A sunrise at the Lotus Lake

For a full size photo please click on the image.
 

A story behind: Looking from the nine cornered bridge at the Wuli Pagoda at the Lotus Lake.
A day after we assisted a fabulous Taichung Lantern Festival we arrived at the city of Kaoshiung, southern part of the Island of Taiwan.

A couple of days earlier we landed at Taipei International Airport, rented a car ( highly recommended way of visiting Taiwan (and Japan). Forget all the nonsense of "travelling with a public transport thing" and get a car that will take you to the real Taiwan/Japan and places that are impossible to reach by public transport). In fact I intend to write a separate post with my Tips For Driving in Japan and Taiwan.


 

Location:  Kaoshiung, Taiwan.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, tripod,

 

Focal Length: 16 mm

Aperture: 22

Exposure: 1 sec.

Date: March 12th, 2015. 06.20 a.m.

Maciek.

The first autumn storm 2014

 

For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: The end of the rainy afternoon at the Gaia beach, a couple of kilometres south of Porto. A 2 seconds long exposure.
 

Location:  Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, tripod,

 

Focal Length: 16 mm

Aperture: 22

Exposure: 2 sec.

Date: Outober 14th, 2014. 17.44 p.m.

The Bodiam Castle, Sussex.

 

The Bodiam Castle erected in 1385. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: Shooting long exposure photos in full daylight with a sun shining brightly can be a challenge.

First wait for the sun to hide over any cloud to catch less light. Find a spot where your camera is standing in a shady place and is not being directly hit be the sun light. Put the darkest filter you have.

The exposition times of this photo is 56 seconds.

 

Location:  East Sussex, England.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, tipod, 10x filter

 

Focal Length: 16 mm

Aperture: 22

Exposure: 56 sec.

Date: September 21st, 2014. 12:58 a.m.

Just seconds before a storm arrived

The  Arrábida bridge as seen from my window over the Douro river. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: Early Sunday. I was woken up by a roar of the distant thunderstorm. Got up and rushed to my window. For the first time in my life I saw so beautiful clouds speeding over the bridge. All the storm and rain fallowed. The hole spectacle lasted no more than 10 minutes.
 

 

Location:  From my window, Porto, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, handheld

 

Focal Length: 16 mm

Aperture: 8

Exposure: 1/640 sec.

Date: September 14th, 2014. 8:58 a.m.
-.

Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, Douro river. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: Before all the tourist come, a few minutes before the sunrise, a dense fog covering the river od Douro. A mistical time of the day. The houses on the other side of the river and a steel bridge are shrouded in the fog.

 

Location:  Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, tripod.

 

Focal Length: 27 mm

Aperture: 22

Exposure: 3 sec.

Date: August 29th, 2014. 6:58 a.m.

A Moselle river valley

 

Moselle (Mosel) river valley, Germany. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: a view from the hilltop overlooking the meanders of the Moselle river surrounded by Riesling vineyards and a small town of Bremm.

 

Location:  Bremm, Germany. GPS: 50.106674, 7.115432

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, a panorama made of 8 vertical shots.

 

Focal Length: 16 mm

Date: August 1st, 2014. 17.17 p.m.

Just one more photo from the sunrise at the Kirchberg plateaux. For a full size photo please click on the image.

 

Location:  Kirchberg plateau, Luxembourg. Just after the sunrise.  

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 70-300 mm, handheld.

 

Date: August 3rd, 2014. 7.30 a.m.

A simple and pure photography compositions

Sunrise at tKirchberg plateuax.. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: As you probably know I am a big fan of simple and pure compositions in photography.

My today´s work is all about lines. Vertical and horizontal lines suggest order and stability; vertical lines convey strength and horizontal lines are lazy and rather relaxing.
A slightly curved line of the part of the opera´s roof adds a natural beauty and will softly guide your eye through the lateral part of the image rather than from one corner or edge to another.
The same is true for diagonal lines, which can also make an image appear more dramatic and can even convey a sense of motion.

Today´s architecture is extremely modern, almost entirely made of black, white or grey blocks, thus very inhuman and industrialist.
To bring some life to the image I decided to add green trees that look almost the same: symmetrical, almost identical and in that sense they do nor disturb much the geometry of the image.

Balancing your image is an another difficult task. My image is composed of five different geometrical pieces. Bear in mind that black parts "weight" more than whites ones so you must balance them carefully separating (and not putting together) dark and bright parts of the composition.
Balance is almost obligatory in most of the some photos, but if you want to make your images a little more interesting, you can unbalance a composition to attract the viewers attention (my four green trees are unbalanced).

 
Location:  Kirchberg plateau, Luxembourg. Just after the sunrise.  

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 70-300 mm, handheld.

Aperture: f/10, 1/320 sec.

Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

ISO: 640

Focal Length: 230 mm

Date: August 3rd, 2014. 7.10 a.m.

 

Algarvian summer.

Sunrise at the Algarvian coast, Portugal. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: 30 minutes before the sunrise.  


Location:  Luseta, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S, rubber boots, tripod.

Aperture: f/20, 20 sec.

Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

ISO: 50

Focal Length: 16 mm

Date: 28th of July, 2014. 6.10 a.m.

A spine

The Arrábida bridge  spanning the Douro River.

For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: Saturday evening, just a few steps from our house. The warm rays of the dying sun was lighting up the "spine-like" middle structure of the Arrábida bridge.

To make the image not so boring I added 2 traffic lights.


Location:  Porto, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 700, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S.

Aperture: f/11, 1/125 sec.

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

ISO: 320 EV

Focal Length: 19 mm

Date: 5th of July, 2014.