Dear Your first name / Il tuo nome,
Welcome to my January Newsletter. First of all, I hope that you had a great start of the New Year and that you are ready to make 2014 the best year yet!
THE WONDERS OF THE TINY ISLAND OF EIGG
Eigg is a very small island out of the Scottish Inner Hebrides, on Scotland's west coast; its population amounts to a whopping 83 people in winter, and slightly more in summer when a few tourists add to the locals. Cars are not allowed on the island (except for the residents', of course) not to clog the single road connecting the settlement of Galmisdale in the south, where the ferry moors, to the main village of Cleadale in the north. There is one small market and a pub in Galmisdale, while accommodation is provided by a few B&Bs in Cleadale which, if so you wish, will provide you with delicious home-cooked evening meals as well. Walking on Eigg's coasts and bays and exploring its wild beauty is a truly unique experience, and I feel really privileged to have had the chance to visit and photograph it. I can't wait to go back, and I hope this will happen sooner than later. In the meantime, this month I published for you "
EIGG'S IMPRESSIONS", the fourth of my
Scotland Portfolios: 16 new artworks available for purchase in Limited Edition of 6, 12 or 24 copies per size
starting from just $195 US, numbered, titled, dated and signed personally one by one by hand on the print itself. I sincerely wish that you will have the chance to experience Eigg, its beauty and its lifestyle someday.
Impression Nr. 2, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
Impression Nr. 11, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
Impression Nr. 6, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
Impression Nr. 14, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
Have a look at my
"EIGG'S IMPRESSIONS" Portfolio to see all the artworks featuring images out of this small, wonderful island, and indulge yourself with a beautiful Fine Art print, whether in Limited Edition (starting from $195 US) or in Open Edition (starting from just $45 US)!
TIPS: SHOOTING WATER TO EFFECT, PART II
Last month, we talked about how we can shoot water expressing very different emotions according to the way we treat the movement of the water itself, and specifically how to express a sense of calm and tranquillity using a long exposure to make the water looking placid and silky-smooth. This month, on the other hand, we'll see how we can give the water a feeling of movement and how to shoot it in a more dynamic and energetic way: let's take two images from my new
"EIGG'S IMPRESSIONS" Portfolio as an example:
Impression Nr. 13, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
Impression Nr. 12, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
As you can see, while both images' composition is nearly exactly the same, their effect is very much different. The first image gives an impression of movement, while keeping the mood quiet and relaxed; in the second image, on the other hand, the energy is much higher. To obtain these different effects, I used a different shutter speed while keeping aperture the same: 4 seconds for the first, quieter
image and
1.6 seconds for the more energetic second one. To obtain a sharp picture at these shutter speeds, you need to use a sturdy tripod-head combination to support your camera; if your camera offers such options, raising its mirror and using a remote trigger will further help you to keep it stable. As we have seen last month, to eliminate reflections in the water and intensify colours you'll need a polariser filter, which together with a ND filter will help you to slow down your shutter speed as well; I also suggest that you use a graduated ND filter to balance the exposure between the sky and the water. Once you set your camera and filters up, just start experimenting with different shutter speeds until you find the one that give you the effect you are looking for. Enjoy!
See you next month for more tips!
NEW POSTERS ADDED!
This month, I added 20 more images to the "
POSTERS" gallery for you to enjoy! Offering image quality, longevity and color persistency not seen on any other poster on the market, my "
POSTERS" are printed on Hahnemuhle Fine Art papers and are available in two different formats (Small and Medium), ready to be framed and hanged on your walls. Posters are for sale starting from just $30 US. Here are a couple of the new Posters I just added:
Mesquite Dunes, III (Death Valley, 2013)
Impression Nr. 27, Arran (Scotland, 2013)
Ponte Dei Sospiri (Italy, 2012)
Check them all out in the "
POSTERS" gallery!
JANUARY'S PRINT OF THE MONTH
January's
PRINT OF THE MONTH is "
IMPRESSION NR. 1, EIGG", out of my new
"EIGG'S IMPRESSIONS" Portfolio. Newsletter's subscribers can get this special Limited Edition artwork at an amazing
15% OFF my regular list price: get one while you can, because once they are gone, they are gone forever! Use
NPM@VBFAP$J14
code at checkout to take advantage of your subscriber's discount.
