Good long vacation back home- doing nothing more but the good stuff: eat, sleep, take pictures. And enjoy the best peace and quiet nature can offer!
More wilderness pictures and technical details on the above image after the jump!
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The first attempt I had at this shot was in complete darkness, so I tried using a flash light to light-paint the house making it at least a bit visible. Made probably dozen of those pictures never liked one of them... So just left the idea until this beautiful moonlit night came. -20C outside with moonlight really does have it's own charm! And I did not need any more fill light- I had a perfectly good moon hanging exactly where I wanted it. Remembered what Joe McNally said in his book about the dark windows, but could not turn the lights on as long exposure time would have burned the windows, so I used natural candles. Works really well. 30 second exposure added the fairytale look to the image. It is a perfect place to grow up I tell you!
My Nikon seems to take the cold quite fine. I have two batteries for these extreme cold days. One is always in the pocket close to the skin. The first one freezes in 20-30 minutes. I guess it takes longer first time as the camera is still warm too. Afterwards I have to switch batteries every 10-15 minutes... Well, depends on how cold it is.
Enough babbling, forest is pretty back home:
All good things are over some time. Vacation too. Going back West! Harbour in Riga was different this time- all frozen as the rest of Baltic countries. Still looking good though!
Welcome back to life in 2009! ;)