Alone in the filed 2 - story continues

© Photographer: Milenmladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com

This is the rest of the story that sits behind this image. 

It all started when I decided to buy my DSLR back in November 2015. My idea for this purchase was to be able to make better images of my village - Varbovchets. I wanted to make the perfect image that will describe the village. I was seeing the image in my mind as one that includes the century tree that is in the village. I tried many different angles of photographing it, but the nearby house and road limited me. 

One weekend with my mom we were in the village to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. After the party and all the work done we decided to go on a photoshoot and walk.

While walking by the road that leads to the mountain near the village, I’ve spotted this place with a dirt road leading between the fields. Memories came to my mind when I was a little child and we used to go there and crop a small piece of field. I used the plumtree as a landmark to get to the place.

At first I was just looking and slowly unpacking the camera. I mounted it on a tripod and put CPL filter on it. I wanted to try the filter, because the sun was falling from my left and there were some sun flares on the first images. I tried some shots directly at the sun and while my mom was getting impatient with me and my shooting I was trying to make as more images as possible in order to choose at least one perfect image from them. After some time I tried shooting verticals because the road was leading my sight to this plumtree. Then I’ve spotted the magnificent cloud coming from the north. I tried 3 different panorama shots each including 12 vertical shots. My thinking back then was that I will be able to compose an image from those verticals. I’ve never had the chance to actually see that the cloud has become bigger and grayer. I was concentrated in shooting and trying different techniques that I’ve read about. I’ve made some HDR exposures with -3, -2, -1, 0,+1,+2,+3. Then I just left – maybe my biggest mistake, because the sun was setting down fast and the light became more hot and nice for shooting.

Since I came home I didn’t even looked at the images. When I start processing all the images from that weekend I first processed the 12 verticals panorama. I quickly made some adjustments and removed a couple of spots. Then I’ve uploaded it to 500px. After 10-15 minutes I received several e-mails for comments and likes about the image. I was totally surprised that this image was so much liked. I wanted to understand why and probably make a better version of it, not only to upgrade my skills, but to share a nice image that will remind me a lot about a special place near my village. Few weeks ago I’ve asked a guy named – A.D.Wheeler (more about A.D. Wheeler and his work could be found on the link on his name or here on that site: TheExplorographer.com) that I know from Facebook group – JPEG2RAW. I asked him if he could help me make this image better. He is such a nice guy and managed to spare some quality time from his schedule to take a look at it and improve it. I am not sure that anyone could understand why exactly I want to make a perfect image from that shoot, but this place, near my village (that is losing people faster than a woman can spent them in a mall), means a lot to me. I wanted to show everyone that there are nice places to photograph, to live and to relax.

The image you see above is made from 5 or 6 vertical shots, stitched together with Photoshop and processed only with Photoshop using levels adjustment layers and camera raw. I’ve removed some spots and the advice of A.D.Wheeler was to remove some distractions near the tree, also to straighten the road that leads to it. What I haven’t noticed and A.D. did was a small piece of grass on the left that was distracting the viewer. I removed it as advised and this is the finished image.

Don’t get me wrong – this image could be found on my 500px account and on my Dreamstime account too. I am not after money, although I really need ones if I want to continue making photographs and evolve as hobby photographer. What I do this for is to populate my village – Varbovchets. If I just upload the image to google maps or something similar they will get stolen. On sites as 500px and Dreamstime - everyone that wants to use it will have to pay for it.

I am not sure how this blog will continue – as small stories or just photo share, but it will be in English, so that more people could see it and understand it. I’ve started the blog in order to have a place where I can show my images freely – without any judges and rules. So if you liked the images or the story please come back later to see the new ones too.