It doesn't matter if you still haven't got any snow. You can still appreciate Mareis beautiful photo "The loneliness of a cross-country skier". Let's listen to her when she's telling us how she made it.

Nikon D3, Nikon 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8, 38mm, f 8, 1/400 sec, ISO 400.

CONTEXT

Last winter I spent some days in the Bavarian Alps. Weather was not what I hoped it would be, but grey and snowy around 0° C. On one of my walkes I discovered an area, in summer used as golf course. This explained the strange appearance of this area.

I noticed some cross-country ski trails. As I had realized the subtle light of that day, and the strange emptiness of this area, so well groomed in summer and therefore so clean and empty, I decided to wait on one of these cross country skiers.

I chose a position, that allowed me to compose the foreground waved, and made the background disappear into the fog. My idea was to emphasize the emptieness of this scene, to show the large nature around this little human, and show the dynamic. Him fighting against the wide landscape he has to move through.

Looking back, I have to confess, that I have had better ideas in my life. A wait of several hours began. Most of the time no one came or if one did, he was on his way in the other direction. After hours of waiting and freezing he came, and I could capture the image I was looking for.

Although the speed of the skier would have allowed a slower shutter speed, I choose ISO 400, as this is my usual setting. In my eyes this leads to more vivid colors, especially in more monochrome scenes like this one.

PROCESSING

I have a laptop with Windows 7. I am not a photoshopper at all. I develop images from raw processing with ACR and so I did here. I adjusted the whitebalance to 5700 Kelvin, which appeared nice to me. I opened it in photoshop, and adjusted the contrast with curves, as such foggy days often lead to a bit flat contrasts.

A sharpening seemed not necessary to me.

HINTS

I do not think to much about messages or stories. I capture what somehow impresses me or what I feel. I am not a philosopher and does not see me as an artist, but as a photographer.

So what I think is important is that we, while capturing, follow our emotions and feelings. Open eyes and open hearts are what I think is important.

BIOGRAPHY

Marei is 32 years old and lives in Hannover, Germany. After having worked for more than 10 years as night nurse, she is now studying social work at Hannover University.

Her favourite photo genres are nature and wild life photography.