Photo Plus - UK (2020-04)

74 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

PHOTOSTORIES

01

NAME: Patrick van

Vlaenderen

LOCATION: Belgium and France

MISSION: Take a series of

images based around the

themeof black and white

KIT:Canon EOS 6 D, Canon EOS

5D Mark II, Canon EF 2 4- 10 5mm

f/4L IS USM, Samyang 1 4mm

f/2. 8 ED AS IF UMC, Manfrotto

MK 190 XPRO tripod

http://www.patvanvlaenderen.wixsite.

com/fotomaker

PROJECT INFO

02

Back in black (and white)

Patrick set out to shoot a series of landscapes devoid of

colour to concentrate instead on pure tone and composition

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The main reason that I

prefer working with the

monochrome medium is that

the viewer won’t be distracted

by bright colours or objects

that you don’t want them to be

• the focus goes solely on the
  composition. I also prefer long
  exposures, compared to totally
  pin-sharp images taken with a
  fast shutter speed. A long
  shutter allows me to add
  movement and drama to the
  image – it feels like I’m getting
  more creative. It also gives me
  the chance to show the viewer
  something they can’t see with
  the naked eye. Long exposures
  work fantastically with black
  and white imagery, as they
  have an almost ethereal
  quality to them.
  Based in Belgium, I shoot
  my landscapes all around
  Europe, though these
  examples are from my home
  and my visits to France and
  the Czech Republic.

I captured the sunset image

at the Belgian coast after I was

inspired from a vlog by Gary

Gough on YouTube, where he

exposed the sky and

foreground separately and

merged the two images

together. This is what I did

with the photo, Black Sunset,

to create the different levels

of motion in the water and

the clouds in the sky for an

interesting contrast.

My image Ghost Forest

was from a trip to the Czech

Republic that was challenging

due to the freezing-cold

conditions. To create the

‘ghostly’ blur in the trees I

used a technique called,

‘intentional camera

movement’ (also called ICM),

where I panned upwards as

I took the shot with a slow

shutter speed of 1/20 sec,

I