Several posts on The Wide Lens will reveal the fact that I’ve spent the last summer in Morzine, France. My time there was dedicated amongst other things to mountain biking and to photographing the sport and scenery.
As I was descending on the Pleney run- a fine Downhill trail leading to Morzine center, I came to a short resting stop. Looking up, the afternoon sun was hiding between the tree tops, and just below it a dramatic root section (fairly easy to ride, but very mean looking).

Taking a picture of a rider crossing the root section with the sun in the background seemed like a great idea, and a photographic vision was born. The problem was simple- the environment is a dark forest, and the object will be a fast moving object (mountain bike rider). The solution is simple: get the right exposure for the forest, and use the flash to light up the object.
Ah, but what about the original vision? the composition places the camera about 5-6 meters from the object, and the flash won’t have a serious effect from that distance.

Here’s the final image:

And here is how it was done:

Once I understood the problem- I went online to look for a solution. Since I own an Olympus E-420 D-SLR, I started with the brand website, and quickly found an interesting solution. The FL-36R external flash, ‘R’ standing for Remote control.

This flash, coupled with a matching camera, can be placed a few meters away from the camera- aimed and used in automatic synchronization with the camera. There is an option to place a few flashes and set up to 3 flash groups- for now I’m sticking with one, a simple and effective setup.

The flash can be placed on the ground using the supplied stand. I also purchased a small version of the gorillapod, which enables to hang the flash in strategic placements, such as tree branches or railings.

As I will become more advanced with using the external flash, you can expect to see here a detailed article on how to use one correctly. For now, if you have the budget and the time to play around- I recommend finding out the wireless flash configuration for your camera. Once you’re set up, simply go out and play, that’s what photography is all about- you can’t really go wrong.

Special thanks to Pedro for modelling!

The intense yellow color of the sunflower, with the green fields and huge sunflower leafs alongside with a nice clear blue skies provide and excellent setting for a photo session.

Unfortunately, I didn’t set myself sunflower photography as a seasonal goal, and by now most of the fields are either dry or already harvested. By chance, I had my Olympus E-420 DSLR and a tripod in my car as I drove by a field. The sunflowers as seen, are mostly at the end of their short career, but a few stood out from the tired crowd. I spent a few minutes at the field, with the results showing below, and left promising myself to visit next year at the peak of the sunflower season.

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Modern SCUBA diving technology has become incredibly easy, reliable and accessible- pushing larger amounts of tourists into getting SCUBA diving training and making premium diving locations their next holiday spot. As more people go diving, more stress is being applied on the natural reefs, with side effects such as sea-side building, sewage and garbage littering the oceans, and direct physical contact between divers and the natural underwater environment.

In order to relive stress from the natural reef, diving resorts today need to create artificial attractions, which will benefit with the environment by weighing down the amount of visitors per each spot, and at the same time offer marine life some good “housing” opportunities. For divers, these locations need to prove as an attraction as well- since without attracting divers, they will not serve the purpose of distributing stress. The most common way of creating such attraction until today has been by sinking ships at strategic locations.

Ocean Bricks has developed a new platform. While initially looking like a not very attractive piece of concrete, the “Reef Land” platform provides a safe environment for divers as well as marine life. It can be easily and accurately placed, allowing to plan and create whole arrays of artificial reefs. Currently, there is one such sample unit placed in the Red Sea shore of Eilat, Israel. Corals are planted on it, allowing experimenting with rapid coral growth and testing the way marine life respond to this foreign object.

I recently visited the location, equipped with my Olympus C-8080 and matching underwater photography case, here are some samples:

Got other samples of environmental projects photographed? Let us know!

In the desert, the ground usually becomes red and purple, creating a somewhat martian scenery. Last weekend, I had joined something I can most clearly define as a movement workshop, in “Hangar Adama“- based in Mizpe Ramon, Israel- just of the largest erosion formed crater in the world, the Ramon crater.

Shaped by flood water and winds for millions of years, the crater edge is a dramatic spot to visit on any time of day. We took a walk to the crater edge just with sunrise, to enjoy the unique views. Besides always being a nice experience, this sunrise was the first I got to photograph with my new Olympus E-420 DSLR.

Ever photographed a beautiful sunrise or sunset? Show it off!

The rules were simple- three days, do whatever you want with a camera as long as your are submerged. We had to submit a series of 5 Images and one single image.

At the end of a 105 minute dive, long and shallow to enjoy good lighting and plenty of opportunities, I was already cold, tired and hungry. My only wish was to get dry and have a hot cup of coffee. On my way out, about 10 meters from the shoreline, I was passing by this fence. Took a snapshot, and went out.

Other photographers have pushed me to include this one in my series, and while I didn’t have any special sentiments towards it, I took the recommendation.

Luckily enough- it was a good one. I won a “surprise” category titled “Judges favorite”. Beginners luck? maybe. It only proves how intuition and a good timing can beat the competition.

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