Ken Knoll Photography

I said that before – it’s just great to have great friends. ‘Cause those great friends are cool with coming with you and have a great time doing some sunset backlit shots somewhere in the fields around Darmstadt. I’ve had this kind of look going through my head all day and it felt great to turn it into a reality (that kind of reality that ends with .CR2, that is). I wish I could do this kind of thing way more often. Trying different lighting situations, angles, techniques… this is, to my mind, what you need to do to become a good photographer.

These pictures were all natural light, I just brought my little gold reflector with me to bounce some of the sunlight back into the face.

I’m not big at planning photos, I normally shoot as I go. This one’s an exception from that rule. I saw that field the day before around sunset time and I was amazed by the grains’ beards which seemed to glow as the sunlight backlit them. That instantly made me think of the scene in the great movie “Gladiator”, when the hero Maximus arrives at his home in Spain and touches the grain, “Elysium” playing in the background… I later found out that “Elysium” refers to the place where heroes go, which makes a lot of sense when you think of “Freude sch?ner G?tterfunke, Tochter aus Elysium….”

So the very next day (Harvesting had already begun, it was late July) I had Ira pose for me in that field. And just as the sun hit the trees, I got the right composition. One of my all-time-favorites, because it just fills my heart with warmth when I think back of that day. If it’s one of the best shots I have ever made? I couldn’t say, because there is always room for improvement. But sometimes, atmosphere just overpowers technical flaws like that lense flare. When I ever get back to that field, I’ll make a nude version of that shot, I promise!