Same place: 3 different moods

I was hoping for a fiery sunset that evening.
All week long the sky has been turning spectacular with powerful red skies; but I was stuck in the city.
Now it was Saturday and I headed to the beach: it was going to be low tide at sunset.
But one thing it's sure with outdoor photography: I can't control the light.
What I thought was going to happen didn't: there was no fiery sky, no dramatic clouds.
The sun lowered to the horizon and then it met low dark clouds. The light went from soft warm to steel cold and flat.

I had a few vintage lenses with me, none of them really designed for my camera. One was a slide projection lens from a Kodak Carousel that I mounted on some macro bellows to be able to focus and certainly the hardest lens to use. Very low contrast, not very sharp and rendering highlights with a glow.


Kodak Ektanar C 102mm f2.8 slide projector lens  1/4000sec

As the light quickly changed I suddenly was faced with a very blue light that robbed all the typical colors of a beach at sunset. What it gave me instead is the opportunity to create a different look, of a more somber and pensive style.


adapter lens from miniature SLR system Pentax-110: 70mm f2.8 (fixed aperture)  1/640sec

Eventually the light faded away and just as I was heading back I notice the mangrove tree silhouetted against the sky.


adapter lens from miniature SLR system Pentax-110: 18mm f2.8 (fixed aperture)  1/200sec


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Blind snake

The weather was just a bit cooler when walking off-track I came across this coiled snake; her head was buried, sleeping.
After a few moments of me trying to get closer she woke up to smell the air.
I looked at her and I noticed that the right eye was milky opaque, not the usual bright with a sharp iris.
Was she blind?


adapted lens Pentax-110 70mm f2.8

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Rainforest trees

In the dense subtropical rainforest the trees are overwhelming; I rarely see the whole tree.
The close proximity of the giants keeps my view focused at the base of their trunks, observing the intricate shape of the roots and texture of the bark.


G-Lumix 14mm f4.5  1/4sec

The light is diffused and the moisture allows for vines, lichens and mosses to grow, sometimes creating abstract paintings on their bark.


G-Lumix 14mm f4.5  1/15sec

And the root system is at times rather bizarre, nothing like I have ever seen in a European forest.


M.Zuiko 9-18mm f4.5  1/15sec

Before the rain

There was rain in those clouds but nothing could get in the way for an evening run on the beach.


M.Zuiko 17mm f1.8  @f5  1/2500sec

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Beach puddle

Every tide shapes the beach with new sand waves, renewing the shore to a new texture.


PEN-F Zuiko 38mm f1.8  @f5.6  1/15 sec

Starry night

A cloudless and moonless night still bears a lot of light.
Once I turn my headlight off and I look into the sky stars come into view like in the city never can.


Lumix G 14mm  f2.5  60sec (no tripod)

Late sunset in Åland

After a day of rough seas, pulling into this little natural harbor was a real relief.
I called it the Japanese Garden, where ponds and low vegetation is arranged in almost a made-made form. The small gentle waves were only a reminder of the big seas earlier in the day.


M.Zuiko 14-42EZ  f4.5  1/6sec (handheld)

The sun seemed to never set, just skirted to horizon, hiding behind the light clouds
We were tired and half asleep when the light outside the tent changed and started to glow.

Hütte

A safe haven while the storm was raging outside, our sea kayaks safely high on the granite rocks.
The tiny hut hidden in a secluded bay, tucked away among the rocks that protect it from winter storms, was our shelter for the night.


M.Zuiko 9-18mm  f8  1/2sec