“The nest”. The sea stacks of Nido dei passeri (Sparrows’ Nest) in St. Antioco island, Sardinia, at twilight. While the last warm light gives way to the cold tints of the forthcoming night, the calm sea gently brushes the bottom of the pillars.
“Dragon scales”. As the dorsal scales of a sea dragon, these rocks emerge on the surface. The water flows across the saw-toothed spikes as they put up resistance to the movement of the sea.
This kind of sceneries attracts me a lot, due to the strong contrasts they are made of: solid against liquid, rough against smooth, dark against bright. This is the complementarity that represents the inner beauty of nature and I find it very fascinating.
Paradise sunset. The warm light of the setting sun has painted the running clouds with vivid colors, balancing the harshness of the windswept rocks. This is one of my favourite conditions in Sardinian seascape and landscapes, where the opposites meet one another: soft and hard, bright and gloomy, vivid and muted. This kind of complementarity is one of the things I often search for.
Taking this photo didn’t require any specific technique; in fact, as for other similar cases, I’ve used a 10 stops ND filter to extend the exposure time, making the clouds movement more visible, plus a 2 stops graduated ND filter to darken the sky a bit. However, the thing that complicated the shooting has been the strong wind coming from the sea: this caused an intermittent spraying of seawater droplets on the filter, forcing me to clean-shoot-check-clean-shoot-checkagain. To make things worse, a 30 seconds exposure is a lot of time in a situation like this. As a result, due to the unsuccessful attempts and the time needed to clean and mount the filter again, just a couple of shots turned out to be really usable.
Ancient paradise. One of the peculiarities of Sardinia is the greatly varied coastlines: every part of the island has some unique features which, in addition, change within a few kilometers. It’s easy, for example, to find a beautiful stretch of fine-grained sandy beach followed by a cliff or a rugged cove. In this case, with this photograph I’ve wanted to show a place which has a “prehistoric” look, made of many scattered and weatherworn rocks, some of which have become islets. The roughness of the coast is enveloped by the warm and pleasant colors of sunset, mirrored on the surface of the sea. Thus, I looked for a sense of wonderment conveied by the imposing, wild and, at the same time, beautiful appearance of this stretch of coast.
To capture this image I’ve used a 10 stops ND filter, which extended the exposure time to 30 seconds, and a 2 stops graduated ND filter to darken further the sky. As a result, they’ve emphasized the movement of the clouds and balanced the global brigthness.
Watching the horizon in south western Sardinia, Italy. The harsh and serrated outlines of a rocky cove stand out against the polished and clear surface of the sea, during a vivid twilight.
In winter, finding heavenly coves to capture the beauty of sardinian sunsets is an amazing experience. Every stretch of coast hides a treasure, giving endless possibilities.
To capture this view, I’ve used an ultra wide angle lens with just one filter attached: a 2 stops gruaduated ND, aligned with the horizon, which darkened it and balanced the overall brightness of the scene. Differently to what it could seem, it was very dark: infact, the sun was set more than half an hour before. Therefore, there’s been no need to use a full ND filter to reach 30 seconds of exposure time.
Carved pond. The sun has finally set, after a long and hot day of summer. The last light diffuses in the warm and humid air, painting a soft gradient of colors that mirrors on the still and shiny surface of a pond, inside the ancient punic quarry of Pixinnì, guarded by a watchtower.
The elements which I’ve wanted to put in relation one another in this photograph are the clean sky, whose delicate colors are mirrored on the polished surface of the water, and the harsh rocks of the quarry, whose rough surfaces have been carved first by the hands of men and then by the action of the wind and the water. As a result, there’s almost a sense of harmony between the opposites.
To capture this view I’ve used an ultra wide angle lens and two filters: a 6 stops ND which extended the exposure time to two minutes, smoothing out in this way the surface of the sea, and a 2 stops graduated ND filter, which darkened the sky just enough for better balancing the brightness of the scene. Then, with a fairly straightforward post processing, I’ve adjusted the local contrasts and the color balance of the scene, with the use of the luminosity masking.
In the stillness of an hot midsummer day’s end, the twilight graces the sky with a pale and delicate gradient of colors. A lighthouse silently guards the calm sea. This soothing atmosphere, which seems to be timeless, lasts in reality just some minutes; however, the feelings conveyed by it last much longer in the eyes and the spirit.
To capture this fleeting moment, I’ve used a medium telephoto lens with two filters: a 3 stops ND which extended the exposure time enought to smooth out the water, plus a 2 stop graduated ND filter which darkened the upper portion of the sky, balancing so the brightness of the scene.
Before the arrival of the night, twilight gives brief moments of absolute quietness, embraced by a light which colors everything with softness and delicate hues.
The opportunity to witness ephemeral wonders like this is one of the most precious gifts we could receive; this makes me appreciate with great joy the moments I have, to stay in close contact with a nature that’s as beautiful as fragile.
To capture this fleeting moment, I’ve used a medium tele lens and a 4 stops ND filter, that extended the exposure time just enough to smooth out the surface of the sea.
“Faro Mangiabarche”, literally Boat Eater Lighthouse is probably the most iconic lighthouse in Sardinia: its two-faced soul makes it a reference point to entrust the life to, but at the same time also an harbinger of ruin and death, because it rises above a wide formation of harsh and spiky rocks which barely emerge from the surface of the sea. Many boats have been “devoured” by this place during fierce storms. Therefore, in this photograph I depicted it as a sort of vision of a sleeping entity.
The story behind this photograph starts with my wish to capture a “classic” view of the lighthouse lashed by the waves during a stormy day. So, the first thing I did has been to check the period of the year with the highest chances to catch an “ideal” day. Secondly, after some wait, I’ve checked four different weather forecast services to be sure that the chosen day was the right one. Finally, excited and full of enthusiasm, I’ve headed to the much aspired subject. However, during my hour and a half itinerary, I had begun to notice that the sky was not promising; confident about the concordance between the forecasts, I didn’t lend weight to it.
When I finally arrived to the destination, I’ve been welcomed by an amazingly… flat weather: light wind, an homogeneous blanket of clouds and an almost dead calm. After an initial discouragement, while observing the lighthouse, I thought about its story and its peculiarity, and I’ve decided to interpret its figure not as a “life saver” which fights during a storm, but as a sleeping and resting entity ina time of quietness.
Moral of this story: in landscape photography there’s nothing taken for granted, even if you cross-check 4 times; so, it’s useless to obsess over a prefigured shot and stick with it, it’s better to be flexible and adaptable because in every situation there’s a chance to make a nice photograph.
This photograph has been awarded three times at the following international photography competitions:Boat Eater realm. In the small island of Sant’Antioco, south western Sardinia, there’s a well known place for the presence of a lighthouse. This part of the island is often subject to strong winds and fierce waves, so much that many boats sank right near the lighthouse. In this glimpse on the coastline, in front of which the Boat Eater lighthouse stands, I wanted to show in a “dramatic” way the harshness of nature, whose riskiness is often underestimated.
Even if this shot seems like a normal portrait view, in reality is a vertorama, in other words a portrait oriented panorama: it’s the sum of four landscape oriented shots, starting from the foreground and ending in the sky. This technique allowed me to capture a wider view of the scene, that a normal wide angle lens wouldn’t have managed to take; as a result, the foreground starts just some centimeters beyond the legs of the tripod. Moreover, to extend the exposure time, I’ve used a 10 stops ND filter, as usual.
