low.
Point of view makes all the difference and there are so many variations on the standard, head-height position. If you can get low, your waves will stand proud of the horizon. Not every beach gets big waves, but they all get waves of some sort, even if just from the wake of passing vessels. If you lie on the beach, even small waves can look mighty.
Alternatively, try a higher point of view, a clifftop perhaps. Photos taken from above are no longer about the size of the waves. Instead, they make the pattern the star of the show. Waves leave in their wake wonderful shapes that we never see from beach level. Next time you watch the sea from a cliff, notice the beauty of a wave’s footprint.
The sea is always moving so shutter speed is probably your biggest decision; 1/800 or faster will freeze the waves, capturing all the detail. However, slower shutter speeds are also hugely enjoyable. I particularly like ¼” as it keeps the wave’s overall shape, but the details seem like brushstrokes. In my photos, “Theia” and “Twist,” the waves are the same basic shape, but one is caught at 1/800 and one at ¼”. While we’re experimenting, how about adding some intentional camera movement. I like shutter speeds close to 1” and subtle movement so that I can still see the idea of a wave within the blur. I prefer not to use a tripod for ICM. I’m not looking for perfection here – I want the result to look like a painting and paintings aren’t perfect, at least the good ones aren’t.
If you’ve ever tried to photograph waves and been disappointed, I suggest you try a longer focal length. It will suck the viewer into the action and the wave will almost certainly look more exciting. Most of my storm waves were captured using a 70-200mm lens. More recently, I’ve been using a 100-400mm. This is harder because, at 400mm, it’s difficult to see enough of the sea to find the best waves. I’m enjoying the challenge. Long focal lengths offer a way to create difference. The casual viewer will see the big scene, but they won’t notice the curious textures within a wave. For this kind of work, you have to compose like a photographer of abstracts, thinking only of shape and colour, rather than the subject as a whole.
So far, I’ve concentrated on waves alone but waves as they break against the shore also make exciting subjects, stirring our imagination with awe and even fear. As these photographs tend to reference scale and location, they are often more documentary in style; however, that’s not always the case. I happened to publish my photograph, “Face-of” during the voting for the U.S. presidential election. This was entirely coincidental (I’m British), but several people commented that the picture represented the clash of candidates and ideologies! People will always find metaphors in the sea.
I’ve outlined just a few of the possible ways to photograph waves. As with any subject, the best approach is to be open-minded and willing to experiment. Try everything and see what happens, then make changes based on your experience. Be prepared to make a lot of bad photos (remember, this is more like sports than landscape photography). Above all, make sure you take time to just watch and listen to the waves. The sea’s music is beautiful and inspiring and I firmly believe you will make better art if you let it into your soul.
I don’t want to spoil the flow of the article with a homily on safety but I feel it would be irresponsible not to mention it at all. Waves can be dangerous. It’s important that you know the relevant tides, wind direction and speed. Working on a falling tide is safest. If it’s not safe to get as close to the waves as you would like, come back another day with a longer lens. Trust your instincts – if you feel at risk, you probably are. Lens hoods are good for keeping spray off the lens and I recommend that you always wipe everything down with fresh water after you leave the beach.
**The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. **ELEMENTS is the new monthly magazine dedicated to the finest landscape photography, insightful editorials, and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Freeman Patterson, Bruce Barnbaum, Rachael Talibart, Charles Cramer, Hans Strand, Erin Babnik, and Tony Hewitt, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
About the author: Rachael Talibart is a professional seascape and coastal photographer. Her critically acclaimed photographs of the ocean and coast have been featured in the press all over the world. Rachael is represented by galleries in Europe and the USA, her work is frequently exhibited and her limited-edition prints are collected internationally. She is the author of three monographs, including ‘Sirens’ and, most recently, Tides and Tempests. Rachael owns f11 Workshops, providing location and online photography training and she leads international photography tours for Ocean Capture. You will find Rachael Talibart’s series “Oceans and Odysseys” in the ELEMENTS Magazine.
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