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Greek Island of Santorini – Photos of Santorini

Photos of Santorini

Tag: Greek Island of Santorini

  • Santorini photography tips – what I have learned – Part 2

    Sorry – where was I? Oh yes.

    I was telling you what I had learned – this is part two of my Santorini photography tips post – too long for a single post!

    Camera bag

    I use a Peak Design Everyday Backpack. This is on a day-to-day basis in the UK and also when travelling. When travelling I empty my bag completely, and split the stuff I need to take with me into stuff that goes in my checked luggage and stuff that goes in my camera bag, which is my hand luggage.

    Here it is with a bottle of Prosecco in the tripod holder! Such a versatile bag!

    A bottle of Prosecco in my Peak Design Everyday Backpack

    And here it is on top of the caldera.

    Peak Design Everyday Backpack on the <a href=
    Santorini caldera” width=”790″ height=”593″ /> Peak Design Everyday Backpack on the Santorini caldera

    I only take the stuff I need on a trip, and only take the one bag which easily carries all the gear that I need. I don’t want to be weighed down with loads of stuff – I am on my feet for hours and hours every day after all.

    And I am quite old.

    And I hate taking gear with me which I don’t get round to using.

    I like to travel light and agile.

    Data management

    OK this is one of those things that I think I can improve on. I take all my blank, freshly formatted memory cards, which are stored in a secure, durable, hard waterproof case with yellow trims.

    At the end of a days shooting I take any cards that I have used and put them in an identical case but with a red trim. This stays in the hotel room. If I drop my bag off a cliff the next day, which is a possibility lets be honest, all I have lost is the images I took that day. Forget my gear – that is insured.

    I can’t replace the images that I have taken so reduce the risk by doing this. I don’t take a PC with me on trips anymore, just my iPad. I am thinking that I need to buy a device to give me an additional back up, some way of getting the stuff I have taken onto the cloud.

    This is something I am seriously considering at the moment. I have not lost any data to date, but this is not a reason to not improve on what I am doing at the moment.

    And thinking even more I did not backup my iPhone to the cloud – another thing that I need to think about.

    Shoes

    Yes shoes. I took these shoes to Santorini. Red Moshulu pumps.

    I was travelling light after all. So light I did not give this a seconds thought. Until I got there that is. And it was fine on day 1. Well my feet were a bit achy but ok. Day 2 they were a bit fragile in the morning, and by day 5 there were physically sore from the constant daily pounding on the hard surfaces I was walking up and down.

    I keep on writing about this to make sure I never forget to take proper walking shoes – these aren’t exactly heavy after all.

    And I do have a pair of walking shoes, some lightweight grippy soled wonders made by Salomon which I have had for years now and enable me to clamber all over the place like a nimble mountain goat.

    Well sort of.

    Do not forget proper shoes.

    Hats

    It is cold at 4am in Santorini in April. And I have very little hair. So I need a hat. When you are sat there for a an hour on the top of the caldera before sunrise with the wind blowing it can get cold.

    Me, Rick McEvoy on Santorini at sunrise

    And then when the sun comes up it gets warmer but on this occasion it was still not hot until mid-morning so I need two hats – a thick woolly one and a thinner lighter one.

    I happen to have two red North Face hats, which you can often see me wearing on those rare photos that I am actually in.

    No jacket required

    I checked the rainfall stats and decided to wing it with a fleece. That would deal with the light rain no problem, and if it really hammered it down I would be diving into shelter anyway.

    That was the plan.

    The reality is that where I was there was no shelter, so if it had rained I would have been well and truly done for. And with wet feet as well. Thankfully my camera bag is waterproof.

    So, next time I am going to have a lightweight windproof shower proof top that will give me the protection I need – lightweight layers is the way forward.

    Obviously in the UK I have a range of cold and wet weather clothing permanently in my car.

    Snacks

    Snacks are important. And I didn’t take any. So I had to just buy whatever I could find. This is a mistake I keep on making – I keep forgetting to get suitable snacks for 5am in the morning. I end up with things like Mars Bars, which are all good and lovely, but can be a bit messy out in the field and if not eaten melt and get squashed.

    I need to come up with the best snacks for photography – now that I have written this I have reminded myself that I need to sort this before I leave for my next trip, and not wing it when I get there.

    The other problem is that I tend to forget this when I am away. Sunsets merges into drinks and dinner, and when we get back to the hotel after dinner this is when I pack my bag. This is when I realise that I didn’t get any snacks. And by then it is too late to do anything – shops open at 10pm are pretty limited in Imerovigli after all!

    Drinks

    Really the same point as above – I normally end up with a can of Pepsi Max at 5am whilst I am sat all set up waiting for the sun to rise. Not the best drink for that time of the day.

    Water and cordial concentrate are the fix to this – the problem is the quantity of water I need and how I carry it. Basically I need to be able to carry a second bottle.

    Where to eat in Santorini

    Well there are lots of places, but the one place that we really loved was actually a take away place in Imerovigli. I know tragic but it was that kind of busy trip.

    As this is not a travel guide to Santorini I will get back to the photography stuff.

    But the Chicken Gyros was completely ace!

    Getting home

    The worst part of any great trip is leaving. Yes we all have to do it. Going to the airport was the first time I had left the caldera in days, apart from when we walked to Oia that is.

    The beauty of a small island is that the airport is never far away, if there is an airport that is.

    Check out my other website Paxos Travel Guide for more on that! No there is on airport on the Greek Island of Paxos.

    What is Santorini airport like?

    My memories of Santorini airport are somewhat limited. I remember standing outside in the last of the sunshine before having to return back to the UK in April – that would be the last sun either of us would see in a while! And having checked in we walked into departures, which was pretty much a room with nothing other than basic WCs. And we just waited in that room for an hour before being released!

    Insurance

    Boring but important – make sure you are insured, and that your photography gear is insured. And if you are working commercially you will need Public Liability Insurance. And you will need general travel insurance.

    Basically – be insured.

    Importing into Lightroom

    This is the first job when I get home. Well the first photography job that is. I need to get the images onto my PC external hard drive and also backed up to the cloud. And I also do a third backup to another external hard drive, which is stored off-site.

    Only when this is done do I delete the images from my memory cards.

    I always have the images in three separate places.

    When I import images into Lightroom I apply develop pre-sets. These get my processing off to a start. I apply the following adjustments to every image on import.

    I also add my copyright information in a metadata pre-set.

    Last thing I do is put the images in a folder called Santorini 2017 – obvious and effective.

    I also put the sets of three bracketed images into stacks, so only the first image is visible. This helps enormously with image selection.

    I know that this slows down the importing process but I start to import from a card then go off and have a beer or do something else. Once the images have been imported from a card I put the card in a black fabric SD cardholder which lives in a drawer in my office.

    Yes I really am that cautious with my memory cards.

    Getting down to 20 images

    Once the images are in Lightroom I then have to decide which images I want to edit. Now if I was starting afresh with this set of images, knowing how many images and what I want to do with them the process would go like this.

    First pass – go through the images one by one, then hit the P key for any image I like the look of.

    Once done I select the filter bar at the top, so only images which I have picked are visible.

    I then go through the images again one by one, and anything I am not sure of using the U key I Unpick the image, removing the flag and removing the image from view.

    I keep on doing this until I have a selection of images that I can look at in Grid View. I am now looking for the images that will make up a cohesive set. I make the images as big as possible in Grid View (getting rid of the side bars using Control Tab), and basically keep on unpicking till I am down to the number of images I want, in this case 20.

    Once I have 20 images I put them in a new sub-folder called Picks. I then move the rest of the images into a new sub-folder called simply Rest.

    Last thing is to add these 20 images to a Collection in Lightroom so I can view them using Lightroom Mobile on my iPad and iPhone.

    Sorry last thing is to remove the flags – I don’t need them any more.

    As to processing in Lightroom, that really is a subject in it’s own right.

    • I work in a logical sequence, which is this.
    • Crop/ Transform
    • White balance
    • Basic Panel
    • HSL Panel
    • Effects

    And then I go to Photoshop to remove bits and clean up images.

    If you want to know more about how I edit my images check out my main website and my weekly photography blog.

    What about the other images?

    I took over 2000 images, yet there are only 20 on this website. What am I going to do with the other images? Well there were going to be 100 images on 100 blog posts, but I realised that this would be a big mistake – I dont have the time for that much as I would like to.

    I have other websites to create!

    I have created a gallery titled My Big Fat Greek Photo Gallery with all the images that I have edited. There are 99 photos of Santorini in these five galleries.

    I was not going to do much with the other images until I had this change of mind – I would like to make money form my photography work, so placing them on my own website was the right thing to do.

    Once this is all done I am going to wait, possibly 6 – 9 months, before I add anything else to this website. I need to see if the website performs as hoped.

    Lightroom metadata

    Metadata on images used to be a real problem for me until I worked out one thing, which is this.

