Costa Rica, Fisherman with a Broomtail Grouper (Mycteroperca xenarcha)lit with an SB800 off camera flash and edited in black and white

Costa Rica, Fisherman with a Broomtail Grouper (Mycteroperca xenarcha) lit with an SB800 off camera flash and edited in black and white, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

I was in Costa Rica in March and apparently it wasn't the right moment, in fact it was a very wrong one. Thus, even though the fishing was as slow as a dead snail, we enjoyed our stay in that wonderful country, together with our hosts: a french gentleman and a Tica guapa y simpática, who took care of us as they would have done with their own family. Eventually, during the last day we also made contact with a lot of fish, once a part of our group decided to use bait instead of lures.... This Broomtail Grouper was caught on a bucktail jig though, I lit it with an SB800 through a Lumiquest Softbox III
www.pechesportivecostarica.com

Dubai, large yacht moored at the dock with the city behind it. Fake HDR, 3 exposures +2 and - 2ev

Dubai, large yacht moored at the dock with the city behind it. Fake HDR, 3 exposures +2 and - 2ev, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

This image has been sitting there for a couple of years now and when I saw it yesterday I thought it was sure worth a try. I edited in Lightroom and couldn't get where I wanted so I made a couple of virtual copies, at +2 and - 2ev and tone mapped them in Photomatix. I wanted details and contrast, and eventually I managed to get both of them. In my humble opinion is quite a well balanced image, with a lot of interesting elements to keep your eyes scanning it for a while.

www.nicolazingarelli.com
www.caranx.net

Sunset on the spanish fields.

Sunset on the spanish fields., a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

I didn't have much time on a late Saturday afternoon, we were playing cards until 6:00pm and with the summer days getting short couldn't scout too many places. I wanted to go back to a lake I have photographed a couple of years ago but eventually I got lost and couldn't find it. So I took an anonymus dirt road and looked around for a nice place to photograph. To be very honest with you, I didn't find anything interesting so I took some average photos waiting for a better light to come. When the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the sky started to turn into a deeper blue and the puffs of clouds picking up the colors of sunset. Here's what I got for you today, nothing to rave about, yet a serene sunset on the spanish fields. Life's good!

The Spanish meseta. Dark sky, bright field

The Spanish meseta. Dark sky, bright field, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Sometimes thinks cannot go any better than this. The sky is dark, gloomy and menacing and the sun sneaking from under the clouds, around sunset time. The light is almost perfect, and the whole atmosphere is pretty dramatic. The converging lines bring the attention of the viewer to the dark sky that for me is the most important subject of the image, together with the color contrast. I worked hard on Lightroom to enhance the colors, clarity and contrast of the image and make it look the way I saw it. Sometimes, things don't get any better that this...

Bijagos islands, Guinea Bissau. The boats ready to leave for the day's fishing

Bijagos islands, Guinea Bissau. The boats ready to leave for the day's fishing, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Nice memories of a fishing trip not so successfull in terms of fishing, yet beautiful as far as scenery, wildlife and photography is concerned.

For this shot I had to be in the water with the camera, something I'm more and more afraid to do nowdays... Anyway, the sun was coming up fast, as it happens in the tropics, and the fishermen all excited and getting ready to leave. For someone who love the sport is one of the best moments of the day.

www.caranx.net
www.nicolazingarelli.com

Iguela, Gabon. Surf fishing at sunset

Iguela, Gabon. Surf fishing at sunset, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

If you notice, this image has been cropped on the horizontal side. The reason is that I didn't have a tripod with me on that trip, and had to put the camera on top of the cooler, and a corner of it was visible in the shot. The sunset on the western coast of Africa is pretty dramatic, and even though the colors have been saturated they're not far from what we could see every evening.

www.nicolazingarelli.com
www.caranx.net

Andaman Islands, India. Red Snapper (Lutjanus bohar) caught with a stickbait. SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash

Andaman Islands, India. Red Snapper (Lutjanus bohar) caught with a stickbait. SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

The Orbis Ring Flash sure is a great light modifier for my fishing portraits, is just a tad bulky to carry on a suitcase full of lures, reels and all kind of tackle. Fort this reason I not always bring it with me, but when I do I never regret. She is pretty, has a gorgeous smile and can perfectly hold a fish, a great plus for a fishing photo. I love the specular ring on her sunglasses, is a kind of brand signature of the Orbis.

SB800 through Orbis Ring Flash triggered with Nikon CLS

Dead turtle edited in HDR with high contrast

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Dead turtle edited in HDR with high contrast, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

My vision of this image wasn't clear to me until the other night, when I thought that a 3 exposures HDR could give me an edge on the editing. Said that I created two virtual copies in Lightroom one at +2 and the other at -2 EV and put them together in Photomatix with the original one. I pushed the cursor to create the creepiest look I could and then returned to Lightroom for the final touch, with more contrast and clarity. The doubt is if I should have had more vignetting or not...

Back to the Andamans

That is guys, when this post will pop up I'll be in Port Blair, with my friends at Gamefishing India, chasing GTs, Snappers, Groupers and hopefully a big and ugly Doggie
I travel with few spaniards and I will finally meet a group of crazy Italians I have always been in contact with and never met, I believe it is going to be great fun
I hope I will be able to post some sort of live report, it all depends on the Internet and my will to edit the images fast and do some work after a long fishing day.... We'll see. A full report will be available as soon as I come back

The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier Non-HDR version

The power of HDR images is sure known by many of you, but I still wonder if this has really much in common with photography, as we know it. Yes, you still have to find a nice composition and framing, the subject must be interesting and you got to know the technique to take so many different exposures, but after that, the software's algorythmics do the rest for you. All right, you have to know how to move the slides, but this is the same in Lightroom or Photoshop so its just part of the game.

The Unknown Soldier HDR version

Five exposures can turn a so and so image into something quite dramatic and eye catching. This is a night shot of the Unknown Soldier in Piazza Venezia in Rome. The Romans call it the Typewriter, because of its shape. I put it together in Photomatix using a quite conservative editing, like many of my HDR, but still the result is quite impressive, un realistic I would say. Here you can compare it with the result I got from just one of the shots, the one that offered the best exposure and that I had to work in Lightroom with some dodging and burning and selective retouching. You can judge yourself and pick the one you like the best.