I took this photo in January near my city in Vânători Neam Natural Park. At that time I was looking for certain compositions made with the drone at sunset. Basically, I was looking for different types of trees to be lit in the last rays of the sun. During winter, the sun shines lower than usual and the trees in the forest help me a lot in shaping the landscape with their shadows. At that time there were a few clear and slightly colder days, so that there was still a layer of snow on the ground, which seemed to me to highlight in a specific way the shadows of the trees. I was looking for more complicated compositions made by those shadows combined with the tree branches, a kind of playful game between the sunlight and the trees.
I remember the plan perfectly, there were a few sunny days, so after I got home from the pharmacy where I work, I grabbed my stuff and the equipment and headed immediately to the forest. Each time, I was looking for another location to have a variety of framings, but in places already very well known to me - I knew the places, but I was waiting for the precise right light. It is very important for me when photographing with a drone to have a very good composition because my drone has a sensor of only 20 Mpx so I am always attentive to details, as I’m not doing any cropping. When I managed to find the composition that I liked I had a regret that there was no more light among the trees, but then, I told myself, that not all days are the same and that I was happy anyway that I found this pattern in the forest. Back at my studio, the same day, when I saw the photo on a large monitor, I was surprised by the impression I had when I was looking at it, actually upwards. It was like I was looking at a ceiling. Even now, after many months, my perception hasn’t changed, I feel like these trees are hanging from a ceiling or something like that.
I am not a photographer who is recognized for his post-processing skills, but this step is an important one, the final texture and look of a photograph. I like to have very good cameras and lenses so that it is easy for me to play whit what I want in a certain type of light. This is also the case with this photo in which I used the new drone from DJI (Mavic 3). The light was not so special; in order to help me enhance the information in the lights and shadows in the picture, I haven’t used any special editing techniques, but I can tell you that in my process of editing a photo, I use Nik Collection filters. Most importantly, for all of my work is, that I think and see in black and white, even in very colorful environment. I think a photograph that has a good balanced grayscale will look good in color, at least this is how it works for me.