    You only need to add metadata to images if you are going to put them somewhere other than on the hard drive where they live. Taking the set of photos of Santorini for example, I spent too much time trying to come up with a plan for the metadata, but in the end this is what I did.

    Copyright info – this is applied on import

    Filename, title, caption, keywords.

    Out of all the photos I took in Santorini, I only need to worry about the metadata to the images that I am going to post to my website.

    That is 20 images only.

    Well 99 actually!!

    I have done the work on the metadata properly for all 99 images – it didnt take too long in Lightroom and once done it is done.

    There are some keywords which apply to all the images, such as

    Santorini, Greek Islands, travel, tourism

    I apply those to every image.

    And then I add keywords relevant to each particular image – think of this as describing each image in words to a search engine.

    Now I know people say that keywords are less important than they were, and maybe even irrelevant now, but I still feel this is worth doing. It took me circa 2 hours to keyword, title, file name and caption all the images on this website. And this was done in Lightroom, so only needs doing the once.

    I change the filename of each image individually so the keyword relevant to that image is in the file name, and also in the title and description. The description field is a longer amount of text describing the image in more detail. I use the same text in the title as I do for the filename to be honest.

    It really is that simple.

    Keyword research

    I use the free keyword search tool in Moz. I can do 10 keywords searches a month for free. I don’t use the Google keyword search tool any more. It is my understanding that this should be used when trying to find keywords for Adwords, ads bought via Google. Which I do not do.

    The other thing that I do use is the Google search function – I see what the autocomplete does, and also other searches listed at the bottom of the page.

    Things I wish I had done better

    There are things that I could have done better. There are things that went just fine. And there are things that I have learnt.

    All good stuff – what I want to do is develop what I have learnt and improve on certain areas, which I will write about here. These things are all relevant to helping you and I improve our photography in various ways. Photography is after all a love, a vocation and a journey.

    We never stop learning.

    Gear

    What could I improve with my gear? I think the main thing would be the systematic photographing of it for commercial uses.

    As to the gear itself it all worked perfectly, and I did not miss anything. There are a few specific things what I will write about later.

    The only thing is that I would love to have a much smaller camera/ lens combo than my Canon 6D and various lenses. They were all good and lovely on this trip, but I find it too much of pain. Especially on family holidays where apart from when I go out to shoot a sunrise I have found myself sticking with my iPhone.

    GPS capture

    I need to make sure that the GPS is on and working as quite a few photos have the GPS data missing. And if I took iPhone photos at every location I know that I have the data there. More on this later under lessons learned.

    Video capture

    Basically I need to do more videos using my iPhone 7 Plus. Lots more videos

    • Behind the scenes
    • Images being taken – I love these
    • Me talking to the camera explaining something
    • Me talking whilst filming a location
    • Videos showing my photography gear
    • Video blog posts – something I have been thinking about for a log time now

    Audio on video

    The audio on my videos is quite dreadful I need to get a mic for my iPhone 7 Plus – I have one for my iPhone 5C but the lightning connector is now the headphone jack (thanks Apple) so my Rode Video Mic won’t plug into my iPhone 7 Plus.

    That will provide a significant improvement in the quality of the videos that I produce.

    More systematic approach to daytime shooting

    Whilst I love wandering around and finding things to take photos of, and I don’t want to lose the spontaneity of my photography trips, I need to be a bit more systematic.

    And I don’t want to pre-plan everything, and research locations to death so I am going to location A to get a shot, then location B for another shot etc.

    There is a happy medium in-between the two, which is where I want to be. Have a bit of a plan, and make sure that I cover all the aspects of a location while I am there. That means not going back to places unless there is something new to be captured, and a bit more stuff in built-up parts of locations.

    Lessons learned.

    There are a number of things that I could do better. With everything I do I try to make improvements where I feel I need to. These are the things that I need to work on.

    Backing up my photos.

    I am not happy with my current plan. This has not caused me a problem, and I have not lost any images yet, but I think there are improvements that I can make here. I need to get some device that will allow me to back up my images to the cloud when I am on a trip.

    Clothing

    I need something that is lightweight, windproof, waterproof and small and light enough to be able to be folded away in my camera bag somewhere.

    Image capture

    I need to spend more time and thought on recording the image capture process – I am talking here about behind the scenes photos and videos.

    Video

    I need to improve the standard of my videos. I need to use my DJI Osmo Mobile. Well to use my DJI Osmo Mobile I need to take it with me. And to take it with me I need a bigger bag.

    And If I get a bigger bag I will solve my coat storage problem, and also my water-carrying problem.

    Getting back to the problem I need to vastly improve my video production – all I am doing at the moment is pointing my iPhone at things and hoping. Some of my more recent stuff has been much better to be fair.

    I need to think more about my video capture and take it as seriously as my still image capture.

    And I need to do more videos where I am talking to the camera and describing what I am filming.

    Thankfully my videos are so poor improvements will be significant and easy to achieve.

    More gear shots

    Photos of my gear have value, and can be used in blog posts on my main website as well as on travel photography websites. These photos have a commercial value and need to be built into every shoot.

    Story telling,

    I need to decide what I want for a website before I go on a trip. This will be much easier having produced my first travel photography website, and work has already started on my second website.

    Rather then getting back from a trip and wondering what to do with the stuff I have captured I now have a plan to take with me on trips so I am producing the content whilst I am at a location – a much more effective way of working.

    And I can incorporate commercial and promotional shots into this story telling.

    Daily journal.

    This was the big learning point from my trip to Paxos, which was after I had started work on this website. This was the part of the realisation that I needed to approach this part of my photography business in a different way, which is what I have done. I wrote a daily journal while on holiday in Paxos, with nearly 15,000 words written on my iPad, which with refinement will end up being nearer 20,000 words with accompanying images, making about 1/3rd of the content of that website.

    iPhone/ DLSR captures

    This is a big one for me. I need to combine my iPhone photos and videos with the photos taken on my Canon DSLRs in a much better way.

    And also take more videos on my Canon 6D.

    Will this be as simple as importing all the photos and videos into Lightroom? It really could be that simple.

    Time zones

    I often forget to change the time on my camera. Infuriating but a mistake I really should not be making. Thankfully I can change the image capture time in Lightroom after the event.

    Snacks and drinks

    Yes I need to sort this. Basically I need more food and drinks when I am out and about on my feet for hours on end. And a bigger bag!

    It seems that one of the main things is that I need a bigger bag!

    My Santorini website

    What was the end point of all of this? A brand new website called Photos of Santorini. And this is the last post on this website.

    When I say last post I mean the last post for now. I might come back to this website and add more photos but for now this it.

    One website, 20 blog posts about 20 photos, 99 photos in galleries, and one big post putting all the bits together. Two big posts in the end.

    And that Big Fat Greek Photo Gallery – well I had to call it that!

    If this proves to be a successful website it will act as the template for other travel photography websites from my travels all over this wonderful planet of yours.

    Summary

    I hope that you have found my round up posts titled Santorini photography tips helpful – you can get back to the first part of this post here.

    And with that I will say goodbye for a while.

    Oh yes – please don’t forget my other website Paxos Travel Guide which I am going to get back to work on now.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy an image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

  • Santorini photography tips – what I have learned – Part 1

    I have been on a dedicated photography trip to Santorini. This fantastic trip has culminated in me producing a website called Photos of Santorini. And you have found it so welcome.

    In this series of two posts, titled Santorini Photography Tips, I will tell you everything that I have learned on my photographic trip to the Greek Island of Santorini. This is in addition to the 20 images and accompanying blog posts which are already on this website. And lets not forget my Big Fat Greek photo gallery!

    After reading this post (in two parts) you will be much better informed on what to expect from a photographic trip to Santorini, and also get some tips from me for photography trips to other places.

    About my new website Photos of Santorini

    I never thought that a photography trip to Santorini would result in me producing a brand new website dedicated to my Santorini photos but here we are!

    This post is the last post for now. I have already published some introductory posts which I wrote when I created this website. The bulk of the content is the 20 posts about the 20 Santorini photos which I completed yesterday.

    This is and the complete set of fully edited photos of Santorini which you can find in a single online gallery which I am going to call My Fat Big Greek Photo Gallery.

    This post is a summary of everything that I experienced and learned from my trip to Santorini.

    Planning at home

    I have to be honest here, I am not a big one for planning photography trips whilst I am at home. Of course I will do a bit of research to find out if there is enough of interest in a location for me to photograph, but once I have established that the location is interesting enough for me to photograph is my planning pretty much done!

    I do not search through Google looking at photos that others have already taken. I don’t want to know what other people have photographed. This way I do not arrive there with any pre-conceptions, I don’t have other peoples work cluttering my head.

    I get to a location knowing the general landscape and topography and take it from there. I like to find things myself, on foot, or in a car.

    And that is pretty much what I did in Santorini – I spent a lot of time finding things to take photos of.

