This was a fun one, and I learnt a hell of a lot about low light, HDR and my camera's limits.
I knew the Holiday Lights challenge would be my first contest out of my comfort zone, in that it would involve shooting something I've never really tried to get and I've only ever really had real success with landscape and nature photography. That said, I was keen to give it a go.
When I saw that one of my favourite natural locations - The Orrido of Bellano - was running a Christmas light late evening opening event up to Christmas I knew I had to give it a shot. I knew the path already, and as well as the novelty of seeing this amazing place at night all lit up I knew it had the potential to be a stunning photo.
The Orrido (horror) is a natural gorge carved into the mountain above the town of Bellano, which is on Lake Como's east side. The huge rushing waters from the waterfall at the back eventually finish up in the lake, and for centuries it was referred to as The Horror or the Cavern of the Devil due to the darkness and deafening sound of rushing water coming from inside. Nowadays it's a tourist attraction, as they built a beautiful walkway through it to encourage visitors to see it from a great vantage point around 100ft above the fast-flowing river.
However when I arrived it was tough. I had wanted to shoot at ISO 100 and use a long exposure and whilst there were fortunately fewer people than expected I was really struggling with the low light to get anything at all until I saw this composition.
We immediately set it up and took a few shots, generally around 4-10 seconds was all that was needed. The changing lights on the waterfall provided us with various colour options but I liked the variety in this the most.
It was almost impossible to expose everything correctly with how bright the reindeer and sleigh were, so I attempted my first HDR by exposing for both the reindeer and then the environment around and I'm pleased with my first attempt.
On leaving I felt a little underwhelmed as there were no other standout compositions and I wasn't certain this one would work, so we have a few outtakes around town that were cute but unfortunately came out disappointing. So in the end, the one I was nervous about ended up being something I'm really happy with and the ones I liked ended up underwhelming.
That's photography for you!
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I keep going back to your image. It is beyond beautiful and special. There are so many beautiful effects and colors in this image. This image is stunningly beautiful. I love the crop if it is cropped, you covered the water fall and the depth of the bridge. My favorite of the challenge by far.
Thank you! It really looked incredible and whilst it was a difficult capture I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was very close to a ribbon and even though it didn't quite make it it's one of my most magical photos that I'm very proud of. Thank you!
Originally posted by roz:
thanks for the story.. I always love reading them ..
your have a great writing style btw ...
congratulations on getting out of your comfort zone and getting an excellent photo to boot ..
and of course 4th place .. :)
ps .. I love knowing the origins of sayings .. and to boot was screaming out to be googled ..
"The saying “to boot” comes from an Old English word bot, meaning “advantage” or “remedy.” It's related to the contemporary English words better and best, so if something's “to boot,” it's added or extra."
Thank you Roz! And thanks for the trivia :D I'll have to remember that as I'm an English teacher and those kind of questions come up all the time and I never know the answers.
I keep going back to your image. It is beyond beautiful and special. There are so many beautiful effects and colors in this image. This image is stunningly beautiful. I love the crop if it is cropped, you covered the water fall and the depth of the bridge. My favorite of the challenge by far.
thanks for the story.. I always love reading them ..
your have a great writing style btw ...
congratulations on getting out of your comfort zone and getting an excellent photo to boot ..
and of course 4th place .. :)
ps .. I love knowing the origins of sayings .. and to boot was screaming out to be googled ..
"The saying “to boot” comes from an Old English word bot, meaning “advantage” or “remedy.” It's related to the contemporary English words better and best, so if something's “to boot,” it's added or extra."
Yikes! Beautiful starbursts on the lights but you're making my palms sweat =:-0 Most unusual light display I've seen thus far, and it's pretty, besides.
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