Do you wait for sunny weather, clear skies? I’m waiting for a storm. Lately I’ve been fascinated with stormy skies. There is some wild unruly power in them, something that makes me appreciate the Nature and its rejection of a human will over it.
Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park
This photo was taken on a rainy, cold and windy day when most people stayed home warming up by a fireplace. Not me. I was out there, trying to capture a beauty of elements.
During my last trip to Yosemite the valley was both unbelievably beautiful and crowded. On the second day when we went to Tunnel View during midday, it was packed, we could not find a parking spot. Then the rain started and washed away all the tourists and photographers. But the rain is one of the best weather to photograph. Clouds create drama, light is constantly changing, rain adds depth and mist starts rising from ground heat up by the sun earlier. Just watching the scene changing continuously right in front of your eyes is awe-inspiring.
This is a series of posts with translation of my interview published in Russian at http://landscapists.info/vitaly-prokopenko. The question from the interview: “What’s your favorite weather for landscape photography?”
I like any weather for landscape photography besides clean sunny sky or single-tone grayish overcast sky.
That does not mean that I’ll put my camera aside in unfavorable weather. Rather than taking photos of landscape I’ll spend time doing macro-photography, experimenting or taking photos of people.
It is amazing how waterfalls create their own weather. On a recent trip we hiked to Elowah Falls (Oregon) to take photos. The weather was hot and sunny until we got up closer to this waterfall. Near the waterfall it was dark, cold, windy and rainy. It was dark from the shadow the rock formation cast; it was cold because a lot of cold water was coming down cooling down the air around; it was windy because falling water was making the air move; and it was rainy because of all the water mist surrounding the falls.
I could explain all that logically but as I was getting closer it felt like we were traveling into another world. After a while the world outside became less real and I had some surreal feeling returning back to sunny and hot world.
vitali prokopenko | fine art 