Yes, I know, two images in one month is a fairly dire achievement, but our Bulgarian winter experience has turned into more of an exercise in survival than I expected. It's still the adventure I hoped it would be, but we've also had quite a few things to deal with that weren't entirely expected. I've been updating my Facebook profile with the details, but the short version is that I sprained my back, the temperature has dropped as low as -23C, our pipes have frozen (twice), our van has broken down, and one of our electrical sockets caught fire this morning. In short then, most days have been taken up with dealing with the necessities of winter life.
It could have been a lot worse though: our village hasn't been cut-off following a heavy snowfall, the mains water hasn't frozen, our electricity supply has remained constant, we haven't run out of wood, and our roof hasn't collapsed under the weight of the snow - all of which have been known to happen in previous winters. Fingers crossed that a) the rest of the season goes reasonably smoothly, and b) I have a bit more time to document it :)
I have managed to take a few shots though, mostly with my Ricoh GRD III, and really like how this one turned out. It was taken on the way back from Yalovo and you can just see our village in the distance. If you take a look at the electricity pylon you'll see that it has two arms of the right-hand side, one on the left. It's almost impossible to make out at this resolution, but our village is immediately to the right of the lower arm on the left. It's not quite as remote as it looks :)
If you're interested, the original is linked below. As you'll see, the major change (other than the black and white conversion) involved balancing the tonal range of the foreground to the sky, i.e. the latter is now quite a bit darker (and the majority of the highlight detail has been recovered), while the foreground is much brighter.
In other news: if you'd be interested to know what we have planned for our Photoshop tutorials this year, take a look at the page I've linked below. As you'll see, we're introducing a variety of new content and media:
comment byKruno at 10:16 AM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
nice tones and sense of depth
comment byNicki at 10:21 AM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
I was waiting for long ... but this capture compensate my longing for chromasia shots! Really fine ... as always :D.
comment byMirko Herzner at 11:16 AM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
I really like this strong toning here. Makes for a perfect winter solitude.
comment byCarlos Garcia at 02:16 PM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
thanks for posting the original. beautiful winter scene. hopefully the adventure meter has peaked! ;)
comment byShawn Bierman at 03:52 PM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
Love the electrical pylon, it really pulls you into the image. Your post work is great, it really transformed the original.
comment byDan Kaufman at 04:39 PM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
oh pitiful me--I thought a week of rain in Los Angeles was a pain...
Congratulations on post ! Keep up the good work !!
comment byshooter at 05:58 PM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
Aren't ricoh great! recently upgraded to this from my long term gx100 and the improvements in the camera are stunning, the images just pop off the screen, as for this, love the tonal range especially the foreboding sky, pp'in is as always on the money...
comment byJason at 09:05 PM (GMT) on 28 January, 2010
Stunning..! Really beautiful scene and I love the toning! Great to see you back after so long! Pleaae don't leave it so long next time.... :)
comment byPhilip Jensen at 09:04 AM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
I really like this shot, I don't know about the sky though. It's really beautiful, but maybe a bit dark?
Nevermind this is really a good picture.
comment byAnurag at 11:09 AM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
I haven't been following the blog for a while. Just saw this shot and I thought, straight away, that it was the recent snow in Lancashire.....
-23 dear God!
Hope things improve.
Lovely tones btw....well you knew that already.
comment byAndy Smith at 12:03 PM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
Great sky tonality; well done.
Hope your luck improves. Take care.
comment byDave Keating at 05:37 PM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
Nice shot Dave. It looks very cold. The sky is my favorit part of this image, interesting patterns.