    Now I am not saying that this is the best way to approach photographing a new location, but it works for me and makes it more of an adventure. I am sure I am missing out on some of the headline glamour shots but I am fine with that. My way I might find something that is less photographed and have more interest.

    There is of course a downside to this – I might unwittingly stumble on some headline photography locations and photograph them to within an inch of their lives.

    But I am happy to take that risk!

    There is one thing that I do ascertain before I go anywhere though – the time of sunrise and sunset, and also how the sun traverses from one to the other in relation to the location I am going to.

    Gear

    For a trip like this I travel light. This is through choice. Bearing in mind that I am on a photographic journey of discovery on foot the last thing I want to do is be loaded down with a bag full of gear.

    I used to carry everything in one single, large Lowepro bag. I could barely lift the bag onto my shoulders, and adding a tripod to the outside of the bag made it even more of a nightmare, making the bag heavier and more unwieldy.

    Getting anything out of my bag was too much trouble.

    But still I had all my gear with me ha!!!

    It got to the point where I first stopped using my tripod, and then actually stopped taking my tripod with me at all, leaving it in the boot my car

    And I used very little of the gear that I was actually carrying.

    That was some time ago, and a number of foreign trips have forced me to change my ways. That and of course working on live construction sites where I need to be lightweight and nimble on my feet.

    And the realisation that I was being quite stupid – that particular penny needed to drop.

    Now I restrict myself to a single backpack, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack. And the 20 litre one at that – not the larger 30 litre one. This is not only my camera bag for photography trips but also my hand luggage for getting to and from these foreign locations.

    Peak Design Everyday Backpack on the Santorini caldera
    Peak Design Everyday Backpack on the Santorini caldera

    For the getting there and back bit I put some of the heavier stuff in my hold luggage, which gives me room for the inevitable airport/ plane purchases of newspapers I don’t read, crisps, snacks, small bottles of wine and over-processed sandwiches.

    And of course smellies and discounted jewellery products on the plane.

    When I am out and about taking photos I have just that bag with me. This bag takes a drinks bottle on one outside pocket and my tripod on the other.

    And that is it.

    Lightweight, nimble, minimalist. I only take essential things that I use on every trip. In one small lightweight backpack.

    My gear page – and full time for disclosure

    I have a separate page with all my gear listed here – there are affiliate links to all my gear, some to Amazon and the Peak Design one goes back to the good folks at Peak Design so if you use any of these links and buy something I get a commission.

    Luggage

    I am talking non-photography stuff here. And the point I want to make here is what exactly?

    Well first thing is that stuff that is not breakable and heavy goes in my checked luggage. That and of course my Leatherman (aka potential weapon as far as airport security are concerned), lens cleaning fluid (i.e. liquid over 100ml) and my tripod. Yes that has a big impact on my luggage capacity. And the shoes I pack. More on that later….

    But there is something else. I went to Santorini in April. Surely the weather is lovely on the Greek Island of Santorini in April?

    Yes of course it is, but not that warm on top of the caldera at 4am!

    When you are going on a photography trip you need to pack for the weather at times when sensible people are tucked up in bed. The times when you will be sat on top of a hill in the darkness not moving for potentially hours at a time.

    For my photography trip to Santorini this consisted of a fleece, actual walking trousers and two red hats (of varying thicknesses – more on that later as well).

    Packing

    Breakables in my hand luggage, the rest in my hold luggage.

    I don’t have a packing list, but I should do – that will be seriously useful. I might print off my gear list and use that as my packing list. This will serve two purposes.

    1. I will not forget anything.
    2. I will not pack anything that is not on the packing list.

    I need to remember to add some non-photography stuff to my packing list, if I had one that is!

    Getting there

    Easy enough. Fly from Gatwick to Santorini, taxi from the airport to the hotel, job done. No dramas on the way or the way back. Everything was on time, nothing got lost, and the flight was absolutely fine. Flight time from Gatwick just under four hours. Airport transfer less than half an hour.

    Nice and easy.

    Where we stopped – the most excellent Kasimatis Suites in Imerovigli.

    We stopped at the Kasimatis Suites in Imerovigli. My wonderful wife spent a lot of time choosing this excellent hotel, with amazing views of the caldera from the hotel itself. I will write a separate post about the hotel (when they get back to me with some info that is), but I need to tell you this now.

    If you are looking for a hotel where you can photograph stunning sunrises and stunning sunsets from the actual hotel itself then this is a great place to stay.

    I actually have a couple of photos on this website taken at the hotel – that is how good the location and views were.

    And one of those photos was taken from inside our room. And another photo was an interesting shot of the hotel reception – yep I have managed to shoehorn architectural photography into this website!

    At the hotel you can get breakfast delivered to your room on a tray which was great. I would get back from my sunset shoot, have a cuppa with my wife and wait for breakfast to be delivered – what a fantastic way to work!!

    A great location, lovely rooms, great service – Kasimatis Suites in Imerovigli is highly recommended by both of us and we look forward to going back there.

    Locations I photographed

    Well everywhere we went was on foot from our hotel in Imerovigli.

    Here is the map from Lightroom which shows where most of the images featured on this website were photographed. I say most as there were a couple of times here the GPS on my Canon 6D did not work. But you get the idea of how little of the island I actually covered.

    Sunrise on Santorini

    This is what I am here for. I love my sunrises. I prefer sunrise to sunsets to be honest.

    Normally when I am photographing sunrise I am on my own and have time to enjoy things. The downside is of course that I have to get up at stupid ‘o’clock in the morning.

    When we were in Santorini I used to set the alarm for 4am, with my camera bag packed the night before ready to go. This is a case of preparation – I need to get up, get myself sorted and out of the house without waking anyone up.

    It is colder before sunrise so you need clothing to suit, and also sunglasses that are effective enough to block that directional morning light whilst enabling you to read the tiny numbers on the camera. Difficult at my age..

    And what were the sunrises like on Santorini?

    Sunrise on Santorini was simply spectacular. Each day was different.

    The first morning there was low cloud down below us. I walked down the steps at the hotel to the lowest rooms, and the cloud was right below me. You can read about this photo in the post Fantastic Santorini photography – low cloud at sunrise.

    Other sunrises featured clear skies and sun, my least preferred, and on the other side of the island varying clouds and lighting, which you can read about in this post Probably one of the best Santorini photo locations?.

    Santorini sunsets – how good are they?

    I guess it depends where they are – you need to find the best sunset spots, which is the easiest thing in the world to do when you are stopping at the Kasimatis Suites – you are already there!

    I even took this photo in the post Where can I see the sunset in Santorini from my hotel room? from our hotel room so good was the room we chose. When I say we I mean Nickie, my wife – the whole trip was down to her. And what a choice of hotel!

    As I said I prefer sunrises to sunsets. Sunsets tend to happen at a more anti-social time than sunrises, at the time of day when I am away that I would quite like a beer!

    Talking of which I did take some sunset shots whilst having a beer at the hotel which was lovely.

    From Kasimatis Suites we got direct views of the sun setting directly above Thirasia on the other side of the caldera.

    Santorini sunsets are pretty famous, and much photographed. I have tried to create some different sunset images.

    And they are much warmer than sunrises.

    Gear list.

    This is the page with my gear list.

    And this is all the gear with my new Peak Design Everyday Backpack.

    Nope – no spare camera body. A calculated risk as I have only ever had one body fail on me ever, and that was of my own doing. Even when I dropped my Canon 6D on a rock hard floor in a National Trust office it still worked fine.

    So as long as I don’t drop my camera I should be fine…..

    Image capture – how I take my travel photography images.

    I use a very similar technique with my travel photography work that I have refined over my years as an architectural photographer.

    The principles are the same for both architectural and travel photography – the subject is not moving, there are no people and I am on my own with time to create the compositions I want.

    These are some of the key features of my image capture process

    1. I always use a tripod unless I am in a built up area or there just isn’t room.
    2. I only use either the 24-105mm lens or the 17-40 and 70-200mm lenses.
    3. I tend to shoot as wide as the lens allows. Top tip – I sometimes stick gaffer tape on my Canon 17-40mm lens so it stays at 17mm.
    4. I use back-button focus, and normally focus 1/3rd of the way into my composition.
    5. I use a loupe viewer so I can see the screen.
    6. I use Live View and the viewfinder to make my composition – I alternate between the two.
    7. I take time getting the composition I want. If I have time that is.
    8. I may take one photo of a composition, or lots if the light is changing, clouds moving or the sun rising or setting.
    9. I compose so there is no/ minimal cropping.
    10. I walk around a lot when I get to somewhere interesting to find things to photograph.

    That should have been titled my Top 10 Santorini Travel Photography Tips! Ok it just has done.

    These are some of the camera settings that I use on my Canon 6D.

