Hello Hive!
I'm already lagging behind my photography class, but I will catch up this weekend. In my last post in Photography Lovers community, I shared about working a scene. In that post, I planned to recreate the photos I took two years ago by going to the same hiking trail and see if I can pass the photos in one of the requirements of my photography class.
It was already planned to have a hike last weekend, but it was not push through because of the two consecutive typhoons that battered the Philippines in the past two weeks. While the typhoon didn't directly affect Cebu, they still brought a lot of rain so we decided to be safe than push through when there's a risk that we might be trapped in a flood. Anyway, if you're interested in that "working a scene" post, please refer to the link below:
I always love popping colors and I think it became the identity of my photos. I will not say it's my style yet because I still exploring other styles and I don't want to settle to anything immediately.
If you have been following my blog for a long time, maybe you noticed that my photos are always saturated. Nothing too fancy like changes in from their natural colors, but I always settle to 15 to 20 saturation range. Someone commented in my earlier posts that some of my photos are overly saturated, but I just love them as is.
In this sort of exercise, I tried to do away with popping colours and I wanted to focus on the highlights and contrasts. I wanted to achieve that dreamy photo with a fine texture which is a far cry from my usual style. I decided to go to this jogging place in our area and waited until the sun had set. I find the first photo interesting because of the dark foreground as opposed to the foggy background. I played around the texture during post-processing to achieve what I wanted, but it turned out different. I loved the outcome though so I kept it that way.
The succeeding photos focused on the transition as the night progressed. I deliberately waited for nighttime in the same area because I also wanted to do a long exposure. As I've said in my previous post, I love taking photos of the same landscape as time goes by to see the transition of colors.
I didn't mess up the white balance this time unlike my previous "working a scene" post, but it can be observed in the two succeeding photos below that the tint changed from blueish undertones to slightly purple. I loved that minute detail. As the foreground became darker and darker, the focus shifted to the buildings in the background. I think it's my first time to bring down the saturation, but I still loved the outcome in terms of color grading.
The first five photos were satisfactory, but I didn't get that dreamy texture that I like. However, the outcome exceeded my expectation because I wanted to try that kind of style. I was inspired by a fellow hiker who took stunning photos with almost the same foggy background style. I finally achieved that kind of photo, but I'm not sure if I can replicate it.
Here comes long exposure photography:
At this point, I think I can say I can't get away with popping colors. While I was experimenting with the photos from long exposure, I can't resist that pastel colors of the sky. It's very different from the first five photos above, but I love colors. It's too deviated from the original plan, but I can't help it so here we are.
As I looked around, I noticed a tree and I find it good for a silhouette. I also loved that smudge effect of the clouds which is the consequence of long exposure. I think I nearing to that dreamy texture in a photo that I like, but I'm not quite there yet.
Bonus:
Since I'm already talking about popping colors and dreamy texture, I'll just add these three photos I took just outside our house. I just find it trippy and the cloud formation at that time was so cool I couldn't resist taking a photo. I also couldn't deny that these three photos also signify transitions.
I guess that's all for this post. I'll be improving my composition next time. I'm still trying to get that right kind of blend. I will definitely share more in the future. If you've reached this far, thank you so much! I hope you liked those photos as much as I enjoy the process of creating them.
See you in my next post!
Kim Ybañez
Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying hard photographer so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.
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