Nabeel Valley

Landscapes (ish)

So I've been playing around a bit more with aspect ratios lately and tried to take some more landscape-style pictures. Last week I went to the forest, and this week I took a bit of a walk around the city. These are all a little wider or taller than normal so click through to see the full images!

Forest

Took a walk through the forest. I really enjoyed this and attempted a really-wide aspect ratio

Bare tree with spreading branchesBike path through the forestBrown grass with bits of heather in betweenLong branch sticking out from treeLong path with trees on either sideModern building nestled between treesRoad with blurry bicycle and forest in the backgroundThree shrubsThree treesTunnel going under bridge

I also tried some editing using Darktable and went for a bit of a foresty theme 1

City

This morning I took a walk through the city. Everything was a little chaotic since half of city was journeying to the F1 in Zaandvoort. Loads of (expected) Red bull T-shirts

Alleyway lined by old dutch buildingsBoat and bridgeCanal tour sign next to docked boatClose-up of old churchCloseup of peach Chinese-style buildingEmpty train platform with checkered tilesGate between two buildings leading to canal with big tree framing large treeGreen bike with yellow rims parked against old style street poleLarge canal lined by buildings reflected in the waterLarge tree overhanging waterMaroon Eurostar train through train windowMetro sign with canal central station in backgroundMoody picture of canal with old dutch buildings reflected by the waterOld building with red doors framed by tree with bokes parked in front of itPancakes and Brunch sign on building beside canal with clouds reflected in the waterPeach Chinese-style building with person walking at the edge of the framePeach Chinese-style building with scooter zooming pastRed facebrick building with shop reading "Toko dun yong"Three small fire hydrants randomly placed with old building in the backgroundTourist boat passing through canalTuor boat passing small boatWooden boat docked next to large tree

I spent time focusing on trying to create some "picturesque Amsterdam" which I normally avoid

Review

Overall, I think the wider aspect ratios were really fun. It really changed how I composed things and paired really well with the TT Artisan 7.5mm lens since it trims out some of the weird bits that take it from landscape to wonkscape

I'm not totally sold on the colour palettes though. I tend to be a bit more vivid when I shoot colour but that can also be very chaotic - especially with a lens this wide. I'd like to find something more monochrome with a bit of a funkier palette so I'm still working on that

For what it's worth though, if you like the colours of the Amsterdam pictures they're using the Fuji X Weekly Retro Gold Film Simulation which came out a bit moodier than expected

Footnotes

-1: I haven't used Darktable in quite some time but I found the UX to be pretty terrible. It really has so many ways to "control colours" but it's all really finicky and has waay too many settings. I did not have a good time. All fairness though - I usually leave my pictures as they are straight-out-of-camera so this some territory that I haven't explored for quite some time. Editing sucks. Rant over.