Near Rostock, that day I have been looking for a perfect shoreline that I could spend a good time with, but I happened to discover an amazing forest to photograph instead. I walked through it, stubbornly hoping that the coastal views my map would suggest are going to be worth it. Only at the cliff, enjoying the visual range of few kilometers, I found out that it looked the same way as those I shot this morning, previous evening, previous morning, pre-previous evening... Turning back though, this is what I saw:
It would be dark, dreamy, mysterious woodland standing in front of me like on a fairy-tail stage, that would play the nicest music for my photographic ears (eyes, whatever). Together with Marc Carlton from my headphones. What a symphony! The only problem were crowds of people; people walking (dogs), people on bikes, people screaming, people eating, people trying to talk to me, but they all could be eliminated with a little bit of patience and positioning. Unless they sit on the bench right behind the most photogenic tree in the whole forest. One couple really took their time. So did I. In the meantime, I got engaged with THIS tree. They all had nicely curled tree-tops but THIS one stood up like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. You know, true love at first sight. Here's the struggle though. I wanted to photograph the forest, the very most of it (with Julia as the main subject, can you see her?) hence wide-angle. Far too much in the viewfinder. People everywhere, the cliff on the left, the dark trees on the right, and Julia vanishing. I swapped lenses from 35mm to 80mm in hope of giving her more of a prime time as well as eliminating other bothering elements. I thought I was going to destroy the overall feel of the space but it was actually better (the image above) though not good enough (too little of Julia's hair and too much of white sky on the left). I've been dancing around searching for the best angle for 2-3 hours only to realize that I'm unable to capture what I see. There was aways something wrong with the composition or subjects, mainly tree-tops in the viewfinder did not look as spectacular I experienced them. Until I decided, for unknown reasons (perhaps because I had so much time - a couple sat still on the bench), to try look trough my 210mm lens.
Julia in its full beauty:
Caption: Curly Trees, Camera: Hasselblad H1, Lens: 210mm, Digital Back: Phase One IQ140, ISO: 50, Exposure: 0.3s, Aperture: f/16
The morale of the story could be, photographically speaking, always look through all your eyes (pardon, lenses). Or, in a very new place all you need is take your time and Julia will come revealed. Or, it really feels good to be in the forest photographing it. Or, just enjoy whatever you're up to.