Twinkle Twinkle by Marsel van Oosten

Twinkle Twinkle by Marsel van Oosten

Yesterday I got a request from a magazine for this image. It will be used for an article on photographing in backlit conditions. The image was shot just before sunset in Katmai, Alaska. I saw this bear walking towards us from a distance and realized that it might crossed the stream we were standing next to. I figured that if it did, it would be nice to shoot it from water level, so I walked into the water to set up my tripod with camera and 600mm lens. The sun was just about to set behind the mountains in the background, which was nice and dark. The idea was to get a silhouette with a rim light all around, so I underexposed the scene by lowering my ISO and increasing my shutter speed, keeping my aperture at f/4. There was a lot of light, so I could have easily shot this image at f/8 or even f/11, but doing so would not have given me those wonderful, big light spheres in the foreground. Shallow depth of field in the foreground is often considered to be something best avoided, but I hope that this image demonstrates that you can also use it creatively. Marsel WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER ©2016 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

Marsel van Oosten: Photos