This is a companion post to one of my youtube videos. If you haven’t seen it, It will be embedded at the end of this post. And make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel That Bearded Guy Photography
Finally, I managed to get out of my own county to photograph!
At first, it was just pure joy and inspiration, but I suppose I tried a bit too much to find something to photograph. I felt some pressure to at least capture something beautiful when I finally made time to travel and film it. It was first when I let go of the idea that I would find something special, that I started seeing photographs again. That or it was just the golden hour doing its magic.
Watch the youtube video if you haven’t, it turned out pretty good. Even though I forgot to change the white balance and overexposed some of the video.
I had to ideas for the video, none that was really explained in the video. Colour filters and the camper van.
Campervan
I had this idea that I would stay the first night out in the campervan, and the van did a small appearance in the video. However, I ended up driving home instead. I had scouted this spot where I thought I could park up for the night. When I returned there to park up for the night, there was quite a lot of activity still. It didn’t feel like the best spot to camp. I was uneasy. I did search on my phone for other spots to camp at, and found one! However, it was pitch black when I got there. Out in the middle of the woods, but still close to some agricultural farms. There was this constant buzzing from some machine running. As well as I couldn’t see too much of the surroundings in the dark. It kinda spooked me. I did though get into bed, and I had forgotten my pillow! That was the last drop, I just drove home again. I had travelled outside my county but it was “only” about 1,5 hour’s drive away. The allure of my own bed was to great. I haven’t given up on the campervan though, and I promise it will be seen in my videos in the future.
Colour filters
I did mention I used my colour filters for the first time. Well, I need to practise, and the effect was much more subdued than I expected. When I developed the film I couldn’t notice any differences at all, more than a slight difference in exposure. The green filter does very little in the images, so much so that I can’t tell you which is taken with or without the colour filters. As I didn’t note the specific frame carefully, I think the first image was without filters. But I’m not sure.
I did really like the two images I captured that evening, instead of with or without filters. I ended up paying more attention to the wind blur in the leaves and the slight difference in how the sun hit the subject. Which turned out to be way more important than what colour filter I use. I’m certain that colour filters can be very useful in black-and-white photography, but the effect is subtle and might be the last 2 % in making a photograph great. I will continue practising and hopefully master this one day!
Youtube video
If the embedded video shouldn’t work you can find the video here