Made-Up Bits

a personal blog, by Sven Seebeck -

Waiting For The Light

As time was limited only a rather close location seemed to be useful and I decided to return to that little island in the forest. I was hoping for warmly lit trees, nice colours in the sky and reflections in the lake. Sometimes it’s just doesn’t come together though. Too many clouds in the wrong place, too much wind and no reflections whatsoever.

I had to make a quick decision and decided to return to another location 20km from here at the beach. I haven’t been there since last summer, but I had a rough idea that the sun might be setting in a suitable angle.

I arrived in time, still 30 minutes before sunset and explore the beach a little. The alignment of a few rocks catches my eye and together with that small island in the background I have the feeling to get a few nice compositions. A first shot already shows potential but the light is still a little too bright. Even with a 3 stop ND filter I don’t get that exposure time that I was looking for, leaving the water not yet milky enough. Also I did expect the clouds in the sky to get a little more purple and red during the course of the sunset.

It takes roughly one hour before I get the light that I was looking for. The difference in the images is significant. The colors are warmer, and as the exposure times are longer I get the effect on the water that I was looking for.

At home I imported the images into Aperture and did a quick processing. Even though not perfect, I got more than I was looking for, and the conditions were such, that the camera could record the scene as it was and I only need little post processing on the images, mainly only levels and curves.

It usually pays off to stick around at location and wait for a while, not always of course but one’s patience might be rewarded with nice and beautiful colours. While I was waiting I tried a few different compositions and also used the chance to record a short video clip which should be up during this week I hope.

More to come.

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