    1. AV Mode – I use AV Mode, meaning all I need to do is select the aperture, normally the only variable I am interested in.
    2. ISO 100.
    3. F8 – F16 unless there is something specific that requires something else.
    4. RAW image capture – I shoot in RAW and convert to Jpeg later.
    5. Auto-bracketing – I take three bracketed images – the first is the correct exposure, the second two stops under-exposed and last one two stops over exposed. I merge these together afterwards in Lightroom.
    6. GPS on.
    7. Focus Mode – one shot.
    8. Drive Mode – continuous.
    9. Back button focus – I have separated focus and metering.
    10. I use the self-timer on my Canon 6D.

    I use these settings all the time, meaning that I get not only a consistent set of images but of equal importance to me I don’t need to worry about my camera at all – all I need to think about is the aperture (if it is not F8) and where I focus – the rest is pretty much all sorted for me.

    Leaving me to concentrate on the most important thing, the composition.

    Do I use any filters?

    All I have with me these days is my Lee Big Stopper ND filter and a circular polarising filter.

    The Lee Big Stopper is a beast of a filter, giving me a 10-stop reduction in light passing through to the sensor. I use this mainly for photographing water. 10 stops gives me a much slower shutter speed which means I can get that lovely silky flat water, and variations on this.

    I can also get movement in clouds.

    And the best thing of all is that I can do this in broad daylight – outstanding.

    I also have circular polariser that I rarely use these days to be honest. All my other filters are in a box in my garage.

    Protecting my lenses

    I do not use protective filters on my lenses – why would I? Why spend hundreds and more pounds on a camera lens and then stick a £50 filter on the front of it?

    I have never damaged the front surface of a lens. I always have the lens hood on – that is the best protection for the front element in my opinion.

    And I always put the lens cap on if I am not taking photos.

    These two things have kept my lenses front elements safe and intact for a long time now.

    And I hope that in writing this I am not tempting fate. I have just told my Tassimo coffee machine that after the last pack of coffee pods it is being replaced with a cafetiere (yes I do really talk to kitchen appliances). It responded by spewing coffee all over the place!!

    Why do I do HDR image capture?

    Simple. There is HDR which people like myself practice, and then there is the over processed HDR that looks all false and horrible. You know the things I mean – all over saturated with grungy textures and halos all over the shop.

    I take three bracketed images, which I merge together in Lightroom. All this is doing is adding the extra bits of data in the scene that my Canon 6D cannot capture in a single image.

    There is no trickery to this – that is all that is happening.

    And I have to be honest doing this means I don’t have to think about the camera settings for the image capture as most things are covered.

    You might call this lazy, and you might be right, but I am much more interested in concentrating on what I am taking photos of rather than fiddling with my camera settings.

    Back-button focus.

    A wonderful thing this is. What does back-button focus mean?

    With my Canon 6D in its default setting, you press the shutter button and the camera takes the meter reading and focuses where the camera is told to focus. Now my Canon 6D only has 11 focus points so it is quite straightforward.

    I have changed the operation of the shutter release button to activate the shutter only – there is a button on the back of the Canon 6D that I use for focus. I like to focus first, and then take photos as and when. I don’t want to be focussing every shot, as with a sunrise I could take a sequence of 10, 20, 30 or more images, and I want the focus point to be the same for all of the image captures.

    AV Mode

    I use AV Mode on my Canon 6D to keep things simple. I take most of my photos on a tripod, only hand holding in bright sunshine, when I am on the move or when there is no room for a tripod, like on those grey painted footpaths that meander through the white buildings of Santorini.

    As I use my tripod I don’t really need to worry about the shutter speed unless it is particularly windy and trees and clouds are moving quickly.

    I am interested of course in the aperture to make sure I get the depth of field I want for the composition, so I change the aperture for each shot and the shutter is sorted for me by the camera.

    Lenses

    I have three lenses for travel photography. I tend to use the Canon 17–40mm lens the most, and change to the Canon 24-105mm lens when I am walking around places. The Canon 70–200 F4 L lens I use as and when needed.

    I sometimes go on trips with just my Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens, but for my photographic trip to Santorini I took all three lenses providing me with a back up in case one lens failed.

    And that is part 1 of my Santorini Photography Tips done – click here for part 2.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy an image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

  • Fantastic Santorini photography – low cloud at sunrise

    Fantastic Santorini photography – low cloud at sunrise

    Sunrise with clouds below the caldera photographed from Kasimatis Suites. Sunrise and sunset can be different every day, like this surreal sunrise with a blanket of cloud just below the hotel in Imerovigli on the Greek Island of Santorini

    This is one of my favourite images of Santorini.

    When I say fantastic photography I need to explain – this is not me bigging myself up – I just needed to get the keyword Santorini photography into one blog post – no point trying to hide this is there?

    In all seriousness I really do love this photo of a weather phenomenon which you can’t get anywhere – you need certain conditions to get clouds right below your hotel like I saw this morning!

    This is still one of my favourite photos of Santorini.

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    I have never seen such a scene before. This was what greeted us on the first morning.

    A blanket of cloud immediately below us. Now I had moved around quite a lot taking lots of photos of all this good stuff before returning to the hotel to get this great photo with that dense layer of grey morning clouds with the sunrise immediately above.

    I love the contrast of the colours and the uniqueness of this scene.

    And the fact that it was taken at the actual hotel that we stayed at is special to me. Special as my wife spent a lot of time choosing this exact hotel for my photographic trip to Santorini.

    And what a great choice of hotel she came up with!

    How did I decide on this composition?

    This was the view from the back of the hotel, the Kasimatis Suites.

    Kasimatis Suites at sunrise with low cloud IMG_8316

    I went down to the steps at the bottom of the hotel, below which there is nothing but rocks and the sea.

    And on this day clouds.

    The scene did not work as well for me – the composition from there was not as interesting.

    I settled on the view you can see in the main image on this post – this was telling the story of a morning at a hotel on the Greek Island of Santorini. A sunrise morning with low clouds, which is not unique but hardly a daily occurrence either.

    I love the contrast between the hardness of the white buildings and the softness of the grey clouds, all topped off by that lovely sunrise warmth which has not yet reached down to the clouds below.

    Where was the photo taken?

    At the Kasimatis Suites in Imerovigli on the Greek Island of Santorini. I have to say this as some people will read this one blog posts on its own so I have to explain in enough detail these things on every post!

    Look at the extract from Lightroom. It is so detailed you can see the swimming pool, and exactly where I took this photo!

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    4:53. Yep that early.

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot?

    • Canon 6D
    • Canon 24-105mm F4 L Lens
    • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
    • Peak Design Everyday Backpack
    • Loupe Viewer
    • Red hat
    • Oakley sunglasses
    • Red shoes – fresh on!
    • This was pre-morning coffee!

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F8
    • Shutter speeds 1/250th second, 1/1000th second and 1/60th second.
    • ISO 100
    • Back-button focus
    • Focal length 24mm
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    One interesting fact about the image.

    It is taken just down from our room at the Kasimatis Suites. The steps down were to some of the other rooms in the hotel.

    And I had not even had a coffee – it was a case of wake up and get out there.

    OK there is one more fact – I was woken by my wife who was awake before me and opened the curtains to be greeted with this amazing scene!

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    No. There was much too much going on for that! Which I will be completely honest with you is a regret.

    I would have loved to have some videos of this bank of morning cloud, but I don’t have any. Another reason to go back to Santorini then.

    Having said that there is this video taken from a slightly different viewpoint which gives you an idea of what the scene looked like, and sounded like!

    How did I process the image?

    This one took a while to produce in Lightroom. First job was to merge the three bracketed images together in Lightroom to form a new Dng file.

    Next job was to get the verticals and horizontals correct. After that I always do white balance.

    This gives me a technically accurate starting point for the more creative processing.

    Most of the processing was done in the Basic and HSL panels in Lightroom. There was quite a bit of cleaning up to do, removing blemishes, dust spots and random bits of lights and stuff in the building that were detracting from the scene.

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    Hmmm. Not sure to be honest.

    I need to get rid of that bit of wall bottom right I have only just noticed this writing this section.

    And that is the point of me asking this question – it forces me to look at the images I have created and see what is in there that I dont like, and think about ways that I could have created a better image.

    This is something I recommend everyone does who wants to Improve their pototgraphy – critique your photos yourself and even better get someone else to do this for you.

    Not you parents, husband, wife, children or best friend. They will just say that they think your photos are great even if they are rubbish!

    No ask someone who knows what they are talking about who will be honest with you.

    My first critique as with a Hasselblad Master who was my BIPP mentor no less!

    Look at a your photos – study them. I recommend once you have processed a set of images leave them for a decent length of time and then come back to them and give yourself time to look at them and study them properly – you will be amazed what you will find that has always been there that you never noticed before like that bit of wall bottom right!

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    I have never seen weather like this. I have never looked down on clouds from my hotel with a big bright band of orange sunrise light above the clouds.