Impression Nr. 1, Eigg (Scotland, 2013)
SHOOTING THE PRINT OF THE MONTH
Shooting in Eigg is beautiful, and it can be accomplished easily enough with some care.
First up, as always, is your clothing and shoe wear: even if you are going there in summer, after sunset or before dawn the temperature can seriously drop and you need to dress accordingly. Since the temperature on a calm, summer day can be quite hot, as always I suggest you dress in layers to be ready for the chilly, windy evenings without boiling up during the day. As far as your shoe ware goes, keep in mind that you'll be walking on sand which can be very annoying if it get in your shoes, but that you'll have to walk on wetlands as well: sturdy, water-proof boots are a must. Last but not least, the beaches at sunset are the home of various bugs which you want to keep as far from your skin as possible, not to mention the Midges which plagues most of Scotland in summer and can make you want to run for cover rather than enjoy the beauty of the landscapes.
Now to the shoot itself. Here
I choose to use a wide angle lens to get the composition I had in mind, with the sea's diagonal leading lines balanced by the rock formation on the right side and the island of Rhum in the background; as well, I wanted to keep some texture in the water, so that the lines created by the waves would mirror the lines in the sand. I
shot "IMPRESSION NR. 1, EIGG" using a 21mm lens, exposing my sensor for 1.3 seconds; I choose an aperture of f/8 and calculated my focus point to keep everything in the frame sharp. Setting up a tripod for shooting in the sand is not easy; even if it looks like a solid, still platform, sand moves quite a bit, especially if you are close to the water, and you can definitely see the effect of such movements in your images if you don't stabilise your tripod well.
Last, I'd definitely recommend to clean your equipment thoroughly once you get back home: sand and salty water / mist will stick to your tripod's leg for sure, but that you'll be able to see; what you'll not be able to see is the veil of salt on your camera and lenses. Bad news is, it's there anyway, and you'd be wise to clean all your equipment to get rid of it before it eats through your equipment's electronics.
OK, this is about it for this month's shooting! If you have any further question, please do not hesitate to contact me.
NEW WEBSITE LOOK
How to best present images and texts on the internet is a matter of constant discussion: a website or a Blog, for me, are vehicles for my artworks
to shine and for my ideas and to be shared. As such, they must
serve a purpose, not
be their own purpose: starting from January 1, 2014 I decided to change my website and my Blog to a lighter color scheme and to a design that will accent the images
better and make the texts easier to read.
VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY's new design is now online, while the Blog will follow soon: I hope you enjoy it better than the old, darker color scheme. Please feel free to comment on the new site's appearance and let me know what you think of it. Thanks!
NEW ARTICLES ON THE BLOG
In December, I published two new articles on the Blog:
-
THE LEICA M MONOCHROM: IS IT (RANGEFINDER) LOVE AGAIN?
After using Leica cameras
for many years, both film and digital, a couple of years ago I got fed up with the M9's quirkiness and unreliability and decided to sell the darn thing. Time passed, life went on and I started missing shooting with a real rangefinder camera: since I shooted
mostly Black & White images with my rangefinders, whether film or digital, I decided to skip the new Leica M and give the B&W-only Leica Monochrom a try instead.
READ HERE to find out if it was love all over again!
Shoot with the Leica M Monochrom, Milan 2013
-
ZEISS 18MM F/3.5 ZF.2 ON THE D800E: THE PERFECT SUPER-WIDE?
As a Landscape / Fine Art photographer, I am always trying to use the best equipment I can get, in order for my work to be of the highest possible technical quality: this means first and foremost cameras and lenses. While nowadays there are great lenses out there covering most focal lengths, really amazing wide angle lenses are still scarce. Sadly, these are among the most useful lenses for my work: so, I was eager to try the Zeiss 18mm f/3.5 and see if that could be, in fact, the wide-angle lens I was looking for. Read
THIS ARTICLE to find my answer!
The Zeiss 18mm f/3.5 Distagon on the Nikon D800E
SPECIAL NEW YEAR OFFER!
To celebrate the New Year, I am happy to offer you a whopping
25% OFF your shopping at
VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY! Add at least TWO Limited Edition artworks to your shopping cart and use the coupons below at checkout to redeem:
NYS@VBFAP#J14_2
(Offer EXTENDED until FEBRUARY 15, 2014 for purchases including AT LEAST 2 Limited Edition artworks. No limitations on repeated use.)
OK, this is about it for today, thank you very much for reading this far! Until next month,
Vieri
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