What fascinates you?

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Do you recognise that you are often drawn to the same subject when taking photos? A subject you always enjoy photographing without it ever becoming boring. Every time.

And to avoid coming home with the same photos every time, a "fascination" like this is ideal for experimenting with. For example, by challenging yourself to depict the subject in a different way from how you usually do.

Perhaps you love sea and beach photography. Especially shells, waves or posts. Or perhaps you enjoy spending time in the woods, with a love for certain trees, mosses or leaves.

Or are you fascinated by patterns and structures that you have to capture? Or do you see idyllic woodland paths everywhere that lead you into a fairytale world? What do you like photographing most?

For example, I have a thing for pine forests. The sight of the many upright trunks draws me like a magnet. The simplicity, regularity and absence of chaos give the pine forest a certain sense of calm... But never for long.

I like a dark pine forest, even a truly gloomy one. A place with a really spooky atmosphere. I find that magical. My imagination immediately runs wild and all sorts of images and stories surface.

Then it feels as if a wild animal could emerge between the trees at any moment, or I suddenly imagine myself a few centuries in the past and a black knight comes riding by...

To create the atmosphere in these photos, I often use multiple exposures (in-camera) with the dark/dark blend mode. This strongly emphasises the structure of the pine trees and the protruding branches.

In post-processing (Lightroom), I move the saturation slider to the left, so that the image is just short of black and white. The dehaze, clarity and texture sliders go to the right. I often find that dehaze gives a quick and effective result for adding more punch to a photo.

To give this image an extra dimension, I added a dark figure to strengthen my fantasy. I used Photoshop for this, but in the future I would like to try this with a real model. A kind of fantasy photography!

These photos were taken in the Kalmthoutse Bossen, just across the border in Belgium. Fortunately, you can find pine forests everywhere. And especially now, in winter, they are ideal for photographing.

Every type of weather works and brings its own atmosphere. It is up to you how you capture this and, if necessary, bring it out in post-processing.

If you would also like to experiment with several layers by adding figures or structures to your photo, take a look at Unsplash.

Finally, if you have some time and feel like setting new goals for the coming year, I can highly recommend Bart Siebelink's Creative Roadmap course!

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