    This scene was surreal, and a morning that I will not forget in a long time.

    I am happy that this image brings back those memories of that morning – this is why I love photography so much.

    And also why I want to go back to wonderful Santorini. Then again there are so many other places on this wonderful planet of ours.

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Have you ever seen such a lovely sunrise photo on Santorini?

    Am I right describing this as fantastic Santorini photography??

    Let me know what you think, even if it is to tell me that I have been speaking a load of rubbish!

    Talking of my next venture, now that I am getting near to the end of the creation of this website I would like to tell you about my next website which I will be working on next week called Paxos Travel Guide. Yes I am staying in Greece and producing another travel website, this one with slightly different content to photos of Santorini.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

     

  • Stunning view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock

    Stunning view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock

    The spectacular view from Skaros Rock looking towards Fira, the capital of Santorini. Colour is provided by the lovely yellow spring flowers which contrast with the deep blue sea. To the right you can see the volcano called Nea Kameni

    I have said this on more than one occasion, but I will say it again – there are some fantastic views from the Greek Island of Santorini.

    But this stunning view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock is one of my favourites. And in this post I will tell you exactly why.

    Nea Kameni Island is the actual volcano bit by the way! I have just found tha tout researching this photo!

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    There is so much about this image that I like.

    The bright blue of the sky. The lovely deep blue sea.

    And the yellow of the flowers that dominate the foreground.

    And finally over ot the left the famous white buildings of Santroini sat on top of the caldera.

    And then there is the view – quite simply a stunning view from the top of Skaros Rock giving a great perspective on the caldera.

    How did I decide on this composition?

    I spent a good hour on the top of Skaros Rock. The first five minutes were spent breathing and drinking after the climb to the top of Skaros Rock.

    And sweating. Nice I know!

    Or as I like to call it consdering potential compositions.

    I’ll let you into a secret here – sometimes when I stop to take a photo on a strenuous walk I am not taking a photo – I am just having a sneaky rest!

    I wanted to get the sense of the scale of the view from the top of Skaros Rock, and contrast the blue of the sea with the yellow of the flowers, getting some white buildings into the picture too.

    I moved all around the edge of the rock until I got the curved shape that you can see in this image – this was the natural frame for he composition I was looking for.

    Where was the photo taken?

    This is the view from the built-up bit of Imerovigli looking down onto Skaros Rock – which is where I took the photo from.

    This was taken on my iPhone by the way.

    Skaros Rock viewed from Imerovigli IMG_8342

    And this is Skaros Rock and the path up to the base of the upstanding rock at the top. If that makes any sense?

    The path up Skaros Rock on Santorini IMG_8346

    And for completeness, here is an extract from Lightroom showing where I took the photo – as ever it is the yellow tab.

    Skaros Rock Lightroom Map 23102018

    Not that you needed this last bit of info to find Skaros Rock! It is that rock bit with it’s own name!

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    13:09:47 to be precise. And why not?

    Here is a picture of the actual set up of my Canon 6D on my Manfrotto 190 Go tripod – yes this is exactly how I took the photo.

    Taking a photo from Skaros Rock on the Greek Island of Santorini IMG_8354

    And you can see the last of the cloud lingering around that earlier on that morning had completely covered the sea forming a surreal carpet – check out my other posts for a great photo of this – even if I do say so myself!

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot?

    My camera setup for the photo taken on Skaros Rock Santorini IMG_8355

    • Canon 6D
    • Canon 17-40mm F4 L Lens
    • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
    • Peak Design Everyday Backpack
    • Loupe Viewer
    • No red hat – I was nice and warm by this time after a good, energetic climb up Skaros Rock. Ok I was hot, sweaty and knackered!!
    • Oakley sunglasses (lenses marked with drips of sweat that I could not get rid of)
    • Red shoes (in need of a clean after the climb)
    • No snacks required – just water! And I took two bottles with me this time which makes a change!

    Yes I climbed all the way up Skaros Rock, and down again, and to the bit at the front with the other church wearing those silly red pumps. Here it is in this iPhone panoramic photo taken from the other side of Skaros Rock.

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F16
    • Shutter speeds 1/80th second, 1/320th second and 1/20th second.
    • ISO 100
    • Back-button focus
    • Focal length 17mm
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    What a surprise that I used 17mm on my 17-40mm lens! I have noticed this a lot – that and that I take a lot of photos with my old faithful Canon 24-105mm lens at 24mm. Interesting.

    I think I need to get a 14mm fixed lens – that will sort me out and give me more width which I love for my travel photogrpahy work.

    One interesting fact about the image.

    I was the only person on Skaros Rock when I took this photo. In the hour I was up there I saw four other people.

    Nice and quiet, even at that time – just how I like it!

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    Yes – well sort of. I have a short video looking down on Skaros Rock before I left the built-up part of Imerovigli – you can see the footpath and the last of the fast moving clouds in the video here.

    I am not sure why I did not take lots of videos of this location – Skaros Rock offers excellent 360 views of the caldera which you don’t get from anywhere else.

    How did I process the image?

    This is the processing carried out in Lightroom.

    Skaros Rock to Fira Lightroom 23102018

    Basic adjustments and corrections are done on import of all images into Lightroom. Further processing was carried out using the Basic Panel and the HSL Panel, along with localised dodging and burning.

    Blemishes and edge of frame irritations were removed using Photoshop.

    Not too much needed to be done to this image,

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    More cruise ships would have been ether but there was only one there when I took this photo.

    You can’t have everything now can you??

    And looking at the image a higher viewpoint would have been good, giving the foreground more of a frame for the background.

    Problem with this is that I took this photo from the top of a large rock, a very large rock at that. A rock big enough to have it’s own name.

    And it is difficult to get step-ladders into my hand luggage, and I dont have a bag long enough to carry my painters’ pole. Not that I would carry my step ladders to the top of Skaros Rock!!

    But the painters’ pole – maybe I can get a bag big enough to carry my small painters’ pole??

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    I like this image as it gives a great view from the top of Skaros Rock looking south which I have not seen before.

    No this image is good – happy with it.

    I do have a lingering regret about not taking photos from this location at other times, and also of not taking lots of videos.

    This was truly a very dramatic location with lots of great photographic possibilities – I do not feel that I have done this location justice.

    So that being the case I think I need to go back there!!

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Do you like this photo of the view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock?

    Let me now what you think – it is always great to hear from visitors to my website new and old – all your comments are very welcome .

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

  • Images of Santorini – windmill at sunrise in Imerovigli

    Images of Santorini – windmill at sunrise in Imerovigli

    A picture taken as the sun is rising to the east with the cold blue light in the shade. An isolated old windmill is the first thing to be warmed by the morning sun from the East giving the building shape and form. This is a classic stunning sunrise view of Santorini

    I have tried to capture some great scenes that you can find in Santorini. For me this is one of them.

    Out of all the images of Santorini that I have seen I have never seen this view of one of the former windmills illuminated by the sunrise. This photo was taken in Imerovigli.

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    Simple. It is a fantastic Santorini sunrise scene. Sunrise on Santorini is always an experience, and this day was no exception. I took this photo as the sun was rising over to the right, which is the east.

    In this photo I am looking to the north, so I have the sun rising to the right (east), and the cold blue pre-sunrise light to the left (west), and the bottom of the view in the shadows.

    I have never seen this before coming to Santorini, where there are two different colour temperatures of light in one image.

    And add the low level clouds which were being blown over the caldera and we have a really distinctive scene full of atmosphere, mood and natural wonder.

    And then there is that one building, the former windmill, standing proudly above everything else being, warmed by the first rays of sunshine as a new day unfolds on the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini.

    Blimey – that was very poetic of me!!

    How did I decide on this composition?

    Well I had been all over the place photographing the endlessly varying scenes that morning with those surreal low level clouds constantly moving and changing.

    This is the windmill close up, photographed on my iPhone that morning.

    And this is the view from the other side of Kasimatis Suites, a panoramic photo taken with my iPhone.

    How did I decide on the composition?

    Well to be honest sometimes it is a case of walking around with your eyes fully open and aware of everything that is going on, watching what the light is doing, and on a morning like this what the fast moving cloud is up to.

    Having walked around I found a view that I liked, which was this one.

    I set up my Manfrotto tripod and placed my Canon 6D on it, and then I waited.

    I was waiting for two things.

    Firstly for the sun to get high enough after actual sunrise so the rear of the windmill, the eastern facing bit, was lit by the wonderful morning sun. And nothing else.

    You can see a couple of glimpses of sunlight on buildings lower down which add points of interest. Or distractions – depends how you look at it. But I left them in as they were their.

    Wish I’d never mentioned them now!

    Once the sun was where I wanted it I waited for the clouds to look their most dramatic – I couldn’t wait too long of course or the sun would have been higher and I would have lost the effect I was after.

    And I was interested to see that I used an 80mm focal length, which suggests quite a considered composition.

