Deep Mountain Resonance by Ramunas K Fishermang

Deep Mountain Resonance by Ramunas K Fishermang

Lofoten is like a big playground, a photographer’s sandbox. Exploring it is amazing – you just go in a random direction and discovery awaits you. Leaving it up to chance can be a fun challenge. We stopped at Nusfjord and gazed at the mountains surrounding this tiny fiord village. A local man was passing by in a jogger’s outfit so I asked him if there are any trails leading towards the mountains. He explained that yes, indeed there are, and that he just came back from there himself! So off we went, and after a bit of climbing we came to this lake. The autumn colors were blooming in full, there was absolutely no wind so the reflection was almost perfectly still and the sunset was approaching. You can imagine my state of mind during these moments, I felt like I was flying. Discovering this place almost randomly by following my instinct was magical. Composition: I circled around the coast of this water (it is drinking water – so I didn’t step in it) looking for a composition. I passed the coast line on three levels back and forth, looking for a perfect spot: I wanted to have autumn colors in my foreground, something that leads the eye, a good overview over the mountain peaks, and catch their reflection together with the sky. Finally I discovered these patterns descending straight towards the water and my scene was set. Processing: A blend of exposures of the same scene in different settings: sky, mountains, reflection, foreground. Dodging to make the autumn colors bloom and more strongly reveal patterns of light in the landscape. Various adjustments of dark and light to strengthen the darker autumn mood I was going for. The reflection was left slightly darker because it gave a bigger impression to the autumn colors – besides – reflections usually are darker so it felt right to keep it that way. I also spent time working with colors to show off green – blue – orange tones to fit in the triangle of color theory. The idea of the photo was to capture a feeling of deep mountain lake mood during dark autumn sunset, with emphasis on reflections and autumn colors. A deep mountain resonance. Now I know there are some minor things in this photo that could have been improved: there should be a bit more sky as the highest peak is dangerously close to the edge, the autumn trees on the left edge are a bit distracting and there are snow patches that may disrupt the autumn view. I could clone out the latter and do some more complex cloning for the trees, but in the end I decided that I am not going for a postcard here, and leaving it like this felt like a more raw representation of the bad ass nature that I saw that night. Regarding the sky – this is what fit in my frame and I didn’t get a chance to take more photos to extend it unfortunately. I hope you like this and feel free to share your thoughts about it – be they good or bad, or both. Cheers!

Ramunas K Fishermang: Photos