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Selection of August 2019: Contrastes by Jean Discours

Contrastes by Jean Discours

February 2017. I went to the Massif Central for a few days to take pictures. I have begun working on a series of photographs of forests taken with telephoto lens. In the morning, nature offered me an unforgettable shooting on a plateau with no trees. It would have been wise to stop there and rest, but I decided to keep on going and visit the Puy de Sancy forests. As the sun was going down, I finally got to the site I had spotted earlier in the afternoon.

 I took my camera out of my bag and started to look around but all was in the darkness. I love being surprised by light. One minute it is far away and next, it appears suddenly when you don't expect it. I had to choose between a previsualised composition and an unforeseeable one. Preventing oneself to take the picture and being patient enough to wait for the perfect light is highly exciting. The sun appeared suddenly from behind the clouds and lightened the tops of a few trees. The forest was not anymore in the darkness and revealed an unexpected treasure. The place changed, it seemed to be lit and formed unexpected patterns. Beech trees seemed to dance. The dark curtain opened. When composing the image, I decided to split the space diagonally to form contrasted landscapes. I zoomed a bit for tighter composition using a 190mm focal length. During the post-processing I didn’t have to change the composition. I adjusted the levels to achieve a soft image and decreased the amount of blue to balance the colours.

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