Story
behind
the Still
Photographer’sname:haraldPeki
Photographer’swebsite:500px.com/haraldpeki
Imagelocation:travemünde, Germany
Typeofcommission:Personalwork
Shotdetails:SamsungGalaxyS8,4.2mm,1/10816s,
f/1.7,iSo 40About the shot: Many of the best photo opportunities
present themselves when we least expect them. It is
almost universally accepted that, as a photographer,
you will never have the perfect gear to hand in surprise
situations. Part of being an expert is understanding how
to make the most of a scene with the tools available to
you. For this image, Harald had to use the camera in a
smartphone to best effect.
“It’s always the same. Everytime I don’t have my big,
fat Canon EOS 5D (with at least three lenses) with me,
I really want to take an image and instantly regret not
having taken that big bag with me,” explains Harald “[I
had] no chance to go back to the car, so I had to borrow
my wife’s Galaxy S8 – which does have a pretty nice
camera for a cell phone.”
It was the colour and arrangement of subjects that
caught Harald’s eye and made him want to create a
graphic image. “I don’t have the chance to see such
big sail ships every day. We could see the ship’s masts
reaching over the house roofs and used them as
beacons to reach the harbour. The ship was a Russian
school frigate – on deck were a lot of very young sailors
- then I spotted the ‘sparrows’ high up in the rigging. I
liked the symmetry of the masts and the same in the
position of the sailors, the clearness of the blue sky, the
fresh calm breeze – the beauty of sea travel without
engine. You have to have guts to stand up there – no
safety net. That’s what I wanted to capture.”
Harald experienced some challenges creating this
scene. “It was tough to find the right spot, because of
people on the pier. I also had to hurry, because I couldn’t
foresee how long the sparrows would stay up there. It
would have been great if they’d made the same pose
with their feet; alas, they didn’t. The sun was also quite
bright and I had to take its position into account.”
Left
Sailor Sparrows
This was one of only two images in Harald’s
portfolio created on a phone camera. The
shot’s success proves that photographic skill
is more important than the technology usedAll images © Harald Peki20
your images