Why this very field of photography, I do not know. Neither could I take a trip to the woods nor stay home not taking pictures. So I went to the city. You have to develop your skills, I thought. Probably nothing special would come out right away, but I would learn. But a surprise was waiting for me, one of those good surprises.

Since I really like the panoramic format, I started off with it. So I took the dog for a walk, grabbed the cropping frame, and I went to look for shots. I found something that got my intrest quite quickly. Industrial areas, with remnants of the old factory in the background. The next day I made a series of photos which needed to be put together to create a panorama. I had edited them the same day. And that was my first image of the city I made. A cityscape.I kept up the momentum and made a few more panoramas.

I took also a few photographs in a square format. It was also new to me. I have never been photographing in a square before. But this is different experience than just a standard format which I am accustomed to.However, the square format has proved to be very interesting.Photographs that I made are not generated by cutting the frame but like the panorama from a series of photos.This gave a superb effect. High resolution, lots of details and great experience -that what it gives in combination. Now I know why people like to shoot in medium-format.

Learning has resulted in two interesting series of photographs.
Such series crystallized itself, there were no assumptions and inventing the concept. But after completing the first photograph, it was clear what they would be.

Here are the photographs.

Panoramic cityscape

Portrait of a building

The version of a frame simplest to implement is string loop of an appropriate length. A piece of string with knots tide in relevant distances, which should be on the corners of our frame. It takes only a few minutes to bind precisely such a loop, and have the tool ready to use. The loop we stretch on our fingers, with the knots which are the frame corners right on our fingers.

Advantages:

• Price, or rather a lack of it
• High mobility.A piece of string in your pocket, you can have always and everywhere whit yourself.
• The possibility of placing on a single piece of string knots in different proportions of the frame.
• Indestructibility.In the field anything can happen, the fall in the mud or water and a crushing. None of that, will do a slightest impression on the string.

Disadvantages:

• Transparency. The string only creates a line, which gives us an idea of the frame, but it does not separates it from the background, we see everything that is out of the frame, which may interfere with the detailed work.
• Average precision.Since each time we stretch it on our fingers, a repetition of the frame and its geometry is not perfect.

Another way to have the frame is a piece of cardboard with a hole cut in the middle, with a carefully designated proportions. The material that we need is a thicker piece of stiff cardboard, preferably at the surface in some way protected against any mechanical damage. A format does’n need to be large, the size of a sheet of paper is more than enough. We can use a simple piece of cardboard such as the back cover of a drawing block. This may be a needless cover of an old ring binder that is rigid and covered with a plastic which for us is a great option. If you do not have this at home, you can inquire at office supply stores if they do not have any damaged, for them needless and for us useful. A good solution is also a piece of paper laminated in service, it will give us the rigidity and mechanical strength, but Imust admit that I did not check how it would behave after cutting a hole. We can also go to a shop and ask for the appropriate cut of passe-partout. Important in this is that the cardboard is in a dark, neutral color, the best is black of course, but gray is also good. The white color is not bad, but I think that in the strong light it will reflect a lot of it and this could simply dazzle the eye.

Advantages:

• Low price. This is already something more “serious” but still very cheap.
• Precision and repeatability of the framing.Thanks to its rigidity and exact proportions of the frame, it gives us a repetition of framing.
• No transparency. Since we have a several centimeters of frame around the hole, the frame cuts itself off from the background which allows for a close look and precise evaluation of the composition.
• Hands free. In contrast to the string, we have one free hand. The cardboard frame is much more comfortable to use than the string. With one free hand, you can move your finger in the air, pointing to ourselves what is good and what is wrong in one or another framing.

Disadvantages:

• Less mobility than the one of the string.But without any problem it is possible to take the frame in a hand, a backpack or a bag.
• Susceptibility to damage. With time, corners begin to break down, bend, stratify. For this, any wetting or soiling can be devastating for our frame. That is why a good quality of the material from which is it made is important.

What gives us such a frame in our hand?

Following the designated route, walking around the city, being on a walk, we can see how interesting theme could look like, without assembling the equipment. We can look at what we are interested in meny times from various points, seeing final image in the frame at once. We have time, plenty of it to look at it and decide whether this picture is worth recording, or it is just nice.

