One day in my life as a hobbyist photographer

I woke up today and saw some beautiful clouds in the sky and I said to myself that It would be a very good day to take some photos even if the sun was already up at 07:30. If you follow my blog you know that I kind of have a passion for the Vacaresti Delta from Bucharest and as I live very close to the site I always go there to relax and experiment with photography.

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It was freezing cold as I entered the Natural Protected Site. I was all alone in the wilderness :) It was kind of scary at first because I didnt realize that actually there is no obvious danger lying around. What could go wrong ? But hay, lucky me I stumbled upon another fellow photographer and I was relived that I am not the only crazy guy looking for some shots :)

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So let me tell you about my ritual when shooting photography. When I shoot outside I almost always set the camera on the A mode ( Aperture priority mode ) It is an automatic mode where you only have to set the aperture and the camera takes care of the rest of the parameters like ISO and shutter speed. Being a perfectionist by nature and when I first started to learn about photography I was ONLY shooting in Manual Mode because everyone was saying that this is the only way profesionals shoot so if you want to become one you must really do that.

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Well, after I started missing shots, overexposing, underexposing badly or blurring because of wrong shutter speeds I decided to give the automatic modes a try. It was a godsend, I was relieved, I could focus on the action and not the settings, I was there to capture and enjoy photography. Long story short, as I ended up finding later, every professional uses automatic modes when shooting outdoors at least. In the studio there is another story :)

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Back to my photo day. I took my nikkor 24-120mm and my only telephoto ( the poor`s guy telephoto ) nikkor 70-300mm as I always do. I look around carefully and try to find interesting subject, observe the light and shadows, experiment with angles and so on.

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As I arrived at the birds observatory I noticed the lake being frozen and some some wired shapes like some stones on the ice. I could not understand what those things were because of the sun hitting me straight in the face. I climbed the stairs of the observatory and I immediately realized that there was a swan family sleeping on the frozen lake while circling a hole in the ice.




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I took a moment to change my lens with the telephoto to capture the swans properly- not quite recommended to change the lens in the freezing cold but... I took a few shots and suddenly I noticed, in the distance, a silhouette in the middle of the lake. I focused and realized it was a fox because of the way it moved and its huge tail.




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I was super excited that I got the chance to photograph a fox in Bucharest...who knew ? The appearance lasted just shy of 5 seconds. The fox stopped and stared at the swans. they woke up and stared back and then the fox left resigned that it wont have the chance to get his paws on a big chunk of meat.




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Because it all happened so fast I realized that I missed the opportunity to take a wider shot that could tell the story without me describing it but that is photography, It happens in a split second and If you are not ready It wont forgive you. I tried to reframe the composition and waited in vain for the fox to come back but it didnt. Nevertheless I am happy with the result and I think I can compose a shot with both the fox and the swans in the same frame.




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Moving on I walked away very pleased but still curious about where to find the fox den and instead of heading home I decided to take more pictures. I once again crossed roads with my fellow photographer that told me that I was very lucky to capture the fox because he comes here every week to photograph the birds and he only saw it once last year.




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He showed me some paths trough the reeds and I boldly followed them. I arrived on the other side of the lake and found myself another family of swans with its babies. They were super funny because they were walking slowly an trying to keep their balance on the thin ice.




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I even found the foxes trails and even tryed to follow it but I ended up in a dead end so better luck next time :)




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I actually ,without even noticing, crossed the whole park and arrived at some factory furnaces that were producing a thick smoke. In the distance I spotted a man running and It looked cool framed with the polluting furnaces. Trying to be healthy in this town might not be the healthiest thing :)




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I got up the hill and took another photo of him as he was heading back




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and also shot another set of photos with the swans skating.




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The sun was quite up and I was still freezing so I decided to go home but all of a sudden the sky roared and these planes made their appearance.




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Its 1st of December, the national day of Romania, everybody is at the parade and I am alone with my camera enjoying the beauty of Bucharest wilderness.
Today I took about 500 shots and just a few are decent for editing and very few make it to my favorite list :). Of course, editing is another story and it takes a lot of time and effort but I am passionate about what I do so I am not complaining...ok, maybe my back is :)
As you can see you can take quite a lot of interesting shots every time you go outside. I went out in the morning to shoot some clouds and I ended up with anything but clouds :). Every day is special, just cherish it and go out, you might be surprised at every step ! Enjoy Life.