Regards,
Dave
comment bydjn1 at 07:06 PM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
Thanks everyone :)
comment bySanti at 07:13 PM (GMT) on 29 January, 2010
Nice shot. I really like the tones in the sky. Great job.
comment bycrash at 04:53 PM (GMT) on 30 January, 2010
wow! fantastic landscape .... B&W is perfect
comment byCeline at 08:28 PM (GMT) on 30 January, 2010
Very beautiful point of view ! I like this image !
comment byJessica at 10:00 PM (GMT) on 30 January, 2010
I like this image, but I don't feel that the composition is as strong as most of your work. That being said, the processing is amazing, and I'd still hang it on my wall. Just after I had a few of your other pictures first. :)
Yes, I know, two images in one month is a fairly dire achievement, but our Bulgarian winter experience has turned into more of an exercise in survival than I expected. It's still the adventure I hoped it would be, but we've also had quite a few things to deal with that weren't entirely expected. I've been updating my Facebook profile with the details, but the short version is that I sprained my back, the temperature has dropped as low as -23C, our pipes have frozen (twice), our van has broken down, and one of our electrical sockets caught fire this morning. In short then, most days have been taken up with dealing with the necessities of winter life.
It could have been a lot worse though: our village hasn't been cut-off following a heavy snowfall, the mains water hasn't frozen, our electricity supply has remained constant, we haven't run out of wood, and our roof hasn't collapsed under the weight of the snow - all of which have been known to happen in previous winters. Fingers crossed that a) the rest of the season goes reasonably smoothly, and b) I have a bit more time to document it :)
I have managed to take a few shots though, mostly with my Ricoh GRD III, and really like how this one turned out. It was taken on the way back from Yalovo and you can just see our village in the distance. If you take a look at the electricity pylon you'll see that it has two arms of the right-hand side, one on the left. It's almost impossible to make out at this resolution, but our village is immediately to the right of the lower arm on the left. It's not quite as remote as it looks :)
If you're interested, the original is linked below. As you'll see, the major change (other than the black and white conversion) involved balancing the tonal range of the foreground to the sky, i.e. the latter is now quite a bit darker (and the majority of the highlight detail has been recovered), while the foreground is much brighter.
.../archives/towards_ganchovets.php
In other news: if you'd be interested to know what we have planned for our Photoshop tutorials this year, take a look at the page I've linked below. As you'll see, we're introducing a variety of new content and media:
http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/coming_soon.php
camera
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
cropped?
Ricoh GR Digital III
f/3.5
1/750
aperture priority
-1/3
evaluative
64
no
RAW
ACR
no
nice tones and sense of depth
I was waiting for long ... but this capture compensate my longing for chromasia shots! Really fine ... as always :D.
I really like this strong toning here. Makes for a perfect winter solitude.
thanks for posting the original. beautiful winter scene. hopefully the adventure meter has peaked! ;)
Love the electrical pylon, it really pulls you into the image. Your post work is great, it really transformed the original.
oh pitiful me--I thought a week of rain in Los Angeles was a pain...
Congratulations on post ! Keep up the good work !!
Aren't ricoh great! recently upgraded to this from my long term gx100 and the improvements in the camera are stunning, the images just pop off the screen, as for this, love the tonal range especially the foreboding sky, pp'in is as always on the money...
Stunning..! Really beautiful scene and I love the toning! Great to see you back after so long! Pleaae don't leave it so long next time.... :)
I really like this shot, I don't know about the sky though. It's really beautiful, but maybe a bit dark?
Nevermind this is really a good picture.
I haven't been following the blog for a while. Just saw this shot and I thought, straight away, that it was the recent snow in Lancashire.....
-23 dear God!
Hope things improve.
Lovely tones btw....well you knew that already.
Great sky tonality; well done.
Hope your luck improves. Take care.
Nice shot Dave. It looks very cold. The sky is my favorit part of this image, interesting patterns.
Regards,
Dave
Thanks everyone :)
Nice shot. I really like the tones in the sky. Great job.
wow! fantastic landscape .... B&W is perfect
Very beautiful point of view ! I like this image !
I like this image, but I don't feel that the composition is as strong as most of your work. That being said, the processing is amazing, and I'd still hang it on my wall. Just after I had a few of your other pictures first. :)