The light is everything

 

Village of Capelas, Northern coast of  São Miguel island.

A story behind:  Tropical Storm Nadine spun around near the Caribbean and US East Coast 4 weeks ago, though the storm ended up circling back east toward the Azores Islands. Last Thursday it hit the archipelago bringing some rain, high winds, quite high temperatures and an amazing 99% of humidity in the air. 
Three factors influence how natural light renders a subject: time of day, camera direction and weather condition. 
That night a combination of high air temperature and moisture, acting like a massive filter,  ended up in wonderfully soft and multicolored lighting that gives a calm, peaceful mood to all subjects. This kind of light I have seen twice in my life ( first time was shortly before the tropical  storm in Key West, Florida: link ).
Moisture is a natural soft box: it scatters light sources so that their light originates from a much broader area. Humid air is also much more reflective to light, which often tricks your camera´s light meter into thinking that it needs to decrease the exposure. 

Gear: Nikon D700. ND 0,3 soft, ND 0,6 hard. Tripod. Rubber boots. Umbrella.

Aperture: f/11

Shutter speed: 1/30 sec

Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 100

Place taken: Capelas, Portugal.

Date taken: Thursday, September 20th, 2012, 19:25

Maciek.