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Sunset
from Mt. Bue (November 22, 2006)
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| Canon EOS 20D, Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM, 1/5 f/22, iso 100, tripod. Mt. Bue, Italy. |
The Upper Nure Valley, in the northern
Appennine, offers many interesting photographic subjects, from macro
to landscapes. Few weeks ago I made a two days trip with a couple of
fiends, with the purpose of photographing the sunset and the sunrise
from Mt. Bue. On wednesday morning, we meet in front of the Hotel Lago
Nero (15 km from Ferriere, on the highway 654) and we begin our
trip in the woods following the trail 005, that leds from the Hotel
to the Lake Nero and then to "Fontana Gelata", a
fresh, potable water source. After a short rest, we take the steep
trail 007, that led us to the top of Mt. Bue (1771 mt.) after less
than one hour of walk. The top of Mt. Bue has a kind of spooky look,
due to the ruins of the chairlift and hotel, that were built in late
sixties and abandoned after few years. This is a great panoramic
place: there is a 360 degrees view on the landscape and in some
limpid days you can even see the Ligurian Sea.
When we arrived on the top, it was
early afternoon, so there wasn't yet the right light for landscape
photography. While we waited for sunset, Luca kindly loanded me his
Canon 5D so I had the possibility of take some shots with my Sigma
12-24 on fullframe, where this lens truly shines (indeed, I've
bought it for fullframe - I plan to get soon a FF camera for
lanscapes). This lens is not as sharp as the best Canon L lenses,
but it is still quite good, and it has an amazing and unparalleled
angle of view on a FF camera! I have to say that after using it on
the 5D, even time that I mount it on my 20D I feel bad ;-)
At 5 p.m., the light begun to improve
and some clouds made the sky even more interesting. I composed
carefully the photo, with the lens towards the sun - I love the
include the sun my landscape photos. I stopped down to f/22, even
though the depth of field would have been enough even at f/11 or
f/8: the small aperture reduces the risk of flare and it tends to
create a "sunburst", in particular with wide-angles.
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| During
the night, we tried to set up a small fire, with
little success. |
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I don't recommend to use always
such small apertures, since there is a slight loss of
sharpness due to diffraction, but in some situations stopping
down to f/22 really helps. Of course, this photo is a blended
exposure - with the camera mounted on the tripod, I toke one
photo exposed for the sky and another one (with identical
composition) for the ground, then I blended the two exposures to
create a single photo with wide dynamic range. This is a
relatively easy technique but many times it is badly executed:
one of the most common errors is to use a small brush to merge
the two exposures, trying to follow the line of horizon; the
result has a very artificial look. To get a good results, you
have to use a large brush - by large I mean from 500 to 1500
or even 2000 pixels - with minimum hardness, to create a
gradual, natural-looking transition between the two exposures.
After sunset, we toke some night photos of Santo Stefano
and the other small villages that can be seen from the top of
Mt. Bue, and then we reached the Rossetti Hut, with a one hour
walk in Moon light. |
The hut is nice structure, entirely
make of wood, that is always open for everyone. There are four
berths, even tough there is room for a dozen of persons, if you
carry the sleeping bag (actually, you have to carry the sleeping bag
even if you sleep on a berth, it is not too clean). The temperature
was pretty cold so we tried to set up a small fire, with little
success...we had only wet wood and the fire didn't last long.
The following morning, we wake up well
before the sunrise, and in less than one hour we come back to the
top of Mt. Bue. The sunrise was not as spectacular as the sunset,
but still a nice view - even though there was a strong wind and the
temperature was so cold that it was difficult to think about
photography...it is impressive how much the wind lowers the
temperature!
At 8 a.m., we begun the trail to come
back to civilization (we choose to follow the same trail of the
previous day, but there are various alternatives). My friends were a
little tired - this is not a difficult trip, but it requires a
little of training, and you have to get used to sleep in the hut -
but in few hours we were back to the cars.
Do you have
comments or questions?
If you have comments or questions about this
article, feel free to ask in the Juza
Nature Photography Discussion Forum!
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