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Subcribe to comment rss feedArtem Sapegin chooses one of his favourite images
Artem Sapegin
An amateur photographer living in Berlin, Germany. He shoots nature, cities, and random dogs. He likes to go to a forest to sit on a fallen tree, drink coffee and make a picture or two. He also likes to walk in the city, make photos of streets, people and stuffses, and drink some more coffee. He prefers quiet colors and subtle editing. However, he doesn’t try to portray the world as it is and more interested in representing it as he sees and feels it — full of beauty, magic, and unicorns.
Simon Baxter is one of my favorite contemporary landscape photographers and photography YouTubers. I love watching his (very rare!) videos — especially the ones featuring his labradoodle, Meg — while enjoying my morning cup of coffee in my favorite corner of the sofa, and (depending on the season) wrapped in a warm wool blanket.
His woodland photos (and he mostly shoots woodlands) are calm (something I strive for in my own photography), and their compositions are precisely crafted (something I never have the patience for).
However, his approach to photography is probably the opposite of mine. He often revisits the same forests (which I also do) and even the same trees, waiting for the right conditions (which I rarely do because I never remember such things). My approach is much more reactive: I walk around and respond to what I see (the light, the colours, the shapes, and so on). Then I set up my tripod, take a photo, and look at it deeply for a while. I adjust the composition or camera settings, take another photo, and repeat the process until I’m satisfied with the result. I never make specific plans. One thing we do share, though, is a preference for shooting close to home.
This photo has everything any photographer (or at least one like me) could wish for in a woodland: majestic old trees (and not just any trees – oaks), orange and brown autumn leaves, patches of shrubbery, fog that creates a mysterious mood and obscures details, and a small river or stream. I especially like the way the long lower branches almost touch the water, and a subtle, barely noticeable ripple on its surface.