Here we go with the entry for the next, already 3rd edition of "Behind the Photo Contest" run by 
Today we are going back to the coast of the Baltic Sea at amazing Curonian Spit, Lithuania - with pretty untouched nature and amazing golden sandy dunes
Lets start from the insanely colorful cover image to attract some additional attention visually....
And not story begins... That was nice winter day (last week), not too much cold generally, but the clouds were very uncertain in the afternoon and rapidly changing. Anyway, since lately I\m not going to sunset shootings too much often, decided to take this, maybe last years opportunity and still try my luck.
Normally not to be over-weighted I just take normal set of FF camera + wide angle lens + tripod + LEE filters. That's already weights quite a lot and counting quite long walking distance normally is more than enough. But that day also grabbed second set of crop Canon 7D M2 with very wide focal length Sigma 18-250 mm and that was right decision basically
All the story below consist only from photos done by this second set
Just to remind, in order to reach Curonian Spit need to take small ferry passing every 20 mins. And lets start with a few shots of port aquatory. This lens allows quite wide views to be done along with very far shooting on 250 mm x 1.6 crop factor
After passing to other side of the gulf the hardest part - to walk about 2 kilometers to the seaside. While still few interesting shots could be made from the top of the hill and approaching the seaside via sand dunes
Well, when finally the seaside reached, I have switched to shooting with my standard landscape set. And was doing it for a while, until the situation in the skies not started to change drastically when the sun almost touched the horizon with many interesting clouds which were quite far away and had no any strong impact while shooting with wide angle lens
Here we go.. when long tele-photo lens really came into the force.
So now you can see how the clouds were changing rapidly. Guess all "the colors concert" took some 20 minutes only
Tried to make some shots and on wider angle also employing some nice reflection on the wet sand surface catching the moment when wave goes back
The clouds become really interesting and visually with some traces of rain going out there. So they become really deep red at some point. That was still pretty far away, so quite safe for myself and the equipment.
Only the problem was quite strong and damn cold wind cause shaking of frozen hands really. Tried to do my best to stay still, since long shooting distance requires a lot of stability
Few last shots were made from the top of the sand dune. Total phantasmagorical view and even some human silhouettes on the beach nicely improving composition and story telling
And finally to show how different was the sky, this is shot to other (some 120 degrees) side where the vessel was approaching gates the port
Have to admit that shooting with a crop factor camera with much darker lens handheld really brings some quality issues. But as I always say, it is better to have less quality frame, than nothing :)
All photos above passed just basic color and contrast corrections using Lightroom only with some gradient filter applied to lighten bottom darker part of the frame.
Generally I'm good enough with the quality, since the issue is known for me and accepted in advance...
And just if you want to compare, here is the frame from same evening done with my standard equipment, while fully processed via Lightroom and Photoshop as well (was posted few days ago)
That's all for today. See you all next time!
| Category | TRAVEL/LANDSCAPE |
| Camera | Canon 7D Mark II / Sigma 18-250mm |
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