Lake Ladoga
Northern Russia 2009
The days were cold and often misty. The cloud filled sky reflected the blue water of the glassy lake. Everywhere I looked it was the color blue. We were in a cocoon of blue. Light shimmered in a silver circle on the horizon. It was as if I had gone to a different planet.
When shooting a landscape or seascape, the horizon line is key. Try never to have it in the middle. If your sky has fabulous clouds like these, then make the sky the dominant feature and lower your horizon to somewhere in the bottom third. If your foreground is the interesting part, then put the horizon line above the midpoint. Don’t get extreme and have just a sliver above or below your horizon. That idea might work, but most likely it won’t.
I know this rule yet sometimes I don’t follow it because I get excited, fearing I will miss the shot, or because the foreground offers nothing an neither does the sky. ( I’m making excuses for myself here.) In case I do put the horizon at the midpoint, I crop my image to give it a panoramic look and to lower or raise my horizon line. I still feel guilty about my mistake, though.
I was recently told to shoot water shots when the water is smooth…as smooth as glass. For that you must be up at dawn on a windless day. Here on Lake Ladoga, the water was smooth most days and some days it was as smooth as glass. I don’t mind the texture in the water here. It doesn’t distract my eye because I have my silver circle and it is smooth.
I added the tint of magenta in the left corner by using Exposure 5 (made by Alien Skin). They’ve just upgraded that software and I downloaded a trial. Try it. You might like it. That’s where I got the deckeled yellow edge, it’s retro, my favorite.