    Where was the photo taken?

    Right here where the yellow tab is. I am so glad that my Canon 6D has GPS built-in!

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    5:54am. And I had been up and about for some time capturing the magical scenes the morning clouds add to sunrise on Santorini.

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot?

    • Canon 6D
    • Canon 24-105mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 80mm)
    • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
    • Peak Design Everyday Backpack
    • Loupe Viewer
    • Red hat – I was in the shade when I took this so it was still cold.
    • Oakley sunglasses
    • Red shoes
    • Still burping from Pepsi Max!

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F16
    • Shutter speeds 1/200th second, 1/800th second and 1/50th second.
    • ISO 200
    • Back-button focus
    • Focal length 80mm
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    80mm focal length interests.me. Why is that? Because I did not use either end of the zoom range on my Canon 70-200mm lens.

    No I zoomed in a little bit to get the composition I wanted. And that tells me that I was thinking about my composition properly and that pleases me greatly.

    One interesting fact about the image.

    The cloud was moving. I had walked miles. But for this photo I had time to wait for the moment. It was a period of calm in the midst of a manic morning capturing the constantly changing scenes in front of me.

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    No. I was far too busy trying to capture this fantastic morning cloud.

    Seriously the cloud was moving so fast all I could do was keep looking, moving and taking photos.

    And it was one of the best mornings I experienced on Santorini – a truly memorable experience for me with a photo which I absolutely love.

    How did I process the image?

    This is nother bracketed set of three images merged together in Lightroom.

    This is a screenshot of the processing that I carried out in Lightroom. This shows most of the work that I did to this image, which to be honest was not that much

    After processing in Lightroom I had to go into Photoshop to remove a few sensor dust spots from the light part of the sky – they aren’t that obvious amongst dark grey clouds.

    One point – the compositions as a conscious one using a focal length of 80mm, and the image has not been cropped – this is quite literally what I saw when I was there.

    And that was that image all done and dusted.

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    I could have removed those glimpses of sun on the tops of the buildings lower down the caldera I guess.

    And I could have added a moon into the scene, but these are Photoshop things that whilst they might improve the image are not things that I want to do.

    This is what I saw enhancaed naturally and realistically in Lightroom and cleaned up in Photoshop.

    So thats you told!

    A tighter composition with the windmill, clouds and darkness could have been interesting, but then again I could do that by cropping in Lightroom.

    So when I say what could I have done to improve an image quite often the answer is not that but an alternative composition which would have given a different end result.

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    If you read my introduction to this image in the “Why do I like this photo so much?” section then you might have gathered that my poetic recollection of taking this image say sit all.

    This photo really takes me back to that moment, which is the most I can ask a photo to do for me.

    If a photo does this then I have achieved what I want.

    This is one of my favourite photos of Santorini. When I say that I mean favourite of the photos that I have taken, just in case you were thinking that I was purporting to have taken some of the best photos of Santorini!

    Far be it from me to say, but then again…..

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Do you like this image? Does this photo of one of those Santorini windmillls at sunrise make you want to be there?

    Let me know what you think please.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

     

  • Photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock

    Photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock

    This is what Santorini is all about – white buildings stuck on top of the volcanic caldera providing a spectacular and unique landscape. This is Imerovigli photographed from Skaros Rock

    We have all seen lots of photos of the white buildings of Imerovigli and other locations on the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini.

    But out of all the images of Santorini that we have all seen how many times have we seen this view – a photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock?

    Not often is the answer.

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    I like this photo as I have never seen this view of Imerovigli before. This is the view from Skaros Rock looking back up the caldera to the town of Imerovigli where we were stopping.

    I love this photo as it really does show how the buildings have been constructed slap bang on the top of the caldera.

    And how precarious does this development look? That is the story of this picture of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock.

    Those famous white buildings of Santorini perched on top of the caldera.

    How did I decide on this composition?

    Well I walked to Skaros Rock from Imerovigli after lunch on one of my epic photo taking days.

    I had been up since 4am, got back to the hotel and had lunch with Mrs M and then went off to climb Skaros Rock.

    But first I had to navigate the meandering footpaths therough all the white buildings to get to the very bottom level of Imerovigli. I took a few wrong turns along the way through the white buildings, passing people on sunloungers and eating lunch.

    Seriously I will post my top 10 Santorini tips in another post, but this will be one them.

    Check exactly where you will be staying before you book or you might have people like me walking right past your sunloungers all day.

    Anyway I eventually got down out of the hit painted buildings and on to the path in the rocks and did a good quick walk all the way round the rock and straight up to the top of Skaros Rock. Apart from the last bit but that is for later.

    This is how I travel. I get to the furthest/ highest point as quickly as possible and then work back from there – I like to get the worst out of the way. There is a bit of a scramble to get to the top of Skaros Rock which I managed easily as all my gear was in my Peak Design Everyday Backpack all nice and safely sorted.

    And wow what a fantastic location. Absolutely spectacular views all around. There is another photo on this website which was taken from the top of Skaros Rock which is equally sepactacular.

    This must be one of the best places to see the sunset in Santorini.

    I just sat there on top of the rock sipping my water and taking n the views – another reward for my hard work and intrepid adventuring!

    Where was the photo taken?

    This photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli percehd on top of the caldera was taken from the top of Skaros Rock. There is one other photo on my website taken from Skaros Rock, sowing the view looking towards Fira.

    This is the Lightroom extract of the location that the photo was taken at. It is the yellow tab.

    And this is what Skaros Rock looks like from Imerovigli

    Skaros Rock viewed from Imerovigli

    And finally this is the view of the photo being taken. I know this is with the 70-200mm lens – I swapped lenses after this shot to get the wide view.

    Photographing Imerovigli from Skaros Rock IMG_8360

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    1.30pm. I walked there straight after lunch, this time going out taking photos with a full belly of food and actual water to drink.

    I know – actual drinks!!

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot

    Here is a photo of some of my gear with Imerovigli in the background.

    • Canon 6D
    • Canon 17-40mm F4 L Lens
    • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
    • Peak Design Everyday Backpack
    • Loupe Viewer – as you can see
    • No red hat – far too hot
    • Oakley sunglasses
    • Red shoes (in need of a clean today)
    • No snacks required – just water!

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F22
    • Shutter speeds 1/60th second, 1/250th second and 1/15th second.
    • ISO 100
    • Back-button focus
    • Focal length 17mm
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    I notice that I take a lot of photos with my old faithful Canon 24-105mm lens at 24mm. Interesting. And I tend to use my Canon 17-40mm lens at 17mm most of the time.

    Maybe I need to rethink my camera lens selection – sounds like I could do with a 14mm lens! Or wider.

    One interesting fact about the image.

    See that bit of rock in the very foreground. I didn’t venture onto that. I thought it would be irresponsible to do that when I was on my own so had to stick where I was.

    Anyway the interesting fact is that if you keep going on the path down, rather than taking the path up the rock keep going around Skaros Rock the path takes you to this seldom visited church called Ekklisia Theoskepasti. And a rather spectacular view of part of the Santorini caldera.

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    No. And to be honest I have no idea why not. I was there for enough time to have taken lots of videos.

    What was i thinking???

    But there is this short video taken before I left the buildings of Imerovigli – check out the footpath and the fast moving clouds in the video here.

    You can see the end of the path amongst the buildings at the start of this video.

    How did I process the image?

    As with the other images, three images merged into one in Lightroom. Here is the processing that I did with the newly created HDR merged file.

    I have to fill in the blanks in Photoshop – these were caused by the adjustment to make everything straight and vertical – I didn’t want to lose part of the image by cropping in.

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    Jumped onto the rock in the foreground. Common sense stopped me from doing this.

    I will have to go back there and get over to that little bit of rock – I have a great idea for an image and a video from that precarious position.

    There will definitely not be anyone on that little bit of rock so I might even be able to get a drone flying from there!

    So getting to the very front of the rock is the only thing that could improve this shot.

    Sunrise will not help me. Having said that yes it would.

    A photo of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock at sunrise – that I have to do!

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    Well here I am on location! Yes some people appeared so I had to ask….

    A rare picture of me on Skaros Rock on Santorini

    Enough about me.

    I really like this image as I have not seen this view elsewhere, which is surprising considering how prominent Skaros Rock is. Having said that I didn’t see many people on the top of the rock – just three others.

    And I passeed no more than a dozen people on the walk to and from Skaros Rock from the very bottom of Imerovigli.

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Well you have read what I think of this image – but what do you think? Get in touch please with your thoughts which I would love to hear, goor dr bad.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

     

  • Is this the best view of Fira from the path to Imerovigli?

    Is this the best view of Fira from the path to Imerovigli?

    This is the view of Fira, the capital of the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini, photographed from the path from Imerovigli one sunny April afternoon. In this photo you can see how Santorini has developed, with all those white buildings sat on top of the caldera

    Santorini is a small island which packs in the views all over the place. We have all seen lots of images on the internet of those famous white buildings of Santorini, but I try to provide slightly different views.

