Emerging beauty, rising hope
It looked like that early November morning's efforts were to be wasted, but there always is hope, after all - a lesson we should treasure in those dark times.
This is my favourite location, a peaceful spot downstream the eastern arm of the lake Como, where the river Adda flows in lazy meanders hugging a wetland in the process. Even being so close to a main road and to several towns, this place is so peaceful and remote from the busy life of the world all around it - on very early mornings, at least. An oasis, a secret garden. A somehow mysterious land of silence, light, and everchanging mists. However on that morning there was an unusual hustle and bustle of people running, strolling, photographing - an effect of the long, dark lockdowns. I tried to shoot hoping that a bit of post-processing magic could infuse life in my apparently wasted shots. So here it is this new image of mine, emerging from the flat, almost lifeless five shots of an exposure bracketing, celebrating a deep, amazing truth: the whole can be more beautiful than the sum of its parts. Long, careful work lays behind this seemingly little miracle, of course: you must apply energy to the system in order to increase the level of beauty in the world, against the natural, blind tendency towards ever-increasing universal ugliness (as stated by the 3rd law of beautydynamics). I hope that you enjoy this image and that it can somehow uplift your spirits and foster your own efforts in making beauty and harmony emerge in this dark, troubling world.
I have obtained this picture by blending a 5-exposure bracketing [-2.0/-1.0/0/+1.0/+2.0 EV] by luminosity masks with the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
RAW files processed with Darktable.
Emerging beauty, rising hope
It looked like that early November morning's efforts were to be wasted, but there always is hope, after all - a lesson we should treasure in those dark times.
This is my favourite location, a peaceful spot downstream the eastern arm of the lake Como, where the river Adda flows in lazy meanders hugging a wetland in the process. Even being so close to a main road and to several towns, this place is so peaceful and remote from the busy life of the world all around it - on very early mornings, at least. An oasis, a secret garden. A somehow mysterious land of silence, light, and everchanging mists. However on that morning there was an unusual hustle and bustle of people running, strolling, photographing - an effect of the long, dark lockdowns. I tried to shoot hoping that a bit of post-processing magic could infuse life in my apparently wasted shots. So here it is this new image of mine, emerging from the flat, almost lifeless five shots of an exposure bracketing, celebrating a deep, amazing truth: the whole can be more beautiful than the sum of its parts. Long, careful work lays behind this seemingly little miracle, of course: you must apply energy to the system in order to increase the level of beauty in the world, against the natural, blind tendency towards ever-increasing universal ugliness (as stated by the 3rd law of beautydynamics). I hope that you enjoy this image and that it can somehow uplift your spirits and foster your own efforts in making beauty and harmony emerge in this dark, troubling world.
I have obtained this picture by blending a 5-exposure bracketing [-2.0/-1.0/0/+1.0/+2.0 EV] by luminosity masks with the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
RAW files processed with Darktable.