have I ever mentioned that spring and summer are
not my favorite seasons of the year for photography?
it's not just the sunny weather, the harsh light
but also all the allergies that I get in late spring
but recently, two miracles happened
one of them is that I started taking these pills
and they've been very, very good
I still have a bit of allergies when I go out and take photos
but much less than before
and the other one is that it was foggy again
I had a foggy day
it was beautiful and I made quite a few images
I'm gonna talk about them, about how I made them, how I edited them
I have plenty of footage from the field as well
so let's do this
but first, I'd like to thank Steve Bennett
a fellow photographer from the UK who has been an incredible supporter of my work
and a great help for this YouTube channel and everything I do over on my patreon
there are 50 of you and I really, really appreciate it
Steve is also a great photographer and he has amazing work on his website and Instagram account
so please go check him out following the links in the description down below
thank you Steve, and thank you to all my patrons
not only the fog is not as dense in the summer or late spring
as it is in the winter
but it doesn't last as long
so that's why I decided to get in the car, and try to go to higher altitudes to get more of that fog
by the way, I recorded this with the 360 camera
and this is the other side of what the camera was seeing
I think that's hilarious
anyway, on my way to the "mountains" I found... I saw a potential photo
so I had to stop
I'm gonna be telling you also about the lens that I use
because some of you have asked about that
in this case, I'm mounting the zoom lens,
the Tamron 28-200mm because I didn't need a faster aperture
and the flexibility of a zoom lens when you park on the side of the road
well, it's pretty great
also as you can see in this photoshoot I used the monitor on top of the camera
I was recording the screen of the camera
so you'll be able to see what I was seeing when I was composing the images
by the way, you see those sheep over there? and the solar panels?
you might recognize this spot because I have made a few images from here in the past
I think I included at least one of them if not more in my book ONE
I don't think there are any from this spot in my latest book "Memorias na néboa"
by the way, both of them are available on my website
the link is gonna be in description down below
of course, I took a photo of that sheep
anyway, what I saw here was the mountains in the background
there were two ridges there that looked beautiful
I was looking for something to contrast that against
because I thought that the two mountains would be a little bit boring just by themselves
I thought that that fence with that house
well, there was more stuff there
but my idea was to use that fence and the house to create something interesting
I tried placing the fence in many different positions in the foreground
I tried from multiple angles
but the one I liked the most was one without the fence
the foreground was just the field
it was an empty foreground, slightly out of focus on the very bottom
and getting gradually more and more in focus
I like to do that quite a bit in my compositions
and the house on the top right, the ridges on the top left
the editing was pretty simple
I'm gonna show you what I did
I used a linear gradient here, on the top of the frame
let me show you the effect that it has
I used a little bit of dehazing and decreased exposure a little bit
to show more of those ridges there, that were kind of hidden by the fog
well, I used another two on the bottom
to gradually lead the viewer to the main part of the frame
that is the house and the mountains in the background
and you'll see another mask here, the last one
that I used to darken the house just a little bit
to make it stand out more from the the rest of the frame
similarly, what I did is I used the black and white mixer for the colors
I increased the luminance of the yellow tones quite a bit
and the green tones as well
to make that grass a little bit brighter
I love that I'm able to do this with my black and white photos
because the raw file still has the color information
I'll show you the original one, it's this one
so I'm able to do this
this is probably one of the reasons why I'd have a hard time switching to a monochrome camera
because you lose this
I mean, you can always use filters in the field
but this way is much easier and much more convenient
because you can adjust it to how much need
the effect of filters is baked in the file and you cannot change that
I kept trying, but as you can see the conditions changed
the two ridges in the background were no longer visible
that fog was coming down a little bit
this is what I love the most about foggy days
how quickly things change
how different a scene can become within just a few minutes
and of course, how different the same spot, the same place, can look from one day to another
so even though I've been to this spot and many others multiple times
I always enjoy going back because you never know what you're going to find
okay, let's go back to the car
we don't have a lot of time, so let's engage turbo mode
as I said earlier, I wanted to gain altitude, to get into that fog
there are a couple of hills around town that usually do that
as you can see, the fog was more dense up there
the only problem is that there is not much stuff up there
there's a facility with some antennas for the radio and TV
and there is a helicopter base as well
but I was also hoping to photograph some nature
I thought it'd be worth the try
as you can see, I switched to the Sigma 20mm
because I wanted to capture this scene right here that you can see there
the windy road with that group of trees
this is an image I've made before
it's made it to some of my books
I really like the composition itself so I always try it again when I go there
because you just never know, as I said earlier
when you are going to run into better conditions that would make for a better image
I tried a couple of different angles, and this is the one that I liked the most of the bunch
it was also a slightly different angle from the images I had made there before
look at this one, this one was my favorite
it still is my favorite
it's from June 2020
as I said, there is not much up there
I still liked the way this path was looking, with the fog in the background
still with the 20 millimeters and shooting at 1.4
I tried a couple of different compositions
one with the trees on the right side
and one without the trees
but neither really worked for me
then, I found some puddles
I love the puddles because you can get very creative results and they are fun to play with
I'm actually thinking about buying a little mirror, an unbreakable one ideally
that I could bring with me everywhere
maybe having the car or my backpack so I can place it on the ground
and play with reflections in places where I'd never
or I would rarely get reflections
just an idea
just like I did here with the puddle
they let me play with the reflection of the trees
I was there for quite a bit trying to find the right puddle
the right angle, the right height
because when you have something so close to you
like the puddles, the reflections on the water
even the tiniest adjustment on the camera can make a huge difference
see how different these images are
and that's why you have to work the scene until you find something that works for you
by the way, just a little tip
if you have problems with autofocus... focusing on the reflections of a puddle
you can always focus on the object itself that is being reflected
and then pointing down to the puddles... that should do the trick
all right, so this power line was the first glimpse I got of the facility on top of the hill
I welcomed the power line because it gave me something interesting to photograph
I tried from both sides
for whatever reason, I prefer the image where the cable goes from left to right
I think it has something to do with the way the antennas are in the background, not sure
but before getting to the facility,
to those structures, I wanted to make some images of the forest
so I took out my long lens, the Rokinon 85mm 1.4
woodlands are usually pretty chaotic
I mean, every once in a while you'll find the perfect scene
like a photographer put it there for you to photograph
but I find that in general, they're pretty chaotic
so longer lenses can help you a lot by isolating just a few trees
or one tree if you use a very shallow depth of field
from the chaos of the rest of the forest
that's what I was trying to do here
I played with some weeds, placing some weeds between the trees and myself
because shooting at 1.4, they'd be totally out of focus
they'd create this almost dreamy look
plus they can hide some of the complexity of the very near foreground
and finally, I found this rock here that I thought looked pretty interesting
I shot it at 20mm, wide open at 1.4
to make the rock very sharp while the background is slightly out of focus
I took this even farther in post
as you'll be able to see here
there you go
as you can see, the rock...