    Is this the best view of Fira, the capital of the Greek Island of Santorini? I think so. This really is a spectacular view, which was taken on my Canon 6D on the walk from Imerovigli to Fira.

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    One thing I like to capture in one of my photos is context. And if you haven’t been to Santorini before you might not appreciate how the famous white buildings of Santorini have developed on the top of the famous caldera.

    And this view taken on the main pedestrian route from Imerovigli to Fira shows this perfectly. This is not that common a view of Fira, which surprises me as there were plenty of people on the footpath that day.

    Or so I thought.

    I realised how quiet the walk from Imerovigli to Fira was when we got to Fira – there were endless people filling the footpaths making the town almost unbearable.

    So I like this photo as it gives context and scale to the capital of Santorini.

    You can see exactly how the town has grown on the top of the caldera, and also all those lovely white buildings.

    And if you look really carefully you can see the cable car cables appearing out of a building!

    How did I decide on this composition?

    As we were walking along the path I was obviously taking in the views and Fira growing in front of me as we got closer. I waited until I found a white church which I could include as a foreground feature, which you can clearly see.

    I also wanted to get the shoreline to show the full extent of the caldera, and ended up getting the concrete structure which is where tourists are dropped off from the cruise for a day on the island. You can either walk or get the cable car – more on that in another post.

    Talking of context this photo also shows the scale of the caldera on which all those lovely white buildings have been constructed.

    Where was the photo taken?

    Right where the number 10 is.

    Where I took the photo of the view of Fira on Santorini

    Or to be more precise.Where the number 5 is.

    Where I took the shot of Fira from

    Is that precise enough for you? I couldn’t zoom in any more and make the number 5 go down to 1 for just this image but this is near enough I guess?

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    12:40pm. We were walking to Fira for an explore and a spot of lunch. I had been on the go since about 4am that day, getting some great sunrise photos from the top of the caldera. And after the cold of the morning on the caldera the daytime heat was a lovely change for me.

    It is funny how we can adjust to such varying temperatures in the same day. And to the complete lack of sleep/ rest!

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot

    • Canon 6D – here it is! Well I thought I should show you what it looks like!

    Picture of the Canon 6D

    • Canon 24 – 105mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 17mm)
    • Hanheld – my Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head was in my bag
    • Peak Design Everyday Backpack
    • Loupe Viewer – yes I still use it even hand-held
    • No red hat
    • Oakley sunglasses
    • Red shoes (feet aching a bit)
    • Kasimatis Suites breakfast fuelling me

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F16
    • Shutter speeds 1/500th second, 1/2000th second and 1/125th second.
    • ISO 400
    • Back-button focus
    • Focal length 24mm
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    One interesting fact about the image.

    When we got to Fira we found a restaurant right in the centre of the capital of Santorini. We ordered a beer each and sat there. It was right next to one of the main footpaths through Fira. And was it busy!

    And we sat there for an age, too tired and hungry waiting for our food to arrive, which took an absolute age. So tired and hungry we just sat there in silence!

    When the food finally came it was excellent – chicken gyros with chips. One of my favourite Greek meals!

    Chicken gyros in Fira

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    No. But look what we got when we were in Fira. And yet another use for a Peak Design Everyday Backpack. A bottle of Prosecco carrier!

    A bottle of Prosecco in my Peak Design Everyday Backpack

    And see that white thing that my camera bag is resting against? That is one of the legacies of the wine cellar days. Kasimatis Suites used to be a wine celler, or as they are known locally, cavana.

    There are remnants of the buildings former use all over the place, which make random appearances in other photos on this website.

    How did I process the image?

    This is another bracketed set of images merged together in Lightroom using the not surprisingly named HDR Merge feature.

    This is what I did in Lightroom. Not too much in terms of processing to be fair.

    The view of Fira on the path from Imerovigli

    Now you will have noticed there is a problem!

    Yes there is some stuff missing. Here is the actual image. When I straightened the horizon I lost some stuff around the edges. I could have used Constrain to crop which would have basically cropped in the image removing the bits of white but I didn’t want to do that.

    I wanted the full image, so had to fill in the blanks.

    Now if only there was some software that could fix this…..

    Time to jump over to Photogshop. I used the Clone Stamp tool to fill in the blanks, and then used the Patch Tool to improve the standard of the edit to the point where you can’t actually tell what I have done.

    That is always the intention with my digital image processing – that is looks natural.

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    Well I could have taken the shot with the horizon level to save me some work in Photoshop, but apart from that this is the view.

    Maybe I could have waited for a cruise ship to arrive and get that in shot to the right. That would have balanced things nicely.

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    I wanted to get a view of Fira perched on top of the caldera. And that is what I captured.

    I like this image, and it tells the story I wanted to tell with a single image.

    It tells the story of the capital of Santorini, Fira, perched on the top of the caldera. And of those lovely white buildings.

    And the steep drop down to that lovely blue water.

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Let me know if you like my photo of Fira from the footpath to Imerovigli.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

     

  • Probably one of the best Santorini photo locations?

    Probably one of the best Santorini photo locations?

    Picture of sunrise on the Greek Island of Santorini, with the view looking towards Imerovigli from the top of the Santoini Caldera. Never before have I seen both cold blue and sunrise warmth in the same image

    A fundamental question when going on a photography trip is where to take photos from. Now I don’t do extensive research before I go on a trip, but I do have a quick look so I get a general idea of what I will be wandering around.

    So the fundamental question is this – is the caldera one of the best Santorini photo locations? In my opinion clearly this is a yes – I took all the photos on this website on the caldera, and only left the caldera (reluctantly) to go home!

    Why do I like this photo so much?

    Simple. It is the first image that I have captured which shows so clearly the different colour temperatures before sunrise and during sunrise in one image. To the right the light is cold and blue, and to the left you can clearly see the warmth provided by the rising sun. And you can also see the transition from cold to warm in the clouds in the sky.

    I have never captured this before in one image in quite such a dramatic way – that was the beauty of the location I was taking the photo from. And the beauty of taking photographs on the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini. Every day on Santorini the sunrise was different – it was quite amazing to witness.

    The image also gives a great representation of the topography of the island, with the buildings visible on the top of the caldera to the west, with the island gradually falling down to the sea to the east.

    And it also shows the value of getting up early in the morning and getting out there! Even on holiday I love doing this.

    Sorry that reminded me – my favourite images tend to be ones taken at sunrise, which is my favourite part of every day. There is something special about being the only one out there watching a new day unfold.

    How did I decide on this composition?

    I had already walked past this location and made a mental note of the unrestricted view of Imerovigli and so much of the island. I was up and about early that morning and quickly found this spot again.

    I realised that from this viewpoint I could show the topography of the island from a different angle, as well as the coastline on both sides of the island. To be honest I have not seen this particular view before. Not that I do extensive research before I visit a location.

    I wanted to show the contrast in the coastlines, the east coast having gentle sloping land down to the sea, with the west coast consisting of steep plummeting cliffs.

    I wanted to show the shape and size of the caldera on the main island.

    I also wanted foreground content which showed the terrain away from the built-up areas.

    I wanted to represent Santorini in one photograph.

    Where was the photo taken?

    The photo was taken from the top of the caldera, right where the number five is on the Lightroom Map extract.

    This is a great location to take photos from – just to the left is the church that features in some of my other images you can see on this website.

    This is one of the reasons why GPS in a camera is so important in my travel photography – I can see exactly where I took every photo which is invaluable in the work that I do.

    And also the reason I scout my own locations so I get the compositions that I want, and not the headline shots that everyone else seems to go for.

    What time of day was the photo taken?

    Just after 6am in the morning. I was up long before 4am on this morning as I knew where I was walking to for the sunrise.

    What photography gear did I use to get the shot

    • Canon 6D
    • Canon 17 – 40mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 17mm)
    • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
    • Loupe Viewer
    • My red hat
    • Oakley sunglasses
    • Pepsi Max
    • Red shoes (feet already acheing by now)

    What camera settings did I use?

    • Aperture F16
    • Shutter speeds 1/50th second, 1/200th second and 1/13th second.
    • ISO 400. I was surprised that I used an ISO of 400. But thinking about it the clouds were moving, and I didn’t want the shutter speed too slow or I would have got blur in the clouds. ISO 400 on the Canon 6D really isn’t a problem – the sensor can give a super clean image at this sensitivity.
    • Back-button focus
    • AV Mode
    • 10 second self-timer
    • RAW format

    One interesting fact about the image.

    Well the range of colour temperatures for one thing – I have never captured them quite like this before. Other than that no dramas on this shoot.

    Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

    Yes – there is the 360 view I captured using my iPhone not long before the image was taken. You can check it out on YouTube.

    How did I process the image?

