If are looking for a place to spend a few days in total peace, where you can focus only to take some beautiful pictures, enjoying some spectacular sunsets with the sun “falling” into the sea and where your biggest problem will be to choose whether the next glass of wine will be red or white, well.. Look no more, because the Cinque Terre is exactly the place you were looking for.
It doesn’t matter what kind of photography your are into, it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or you are a veteran photographer, it doesn’t matter what kind of camera or lens you are using: you should know what is the golden hour, when it happens and how to take advantage of it. It’s one of the fundamental stuff to know when talking about photography.
Monochrome photography always had a major role in the photographic history; many people think it’s a trend typical of the last decades, but the truth is that it’s always been practiced since photography was born. I could easily name black and white photography as the monochrome photography “par excellence”, but even without considering black and white photographs think about the “sepia effect” or cyanotype photos: these are just two examples of monochrome photography techniques used since the early ages of photography.
The sun isn’t arose yet, but you are starting to clearly see the details of the landscape; the shapes and lines that were creepy till 10 minutes before are finally becoming familiar again, and the night is clearly passed and gone. The birds are starting to sing again, and you still feel cold as hell even if you see the first lights coming through.
Sometimes it will be hard to resist. Sometimes you’ll ask yourself who made you do it, or why you are doing it. Sometimes you’ll think you’ll be freezing to death in that harsh, unwelcoming environment, which doesn’t matter if it’s 3 minutes from your home or 3 continents away.
You’ll think “that’s enough, I quit”. But then, as if by magic, you’ll find yourself again in that same cold environment. And again.
Seascapes are one of the most challenging types of landscapes that one can capture. Why? Because it’s easy to capture a good seascape, while it’s really, really hard to capture a great seascape.
I think I’m not the only one that when first started doing photography went right down at the sea many times to try some long exposures, capture some golden light and the (in)famous silk water effect. Right? Come on, unless you live quite far from the sea, you must have tried at least a couple of times.
Focus is one of the biggest pillars of photography since the very first day someone used a camera to capture an image.
We could discuss about composition, settings, HDR, bracketings, stackings and plenty of other things, but without a decent knowledge about focus, none of these arguments will make any sense.