the idea here was to use masks to make the rock even more clear, more contrasty
in comparison to the rest of the frame
and I think I achieved that
what I did is a couple linear gradients on this side, to make it darker
it was too bright there
and then a mask just on the rock to increase the contrast
I increased the clarity quite a bit
I inverted that mask once I selected the rock
to add a little bit of haze on the rest of the image
as you can see here, I decreased the clarity and I added a little bit of haze
the result of that mask as you can see there
it creates almost like a fake fog effect
don't overdo it because it looks horrible
but just a little bit like I did here looks just fine
I think it really helps bringing out the subject and in this case that is the rock
all right, you know I'm a sucker for signs
especially the blank ones, with no letters, no symbols, no nothing
because you can use your imagination to guess what it used to say
if anything, of course
I started here with the long lens, with the 85mm 1.4
and then switched to the wide angle, the 20mm
the images look very, very different with those two lenses
they are very different focal lengths
as you can see a, longer focal length makes the background more important
almost on par with the subject because it looks bigger
look at the the tree there in the background
it's just a hint that is there because of the shallow depth of field and the fog
but still very much there
while the wide angle makes the subject the main point of the frame
it shows more of the background, which can give a lot of context
but it's pretty clear which one is the main character
and what the supporting cast is
I finally got to the facility on top of the mountain
the first and pretty much only composition that I made there
was one that I had made before, as well
this image back from 2020
I wanted to give it another try
even though the 20mm proved to be not wide enough
the original was made at 18mm
but even worse, the scene had changed quite a bit since I first made that image
they moved the power line!
I was surprised to see this, the difference in the two photos
in the original, it's behind the structure
I think this is a pretty good example of why we can't wait
to photograph something that we want to photograph
because we never know when things are going to change for the worse
and similarly, this is a very good example of why we have to keep trying
because we never know when things are going to change for the better
all of a sudden, a composition that didn't used to work, now it does
okay, so this is the helicopter pad and the control tower
I was going to photograph that tower
but I saw that little shed, building, whatever it was
it caught my eye
for this one, I switched the Tamron 28-200mm again
I didn't need a shallow depth to field or anything like that
in fact, I wanted to show some of that fence
to give the impression that the building is behind that fence
that is a a place that you don't have access to
a place where you are not supposed to be, if you will
and then, yes, I did photograph the control tower over there
with that, I was done in that mountain
so I got back in the car and drove to a random location
I just started driving around
I saw first a bus stop
I need to talk about bus stops at some point
because that is another ongoing project that I have
there are a lot of bus stops here in Galicia
I guess in the whole of Spain
but this is where where I live, it's where I see them
on every trip I go around here, I always take photos of them
some of them are pretty cool, and they are in beautiful spots
like this one that you can see here
this was in the mountains, in the Courel mountains
that was the moment that kind of kick-started this project
still ongoing, as I said
I don't know if it's gonna have a finish line or anything
but since then, I tried to photograph all the bus stops that I find that are interesting, of course
but I was so glad that I stopped here
because on my way back to the car, I saw a very cool tree
I needed to switch lenses
the other ones were made with the 35mm 1.4 by the way
so I switched to the 28-200 again
and I photographed this beautiful tree
that looked amazing in the fog, and I think this one was the best image of the day
more driving, randomly
trying to find anything that would work in that fog
that was clearing up a little bit, by the way
I stopped here because I saw a field with cows
I thought it could be interesting, and it was actually very interesting
they were very interested in me
they stared at for quite a while and then they started walking towards me
I guess they thought I had something for them, I don't know
but it was fun to photograph them
there was even a couple of cows that were licking each other
that was cute
and that's all the footage I have
I made a few more images after that
but they are not even worth showing because they don't work at all
all in all. a very fun morning
I was so happy to see some fog again
because it really, really makes for great photography
this was a few days ago and I actually just came back from another outing
another photo shoot out in the fog
and actually today was even denser, was even heavier than what you just saw
so I'm very, very happy to have those conditions again
even if it's just for a limited time
I'm very glad that I don't have to suffer my allergies
but that's all for today
thank you so much for watching
and see you in the next one!