    Firstly I merged the three images together in Lightroom to create a single image.

    The challenge with this image was to get the white balance correct, as I had two colour temperatures in the same image – talk about mixed lighting!

    To get the white balance correct I used the eye dropper tool and selected a neutral part of the clouds, which I found in the end! I went to the middle of the image, where the two light sources met. All you need to do is move the eye dropper tool over what looks like a neutral part of the picture, and get the three numbers as close as possible, and then click and tht is that done!

    After that processing was done in the Basic Panel in Lightroom, which I did using the Vibrance slider before moving on to the HSL Panel. Here I played around with the colours and luminances – what I was trying to recreate was the scene that I remember seeing with my own eyes. I can still picture that wonderful scene with the warm light to the left and the cold light to the right – such a stunning natural occurrence.

    I finsihed off the image with a bit of cleaning up in Photoshop, removing sensor dust spots and irritations around the edges – no major editing to be fair.

    What could I have done to improve the image?

    Hmmm. Well I could have moved somewhere else and got a lovely white church in the foreground but I wanted to convey the topography of the Santorini caldera without a building in the composition.

    I am after all looking to capture a range of images, not throw everything into every image.

    Less is more.

    And to be honest I am very happy with this image.

    And what are my thoughts on this image?

    I like this image a lot. Once I had selected the first 20 images for this website this was the first one that I uploaded. This is one of my favourite photos of Santorini.

    I love the two colour temperatues in the image – I have never captured these before.

    And I also like the fact that in one image I am showing the contrasting landscape, with the gentle slope to the east and the cliffs of the caldera to the west. You can just see the white buildings of Imerovigli on the top of the caldera in their spectacular, iconic Santorini location.

    I wanted an image that told the story of Santorini in one image, and also an image that was different from most of the photos of Santorini that you see on the internet.

    Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

    Yep what do you think? Please let me know as at the end of the day I have an emotional attachment to this photo.

    And I really do appreciate feedback on my photographs.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

     

  • Photos of Santorini – what’s this website all about then?

    Photos of Santorini – what’s this website all about then?

    Picture of sunrise on the Greek Island of Santorini, with the view looking towards Imerovigli from the top of the Santoini Caldera. Never before have I seen both cold blue and sunrise warmth in the same image
    Hello and welcome to the second blog post my new website, photos of Santorini.

    On this website I will be posting and writing about some of the photos of Santorini that I have taken on this wonderful Greek Island. I will start with my favourite twenty photos for now, each post being all about a single image.

    I want this website to be more than just my photos and me trying to tell you how great they are. As well as my photos I will be writing all about this wonderful island, to which I am already planning my next visit.
    I want my website to be an interesting and useful resource that attracts visitors.

    Destination websites

    This is my first website about a specific destination. My main website is rickmcevoyphotography.com – this is where you can find out all about my commercial architectural photography work.
    It is my plan to have a variety of travel photography websites, covering different places I have been to, which I hope will lead me into going to places to take photos and write about them to produce new websites.
    There is a big world out there, and I want to see it and photography it.

    A bit about me

    I am a photographer living in Dorset on the south coast of England. I specialise in photographing thinks that don’t move. I photograph buildings and their surrounding environments.
    I don’t photograph weddings, christenings, family portaits or fluffy animals. I photograph buildings and places.
    I also love travel and writing, so guess what, the beginnings of a travel photography website happened earlier on this year.

    What do I know about websites?

    Not a lot. My main website is a template website for which I pay a monthly fee to Squarespace. Photos of Santorini is a WordPress website built from scratch. I will write about the production of this website on my photography blog, but this website will be all about Santorini and my photos.
    I am going to write a number of posts about the island of Santorini itself, which I will work on over the next few months.

    How long was I on the island of Santorini?

    5 days with my gorgeous wife. 4 sunrises, lots of time walking around in the day and a few sunsets.
    I am a massive fan of sunrise – I love being there at the beginning of the new day, and on Santorini every sunrise is completely different.

    How I got the shot

    I am going to write about how I actually took the photos. This is something that I have never properly captured before, and this time I have some photos of my camera set up and also videos taken on my iPhone of the scenes I was photographing.

    Videos

    I have uploaded some videos to YouTube, where I have my own YouTube channel – not great quality at the moment granted but there is some interesting stuff there.

    What will my websites be all about?

    I want to produce travel photography websites providing great photos and lots of information about destinations. This website is my first go at this, so please bear with me as I get into the swing of things.
    • Travel photography website?
    I need to work on this – what is my thing going to be?
    • Destination photography?
    • Travel guide to Santorini?
    • Rick’s guide to Santorini
    • Everything you need to know about Santorini?
    I like Rick’s guide to Santorini – there is something I can work with there brand wise.
    This is something that will fall out of the research that I will be carrying out as I build this website. The important thing here is not the website but the content of the website.
    Content is king, and I need to work out what will be the best content.

    How many photos will there be?

    There are currently 99 photos in a folder in Lightroom. I have edited 53 of them, and have the last 46 to do. I am going to do this after I have sorted out the structure of my website.
    I was wondering about calling this website 99 photos of Santorini, which I quite like.  The problem is that I don’t really want to constrain myself with a fixed number of images – I want a freer more fluid feel to this website.

    Image processing

    When I talk about how I got the shot, I will also include the post processing.

    I am going to write a number of posts, which will include the following titles

    How do I research a travel photography destination?
    What gear do I take on a photography trip?
    What gear did I use?
    What gear did I not use?
    How do I prepare to take photos at sunrise?
    How do I actually take photos at sunrise?
    What gear do I want for future trips?
    What do I do after sunrise has happened?
    How do I look after the images that I have taken until I get home?
    How do I organise the images from a trip.
    How do I select images to process in Lightroom?
    What is my image processing workflow?
    Getting to and from Santorini
    When is the best time to visit Santorini?
    Why is Santorini such a great place to take photos?
    Where do people come from to visit Santorini?
    What are the best places to visit in Santorini?
    How was the caldera formed in Santorini?
    These are just a few ideas for titles for blog posts.

    What about the image themselves?

    I have not decided yet how to display the images – at the moment I just have the processed images uploaded in a single simple gallery. I am using a basic theme at the moment – I just wanted to get the website out there.

    What pages am I going to produce?

    I will create the following pages
    Home page
    Blog
    About Rick (me)
    Contact Rick (me)
    Buy photos
    Yes – buy photos. The photos on this website will be available for sale here and here only. I have dabbled with the stock markets (not the high flying stock market – photography stock) and have experienced the soul crushing selling a great image for 53p. I need to sell 50 images at this rate to see any money at all, as the minimum pay out is £25.
    No, I am worth more than that.

    When will my website be complete?

    My aim is to have my website complete with all the pages added, all the images edited, uploaded and displayed how I want them, and also 40 blog posts written and on there.
    That is the plan. And then I will leave the website and see what happens. I am hoping that I will generate traffic and a passive income. If this works I will start work on the next website.

    What will the next website be?

    I have two options – one that I have already been to, and one that I am due to visit shortly. They are both Greek Islands, both interesting and appealing and lovely in their won ways.

    And when will I return to Santorini?

    Soon is the answer – hopefully the back end of this year.

    What will I photograph when I return to Santorini?

    I want to explore the entire island, and photograph all the major locations. And then, once I have done that, I want to explore the lesser-known parts of Santorini. I am not a photographer looking just to take the same photos everyone else already has – what is the point of that?
    No I want to produce a great set of images of a location, a set of images that have my style all over them – my end game is that people look at a photo and know straight away that I took it!
    And when I am producing all this content and doing all this research this will feed directly into my future photography and writing about this special Greek Island.

    And what is the content going to contain?

    As you will have seen from reading this post I have lots of ideas about the content of this website – I need to spend some time and research what people will find useful, helpful – what people will ask questions about on the internet.
    It is getting this focus that is the key – the content will ascertain the success or otherwise of my website.
    I cannot rely just on the photos I have taken, but need to produce an interesting mix of well written relevant posts about Santorini.

    What are the most common search terms in Google?

    According to my research these are the top 10 search terms.
    1 – Santorini
    2 – Santorini holidays
    3 – Santorini hotels
    4 – Wedding photography
    5 – Flights to Santorini
    6 – Santorini Greece
    7 – Greek Islands
    8 – Santorini weather
    9 – Santorini weddings
    10 – Holidays in Santorini
    Whilst I am not writing with SEO in mind this gives me a great insight into what people are searching for, and gives me a steer as to the content I will be producing.

    Summary

    There you go – welcome to my new world of possibilities.
    My website is going to be a mix of all things Santorini, and hopefully one of the go to websites on the internet with great information and great photos of this stunning Greek Island.
    I am looking forward to working on this new venture, which is scheduled for completion by the end of September 2018.
    For daily updates on the production of this website head over to my photography blog in September.

    One last thing

    If you want to buy any of my images, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

    Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger