The wider view - Panoramas

Caha Mountains, Cork/Kerry border (Canon 1Ds Mark 3)

Back in the good old days when I was shooting slide film I owned a Hasselblad xpan, a beautiful camera that was able to produce panorama 24x65mm images and 24x35mm images on the same roll of film. Panorama photography ruled my world for a while.

Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary (Canon 1Ds Mark 2)

When I switched to digital my panorama days were over. With resolutions of 6MP or 8MP crops were impossible. And as I am mainly working with long exposure times or under weather conditions with fast moving clouds and ever changing light stitching wasn't an option either.

Howth Harbour, County Dublin (Canon 1Ds Mark 3)

Enter the Canon 1Ds Mark 2 and even better the 1Ds Mark 3. With resolutions of 16MP and 22MP panorama crops still have a satisfying quality even for bigger prints.

To keep the dimensions of my panoramas constant I put grid focusing screens in my cameras. When using the top and bottom line of the grid as image borders I get an aspect ratio of about 2.4:1 which is a bit wider than the Hasselblad xpan. The image is then cropped in Lightroom where the aspect ratio can be saved as a custom function. This is almost as easy and quick as working with a real panorama camera.

Bantry Bay, County Cork (Canon 1Ds Mark 3)

So I am happily back in the panorama business. Sometimes it just has to be the wider view.

C.

Images are Copyright by Carsten Krieger - all rights reserved

Donegal, RTE and a new book project...

The past few weeks have been very busy so I get to the news straight away. I have been working on my third book for a while now but deals with publishers take time. Now it's official. The working title of the book is "The Landscape of Ireland" and if everything goes to plan it will be out in spring 2010. The challenge for me is to show all the famous Irish places like the Cliffs of Moher, the Rock of Cashel or the Giant's Causeway in a new and never before seen way. Below is one of the most recent images made for this project. It's my attempt on Slieve League, County Donegal. After waiting for 2 days the clouds lifted only for a bit more than 30 minutes and I was presented with perfect conditions. A photographer from the UK whom I had met earlier that day in Killybegs and who was working on a book himself, missed this amazing moment for only 5 minutes. Sometimes our job can be very cruel.

This Tuesday I had some unlikely guests. A camera team from RTE (National Irish Television) was filming a feature for the Nationwide series with me. It was interesting being in front of a camera for once, however I have to admit that I feel much more comfortable behind the lens. A big thank's to Diarmuid and Enda for making me feel not too awkward. I almost enjoyed myself and I can only hope I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

My recent trips brought me, as already mentioned, to Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo (the image above shows Killybegs harbour at dusk) which I enjoyed very much. The north-west is simply one of the most breathtaking parts of the country.
I also payed a brief visit to Howth in County Dublin. It's a beautiful little fishing village north of Dublin city with an even more beautiful coastline. If it wasn't for the journey along the M50 I would go back immediately...
Closer to home I managed to pay a visit to Lough Derg and the Burren. The latter has been long overdue.
I will post some images from these trips over the following days.

Next week will see me around Kerry, followed by trips to Wicklow and Meath and another week in Northern Ireland in November. I try not to think about my carbon footprint too much...

See you around,

C.

Images are Copyright by Carsten Krieger - all rights reserved

Irish Summer

The month of August was not a good one for landscape photographers in Ireland. In fact the summer of 2008 was one of the wettest on record in Ireland and the UK.
And so was my trip to West Cork. The week brought a mixture of rain, drizzle and mist, followed by some heavy downpours. After that we had some more rain, drizzle and mist.
After my third morning waiting for some light but getting soaked instead I decided that it would be a good idea to get another day job. Anything indoors would be nice. Plan B would be to get a hot shower, some breakfast and change my approach to landscape photography for the week.
So I kissed the grand landscapes goodbye and concentrated on other things. Who needs light anyway...

I spent the rest of the week in forests, on beaches and around old fishing boats. The results were not always what I had wanted from this trip or what I needed for the book commission I am working on but it was enjoyable and challenging. My favorite image from these days is the one of Canrooska River near Glengarriff (above). What looks like a pretty straightforward image took me more than 4 hours to make. Working in forests is always a bit tricky and my main problem here was finding a balance between the riverbank, the river and the forest on the other side. After working and trying to make an image in landscape format for 2 hours I gave in and tried working in portrait format. Turned out it I should have done this from the start. I spent 2 more hours fine tuning the composition which included relocating some rhododendron from the foreground. Drastic times require drastic measures.


By the end of the week the weather cleared a bit and I finally was able to make some of the images I had come for. The Caha Mountains under a dramatic layer of cloud with some heavenly shafts of light, a bog lake on Beara, the last light of the day on Healy Pass...


Being a landscape photographer in Ireland can be amazing. It's all about patience and being at the right place at the right time.


C.

Images are Copyright by Carsten Krieger - all rights reserved

Welcome...

Welcome to The Captured Light blog. If you are interested in what is happening at Carsten Krieger Photography this is the place to be.

This year has been one of the most exiting so far. The work on my 2nd book is done and apart from my role as photographer and writer I also took on the challenge to create the layout for the book. The outcome of this endeavor will be in the shops in spring 2009 under the title "The West of Ireland".

While putting the finishing touches to "The West of Ireland" I was already assigned to a new project which content will be kept under wraps for the moment. All I can say that the next year will see me travelling up and down the country a lot.


A few weeks ago I finally made my first acquaintance to Northern Ireland, the Antrim coast to be precise. It was a real eye opener for me. White Park Bay, Fair Head, Giant's Causeway and the Glens are a landscape photographer's dream. The weather wasn't the best but the unique landscape made up for it and during the few bright spells I even managed some decent images. And as you can see above you can have the Giant's Causeway all for yourself even in August if you get up at 4am. Needless to say that the next trip up North is already planned.
Also during that trip I had the chance to work with the EOS 1Ds MKIII for the first time. Apart from the fact that the sensor of my camera was smeared with some oily substance and literally covered in dust the MKIII is the best camera I've ever worked with. But more on that at a later stage.

Next week will see me heading down to Cork and I can only hope the weather will shape up. Talk to you when I'm back.

C.

Images are Copyright by Carsten Krieger - all rights reserved