Painting the early Summer in Copenhagen

It’s been juuuuuust above 25 degrees for the past few days. In Denmark we call that “Summer days” and wear next to no clothes – In Australia we call that “bit cold today mate” and dress for Winter! Nevertheless, this past week we’ve had a “hot” spell and it’s fantastic having the internal batteries recharged by some sunshine and some heat.

As incredibly nice as the heat is it’s bleeding boring for photography. Cloudless skies and very harsh strong sunlight provides no dramatic light at all for landscape photographers and nothing happens in the sky at dusk. Well, the sun sets at around 9pm and the last hour or so before and after sunset can provide some ok light as long as the sky isn’t a big feature in the composition. I shot these two during the past week:

Click to see large size on my gallery! Copyright Flemming Bo Jensen Photography

Tycho Brahe Planetarium Panorama
Copyright Flemming Bo Jensen Photography

Click to see large size on my gallery! Copyright Flemming Bo Jensen Photography

Nyhavn Canal Spring Sunset
Copyright Flemming Bo Jensen Photography

The first shot is a 10 second exposure of Lake “St. Jørgen” and the Tycho Brahe Planetarium about 30 minutes after sunset. The second shot is the Nyhavn canal (I get a bit sick of shooting Nyhavn ‘cos it’s such a cliché shot but they sell well!) about 30 minutes before sunset. Both nights with very little to no wind creating some nice reflections. Both shots have ok light but look a bit flat and lifeless in the originals so I painted some drama using painting with light (I am loving my new Wacom tablet!). In the Nyhavn shot I went for the look of something between a painting and a photo.

I shoot my cityscapes just as I would landscapes. For me it’s the same. It’s landscapes that just happens to have some buildings in them (which is what I have at hand living in Copenhagen, not a lot of outback landscape here!). So like any landscape photographer, I love the warm sunny days but just want a few clouds and some dramatic light at dusk as well – not too much to ask hey 🙂 Well that’s life for landscape and cityscape photographers depending on natural light. We wait and wait for that special fleeting moment in the sky and hope to be ready, camera on lens cap off, when it happens!

2 Comments on “Painting the early Summer in Copenhagen”

  1. Yeah I would call 25 degrees cold weather 🙂
    like the shot of Tycho Brahe Planetarium Panorama must have some amazing buildings over there . I have decided to invest in a Wacom tablet as well will just have to wait a couple of weeks until I get paid .

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