Tag: landscape

Do you recognize this image?

by gg November 15, 2022 Comments0
https://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/2014/04/HD_2D00_Windows_2D00_XP_2D00_Bliss_2D00_Wallpaper_2D00_Backgrounds.jpg

We are sure that almost everyone is familiar with this. Exactly! This image depicts the famous default wallpaper hill of Microsoft’s Windows XP™ operating system.

A ‘digital window’ overlooking a green hill and blue sky in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of the California Wine Country. This photo, named Bliss, consistently makes a Windows XP™ PC recognisable.

However, if you think Microsoft© created it in one of its design studios, you are wrong. The Bliss is a completely original photo with slight editing.

Charles O’Rear, former National Geographic photographer, took the photo in January 1996 and Microsoft© bought the rights to it in 2000. O’Rear used a 1980 Mamiya RZ67 SLR camera and Fujifilm Velvia film to take the image, a film often used among nature photographers and known to saturate some colours.

Filed under Be Inspired blog photographs

Leading By The Hand – How to shoot landscapes without a tripod

by Fujifilm EMEA September 3, 2018 Comments3

By Mark Gilligan

You are out on a day walk with friends and suddenly the view that opens up before you all is fabulous. You really want to photograph it. After all, photography is your hobby and you never turn a good opportunity down. It makes your walks all that more interesting and memorable.

Whilst you enjoy taking pictures of the places you have visited, you are now getting more serious about photography. However, no matter how appreciative your friends are of the landscape, they don’t seem to match your enthusiasm when it comes to photography. Whilst they are content to snap away with their cameras or phones, they bemoan you for ‘holding’ them up as you go to get your tripod out. Of course you will enter into a bit of banter but they will probably just leave you to it and walk ahead.
Sound familiar?

The obvious solution is to have ‘me’ time and go out alone so you can shoot at your pace but before you decide to go solo, there is an answer to your predicament. Shoot hand held. Read More

Filed under Landscape / Cityscape / Seascape X-Photographer

True Blue: Shooting landscapes in the twilight with the GFX 50S

by Fujifilm EMEA August 7, 2018 Comments0

By Mark Bauer

All photographers are familiar with the famed ‘golden hours’ around sunrise and sunset and it’s probably fair to say that the majority of landscape images are shot in these periods. The low, warm light is extremely flattering to the landscape, so it’s easy to understand why. However, it would be a mistake to restrict your landscape photography to these times, as you would then miss the magic of the ‘blue hour’.

The blue hour is the period of twilight each morning and evening when the residual sunlight takes on a predominantly blue hue. During this time, the sun is below the horizon, but it illuminates the upper layers of the atmosphere – the longer, red wavelengths pass straight out into space, while the shorter, blue wavelengths are scattered in the atmosphere. his results in images with a blue colour cast and saturated colour. The cool, blue tones in this period can create an atmosphere of mystery and romance – so if you like your landscapes moody, this is the time to shoot. Read More

Filed under Landscape / Cityscape / Seascape photographs Tutorials

A Quest to Capture the Golden Hour: Wild Camping in the Lake District

by Fujifilm EMEA July 2, 2018 Comments3

By Mark Gilligan

Ah, the simple pleasures of life. They invigorate the soul! Changes and new experiences are great but it’s nice to do what you enjoy. It gives us you a lift. Genesis, my favourite band of all time, summed it up nicely when Peter Gabriel lent his unmistakable voice to, “I know what I like” and I am, sure many of you reading this will feel the same.

We are all ‘routined’ to a point and I suppose I fall into that bracket. Whilst I may be laid back I am never complacent. I regularly slip out of the ‘comfort zone’ and push myself, but if there is one thing I do not like to disrupt, it is enjoying a good night’s kip! A comfy bed with clean sheets, bit of a read, lights out and I am off.

I awake, have an invigorating hot shower, get dressed and breakfast. Then it is time to attack the day. I definitely know what I like and I approach my photography in exactly the same way. I love the mountains and great views. I will never tire of them but it would be easy to keep going along to regular haunts never being bored with them and marveling at what they give me. That won’t change. After 40 odd years of shooting professionally, I am still learning my craft and I enjoy exploring new ways to enrich my skillset. It was on one of my, “what can I do now?” days that I thought about wild camping. Read More

Filed under Be Inspired Landscape / Cityscape / Seascape X-Photographer