Welcome Post - Summer Term 2022

Very excited for this last term before I progress to DMU. After two terms where I have learning new things, now it is the time to apply the tools that tutors has given to me. 

A very short time holidays, however, I have enjoyed my time. I had the chance to travel and be able to see other places. My inspiration for this post will be Travel Photography. As a traveller I always try to find pictures of places where I want to go and understand if will be the right place for me in a way. Pictures always inspire me to understand what environment I will find. Specially, the current days where the world is so connected we do not need to get out of the house to be able to experience amazing landscape photography. 

For many people is not possible to travel for different reasons, however, some artists can bring to us some of their experiences and allow us to visit, digitally, some of the places they have been and that is something very important. Share and allow many other people to experience is something beautiful. Travel Photography is something that has inspired me since I know myself and that will be something that I will do more while travelling. It could be landscape, wildlife, architecture or street photography. 

Every place I have visited has inspired me in different ways. I always try to look for places not to crowded, instead I prefer to look for remote places where I do not find many people. For example, I have been recently to Canary Islands and I have the chance to visit a place in the mountains called El Charcoal Azul (see Figure 1). It is required some hike into the mountains and not many people is able to do it for different reasons as the place was not so busy. 

Figure 1 - El Charco Azul, Agaete, Canary Islands, Edgar Romaneiro, 2022

According to National Geographic (2022), before any travel should be done some research of what we are going to find the place that we wanted to see and places that we want to see around. Sometimes we can find different places such as beach, mountains or desert in small areas such as islands. Gran Canaria in Canary Islands is a good example for that. It is good in prior to study on local customs and traditions as travellers need to make sure that will avoid any kind of rude behaviours while trying to explore and taking picture of a place or community. (National Geographic, 2022). 

Figure 2 - Essential, Camelthorn trees at Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia, Bernabe, N.D.

Richard Bernabe is an American photographer, that I am inspired by. Bernabe is internationally known for travel, wildlife and nature photography. He had the chance to travel around the globe and capture the beauty on Earth and has worked for National Geographic, The New York Times, The BBC and many others companies (Bernabe, 2020).

Looking to the Figure 2 the artist is using one of the trees as a frame to be able to capture another tree nearby. This composition it is very interesting because I can get closer to that tree without be there. For instances, I can see the texture and see the wood very clear, whilst the tree framed in between the trunks it is shown in total. The contrasting colours such as, yellow, orange, brown and the white shows a perfect balance and almost a cinematic style that I love in photography. The first things that hooks me is the orange and yellow colours that seems to be a mountain or a hill. The picture shows how beautiful the nature can be, even a desert has some beauty in it. I feel a big connection and some kind of peaceful thoughts looking into this. 

Figure 3 - Glacial Flow, The blue glacial waters of Bruararfoss waterfall, Iceland

In his works we clearly see the contrasting colours and some of the settings that he uses, such as long exposure. On the Figure 3 we have a good example of long exposure. By using a slow shutter speed to be able to capture moving elements and create the blur. It gives us the idea that looks almost like a painting. In the picture, the photographer is showing the waterfall and the river flowing from it. A good composition that includes two different stages of the water progressing in its flow. The colour saturation also has an important job in the picture, like the Figure 2, the Figure 3, show us a dramatic scenario by using, I believe, some kind of editing software. 

Figure 4 - High Noon, Giraffes under a big savannah sky, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Bernabe, N.D.

Another good example of nature photography, (see Figure 4), that show us good composition that follow the rule of thirds where our eyes are kept in the left bottom side of the picture where we can see a tree and two giraffes having some kind of interaction which transport us to that moment. The horizon line is very short in comparison to the sky that is shown in almost all the picture. And that gives a more dramatic and contrasting effect. From the picture we can also see that the two giraffes are near to the horizon line clouds are shown very compact associated to a cloudy or misty day, however, looking further up those clouds seem to disperse and showing some shape, contours and luminosity. 

Reference

Richard Bernabe (2020) About Richard Bernabe. Available at: https://richardbernabe.photoshelter.com/about (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

Beyond the Lens (2022) About - Behind the Lens. Available at: https://www.beyondthelens.fm/about/ (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

National Geographic (2022) Travel Photography Tips. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/travel-photography-tips (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

Pictures reference

Figure 1 

Edgar Romaneiro (2022) El Charco Azul, Agaete, Canary Islands, Spain. Available at: https://eromaneirodmu.wixsite.com/digitalportfolio/photography?pgid=l0m9jg18-dcfef75d-8bbe-4061-9e1e-e638d7e05445 (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

Figure 2 

Richard Bernabe (N.D.) Essential, Camelthorn trees at Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Available at: https://richardbernabe.photoshelter.com/index/G0000HQQuj7Gnlr0/I00002tH6_PThsxo (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

Figure 3 

Richard Bernabe (N.D) Glacial Flow, The blue glacial waters of Bruararfoss waterfall, Iceland. Available at: https://richardbernabe.photoshelter.com/index/G0000HQQuj7Gnlr0/I0000e6EhjdefKJc (Accessed: 04/04/2022)

Figure 4 

Richard Bernabe (N.D.) High Noon, Giraffes under a big savannah sky, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Available at: https://www.mattpaynephotography.com/gallery/richard-bernabe-landscape-photographer/ (Accessed: 04/04/2022)