Top Instagram image of August 2020
Of horses and sunsets...
We live in a very rural and natural area of Belgium, this makes for the opportunity to make nice long walks in nature, which we all love in our family. This means we can walk a lot, and still discover a lot of nice new places and photo opportunities.
And so this photo happened. We were walking in the woods where we often go with the kids, since there's an ice cream bar and a decent parking at one of the entrances, and an ice cream is often the best way to get them to join fast and enthousiastically! But this day, instead of walking our normal tour, we decided to go left, where we usually go right. We had looked on Google Maps before, to see if there was anything promising there (meaning: a large body of water that would provide plenty of photo opportunities), but it showed mainly farmland, so we never went there.
But this day, we did. And we saw a different part of the forest, just as beautiful as the other side of the forest. And we came across farmland. Just the same as the ones you see nearly everywhere in the neighborhood: full of corn for the cattle. And we came across more farmland, but this one was not filled with cows nor corn, it was filled with the most beautiful horses! And they were eager to come over and play with us! And before we knew, the sun was setting, over the forest, over the farm field, and over the horses.
Often when we go for a walk, I take my Fujifilm gear with me, in small setup, or in full setup, but this time (due to the ice cream) I only had my Moment lenses with me, so I took the picture using my Moment Fisheye (read my review here!), using Procamera HDR. Postprocessing was done using Lightroom Mobile, but it only needed a tiny touch on the Texture and Contrast sliders.
Lovely playful horses in a field between the woods, against a dreamy sunset.
Top Facebook Image of August 2020
As already said before, we live in a wonderful rural village, with a rich history. One of those historical things is the old stone bakery, that used to be the main part of the village, before the church was built. Nearly everyone in the village used to work in the stone factory near the canal. These days, it has been replaced by a modern factory a few kilometers further down the canal, and the old stone bakery is waiting for a new destination. In the meantime, the area is filled with wild flowers, and after the rain, some strategically placed puddles. Well, strategically, for my pictures at least!
Most of the time, the sunset behind the chimney doesn't really interest me too much, as there is too much distraction behind it for my taste. But after the heavy rains of the days before, the whole place was flooded, providing me with some great large puddles, which, combined with taking a angle that is low enough, gave some great reflections, and camouflaged most of the distractions. You can read more about both of these techniques in my tips for better photography!
The picture was with my iPhone X and Moment Fisheye lens, using Procamera HDR. I used the HDR option to take the picture, and added some contrast and saturation to it in Lightroom Mobile.
Dramatic sunset behind the chimney of an old stone bakery
Top Stock Image of August 2020
My top selling image of August 2020 was one of a concept shoot I did last summer. We took a combination of different Tibetan singing bowls, and placed them in different setups on different backgrounds, some on white, some on wood, and some against a brick background. I suppose it is not really a surprise that the white background works best, and so it has become the best selling picture of the series. The brick background doesn't sell at all. The wood background is a bit in between, but on the lower side.
The logical explanation is of course that the white background provides more possible uses, and is easier to remove and replace if needed. So Pro Stock Photography Tip Of The Month: always shoot different backgrounds if possible, and use standard white and black if you can!
All pictures that you see here, are available for sale via stock agencies. If you have special requests or considerations, feel free to contact me.
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