Behind the shot

Time blen­ding – why it pays to focus on just one image 

Tonight will be a piece of cake. All weather models are predic­ting a beau­tiful sunset. I arrive on site in good time and am pretty sure what I want to photo­graph and how. My tripod, camera and filters are set up in no time, and the sunset is already looking really great at sunset. Now I just have to wait until it really kicks in. But wait a minute, has it already faded a little between the last two shots? Yes… what now? 

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Behind the shot

Nether­lands classics 

Oh man, what’s wrong with my timing? Pheno­menal golden light shines on the land­scape in front of me. I look at my car’s spee­do­meter. I’m already going a little too fast. And there are speed cameras ever­y­where here in the Nether­lands. Two more turns. Damn, another red light. Maybe it’ll stay red for another 10 minutes, who knows. Just a few more metres and I’ll reach the car park, but then the great light was gone. But the clouds look promi­sing. Don’t give up too soon, I thought to myself, and we set off along the path past these beau­tiful wind­mills in the Netherlands.

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Behind the shot

Wood­land photo­graphy at twilight 

I recently spent a few days travel­ling with my family in the Nether­lands and disco­vered a lovely little forest with some inte­res­ting trees close to the beach. However, the weather during those days was a bit unpre­dic­table. It was either pure suns­hine or pouring rain. Neither of these condi­tions encou­raged me to go outside and take photos in the forest. How could I still get some great shots? Then I had an idea. I’ll go when the sun isn’t bothe­ring me. Blue, diffuse, mystical. In this blog/vlog, I’ll show you why the blue hour is an under­rated time for forest photography. 

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Behind the shot

One lens for everything 

FOMO – Fear of missing out. I think we all know what that is, right? Some­times it’s really bad for me. When the weather is great and I have to work or I have other plans, I get it – the fear of missing out on the perfect shot. That’s why I quickly expanded my lens coll­ec­tion. It ranges from 16 mm to 400 mm. Now it even goes up to 600 mm. With a tele­con­verter, that’s actually 1200 mm. I usually have ever­y­thing with me so I don’t miss a shot. What happens? Some­times you miss the shot anyway. Chan­ging lenses takes time. Setting out with only one focal length helps crea­ti­vity; it’s limi­ting on the one hand, but it gives you freedom on the other. If I had to give up all my lenses except one, which one would I keep?

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Behind the shot

Incre­dibly diverse — the dune land­scape of the Netherlands 

Phew… I worked up a sweat again. I had already realised that the condi­tions were going to be fanta­stic that evening. I had scouted out a spot, but hadn’t had time to check it out yet. It should actually be fine if I get there early and have a look around. However, I hadn’t reckoned with my children and so — as a father of two — I ended up with less time than I had hoped. But see/read for yourself.

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Behind the shot

The perfect morning? — The only important tip in photography 

Oh, it could just have been the perfect morning. The mood of the light, the presence of the perfect amount of misty haze, the spring green and me stan­ding in the biggest sea of wild garlic to take pictures. But the world isn’t perfect and so it is that some places full of wild garlic fell victim to the forestry work in winter and the other­wise perfect morning didn’t coin­cide with the peak of the wild garlic blossom. A pity really. Nevert­heless, some great pictures were taken and I have a very basic tip for you in this BLOG/VLOG!

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Behind the shot

Ein Morgen am See 

Obwohl ich im Winter für den Sonnen­auf­gang wesent­lich später hätte aufstehen müssen, als jetzt, wo es schon bald Früh­ling wird, bin ich kaum zum Foto­gra­fieren unter­wegs gewesen. Aber heute habe ich mich über­wunden, denn ich wollte eine träu­me­ri­sche Aufnahme an einem See mit Morgenrot aufnehmen. Also raus aus den Federn, solange die Familie noch schläft und los zu einem nicht all zu weit entfernten See.

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Behind the shot

Taking photos when the weather doesn’t cooperate 

Oh man, I wish I’d just stayed in bed. Now I have 30 minutes of hiking uphill in complete dark­ness through the Pala­ti­nate Forest and over an hour’s drive behind me and I’m stan­ding here in the middle of the fog soup instead of above it as planned. And yet the weather models were all in agree­ment. Fog level, dawn, ever­y­thing should have been fine. What now? Turn around, go home and give up or pull through and see what you can get out of it with a little crea­ti­vity? In this BLOG/VLOG, I finally get to grips with the auto­matic focus bracke­ting of my Sony a7IV, go in the direc­tion of B&W fine art with my images, show you how to get black and white images quickly and easily in LR/PS and prove to you that giving up is not an option and that you can always find some­thing photo­gra­phi­cally interesting!

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Blog

Spooky atmo­sphere in the Allgäu nature 

What was I thin­king? I quickly disco­vered this small pond near our accom­mo­da­tion, but how do you get here? There doesn’t seem to be a path, at least not on any hiking map. Various map and outdoor apps don’t show anything either. And yet I’m now walking through the dark­ness. In the fog. There must be a way and I want to find it before sunrise. Read the blog to find out if and how I managed it. 

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Blog

On the go in dense fog in the Allgäu 

I grab my ruck­sack and quietly close the door of the vaca­tion apart­ment on the farm behind me. It’s still pitch dark outside and I’m comple­tely unfa­mi­liar with the surroun­dings, but I set off to take photos anyway. At last, after what feels like ages. I know that the area around the farm is partly untouched nature. So off into the unknown. There’s always some­thing to photo­graph. But this time I don’t even know which direc­tion is best, I have to let my intui­tion guide me. Will anything come of it? Let’s see what this land­scape here in the Allgäu has to offer. This morning will show. 

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