This is the time of the year when I take a break from my daily job and head somewhere cold to do a bit of landscape shooting. The situation forced me to revise my original plans - instead, I decided to take the trip back to Iceland lying deep inside my hard disk. As I went through my long forgotten files, I recalled this absolutely amazing morning I had at Vestrahorn (Stokksnes).
Read more6 Days of Iceland
Iceland left me spellbound when I first visited in 2009. I have been coming every year since, up until 2013. Don’t get me wrong here, my passion for the simple, moon-like design of its landscape has not faded at all. To me, it is somewhat less of a traditional landscape and more of a workspace that can be perfectly decomposed into shapes, structures, lines, patterns and tones. The reason I stopped returning was the enormous hype for photographing the country and its famous spots, apparently fuelled by spectacular images on every social media around. See the stats - in 2009, only 493,000 tourists visited the country. The number grew to almost 800,000 in 2013 and it has banged to over 2 million in 2017.
Read moreThe Place To Be
I wrote before a bit about my new toy that I took with me to Baikal this year - DJI Mavic Pro. I'm still flattered by the new possibilities it adds to my landscape photography practice. My photographic sessions became longer as I used the drone at all times when I finished shooting or when the light was too flat. What's the most amazing about it all is that you don't really need too much to start producing an interesting footage and imagery from the air.
Read moreBaikal Again. And Again.
Today was certainly the coldest day I have ever experienced. My phone showed minus 29 when I was leaving the hotel at about 5am. And it did not get any warmer later. All my outdoor and photography equipment went through the ultimate test. And I’m happy to report that except for iPhone X losing the image transition signal when flying the drone, everything else including Phase One (that I was afraid it might have been built mainly for a studio shooting) worked flawlessly and reliably - it definitely exceeded my own operational longevity at such weather.
Read moreNever Assume
Have you ever been frustrated and disappointed on your vacation? This is how I felt for a few days when we arrived to Olkhon this Saturday. The structures of the frozen lake are now covered by snow and there has been very little clouds until now. The warm and windless weather (around zero degrees at noon) transformed a wild and rough beast into a calm and gentle princess, ideal destination for traveling parents with their toddlers.
Read moreBaikal Calling
This place is so different from all I have experienced so far that it deserves every kind of engagement and one is actually unable to avoid it unless he / she lives there. I just feel I owe Baikal more than what I have done last year. Hence, I'm going there on March 11 for a week.
In case of interest, I would be very happy if any of you joined me. Seriously - I can help with the logistics and everything else. Just write me an email right now.
Read moreThe Kit Is Complete
It did not come easy, but I left film behind lately and switched to digital. Despite of what I wrote about the comparison of the two before. Or perhaps because of it - the CMOS Phase One chip of my IQ150 has somehow become more vibrant and of a character than extremely neutralised CCD of previous models.
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