Blattgold
I am standing over a sea of clouds; the sun bathes the nearby trees in its first lights. After an hour of shooting in the early morning sun, I make my way down the mountain. I hike through the foggy forest decorated with yellow and orange leaves.
Despite photographing for a few years now, this is still how I daydream about my photography trips. Considering that the weather barely played ball on my trips, one would think I know better. Still, with the hope that everything could be different this time, similar thoughts came up when packing my photo bag for the trip to the Elbsandsteingebirge in Eastern Germany a few weeks back. As part of the German Society of Nature Photography, we wanted to capture the late autumn colors in the mountains, ideally with some fog, ideally in a forest covered in autumnal colors. In the end, the conditions were, of course, not as we dreamed them up. During the three days of the trip, we had no fog, and even the light was sparse.
Luckily, I learned early on how important it is to adapt to the available conditions when photographing in nature. As so often in this scenario, I focused on using my telephoto lens, shooting primarily close-ups and intimate scenes. What caught my attention over and over during the hikes in the Elbsandsteingebirge were the bright yellow leaves everywhere. The leaves' color really stood out, particularly in front of the dark sandstone, and seemed to glow when being hit by soft light from above. To emphasize the effect, I kept underexposing my images while increasing the highlights in my camera.
The result is a small series of images that I call 'Blattgold'. Despite not showing the typical grand views of the Elbsandsteingebirge, I still find it authentic for the area. All images below combine the two central elements of the mountains I saw a few weeks ago: The golden autumnal leaves against the dark stone of the sandstone.