During the trip to a new location it is a good at first go without any equipment, only with the frame. To walk, to look and to seek. Not loaded with equipment, we can go farther, be less tired, visit more and find more. And when we find, we go to that place at theright time to record a picture that is worth being recorded.

May the light be with you …

I like the Odra river very much. No matter what the weather and the season, it is always a good idea to walk near by. It sets the direction like a signpost. The same places, “boring” and seen already so many times, and still, after all, could be interesting.  Always different and always the same. Then the strip of forest, a dike, and only fields until Bobrowniki. Flat, some trees and wind, gaggle and clouds, the remnants of snow and the smell of soil in the air, it is already spring. “Bukowa Góra” rises out of nowhere, rises high and with it the trees. I walked byside the reserve, on the road leading to the river. I looked at the light flowing with clouds, I watched and admired, remembering all the sunny days when I kept coming here.

By the river, at its turn, some rest and breakfast, half way already, or only, if you will, for me it’s just the point where I came and sat down to rest. I sat down at the dam, the gate where a small river enters into this large one. A little rest, refreshment and gathering strength, and continue on the road. Still beside the Odra and I change direction. This fragment allowed to look at cormorants, always only seen from afar on the water. But today, closer, longer and more. I stopped and watched. They flew from a big floe, one after another. Some momentum on the water, taking off and short flight low over the water. One after another they flew away and sit on the opposite shore, and again, this time further. A few circled back and forth, unable to decide whether I am dangerous and it’s better to stay away. I thanked them for the pleasure they gave me and walked away.

Now to the forest, to the top of the hill to look out through the trees, for which the field I was just walking. The fields are near, but with a distant view. Further and further. I do not often go there, only to look from above, as on a distant land with it’s own life. I sat in a ground clearance of the forest to admire the views. It is warm today, the ground is dry enough to be able toby siting on it for longer. So I sat and watched.

At first the peak, the steep slope, then trough the large ravine to the forest road at the foot of the slope. Whenever I go through it, it’s like a diffrent world. Great beeches on the slopes reveal their mighty, twisted roots. Sometimes one can not keep it in the ground and falls, forming a bridge. I have to wait a little, till late spring. Then, you can get lost in this place. The green of mosses and extensive ferns accompanied by beeches You can then go through this piece for a long time.

To Bobrowniki now, the dusk is approaching and today probably it will by something to watch. The way through the fields, quiet, slow in, no hurry, I have time, plenty of time to look at the clouds, the setting sun and the rising moon. A magnificent spectacle of exelent cast, viewed from the beginning to the end.

The photographs? They were also, of course. And were successful. Two interesting panoramas made on one day, it’s a satisfactory outcome. There is also a bit of observation and learning.

The first panorama is the view of the field. Converging lines, three trees and the forest on the horizon, visible in the distance Bobrowniki placed on the slopes on the right.

I made two shots. I set for the first one and snapped. Packed my equipment and left. However, I came back. It had seemed to me, that I set something wrong and it would be too little depth of field. I turned up again in the same place. I checked the settings, I checked the framing. At that time a small cloud came. I decided to wait for more to have a more interesting sky. They flowed from the left to the right. They filled the sky within a quarter. Then I made a second approach, the appropriate one, or at least more appropriate.

The equipment: 50mm f9.5 lens, filter ND 0.9 gradutated soft

The post-processing: Final crop, light brighten from the left edge to the middle tree, separately set the contrast for the sky and the earth.

The second panorama is with the trees against the sky and the rising sun. I like the photographs of the sun very much, or rather I like to look straight into the sun.

Before I made the right panorama, I had made three other shots, actually I had wanted to do, but they were rather complete mistake, worth only to be deleted from the hard drive. So it comes out that this photo was created as an evolution not a revelation. I made the assumption of a colorful scene thinking that it may also be black and white. After stitching the photos, I decided for just black and white, but I admit that the color ones are also interesting.

The equipment: 17mm f8 lens, filter ND 0.9 gradutated soft

The post-processing: Final crop, removal of twigs at the left and right edges, changing color to black and white, light brightens of the top of the photography.