Welcome to an action packed, and photo stuffed blog with a veritable smorgasbord of images from my time in Poland. From Nature, to Street photography and lots more in between. For this blog I have done away with my usual separate drone post in favour of a combined blog which includes the drone images taken throughout my time there, alongside photos taken with my 5D MK III from ground level.

It’s a long one so let’s get into it

A VERY POLISH AUTUMN

First off I have to discuss the absolutely stunning weather I had while out in Poland. Autumn was in full swing by the time I had arrived there, and the trees were the most beautiful shades of yellow, red and deep oranges. The temperature was a balmy 23 degrees, and the days were clear blue which made for perfect conditions to get out and about with the camera and of course drone throughout the trip.

The first image, is one of my all time favorites with the drone to date. It shows a newly fallen tree with the leaves on the dark water around it resembling stars in the night sky. It was a shot I had not intended but turned into an absolute cracker when turned to look like the tree is stood upright with the water acting as the sky.

I was lucky to get two similar images which I can’t decide on which I like better so here they both are. If you have a favorite let me know in the comments below.

The woods I was in were breathtaking and I was struggling to contain my excitement. Once I had finished flying the drone, I started to concentrate on the scene around me, as I took shot after shot, changing lenses sporadically as I went. I even made a trip back to the same woods a week later to get even more images of the Polish woodland in all its Autumn splendor.

MACRO LOVE

I always carry my trusty 100mm Macro lens with me and it was in use again while in the woods. I was spotting things to photograph all over the place, with some amazing mushrooms all over the woodland floor. I was extremely happy to see the Fly Agaric mushrooms, which I have always wanted to find and photograph were seemingly everywhere, so I spent some time trying to get some interesting shots of these colourful fungi.

My 5/6th Ladybird species I have photographed this year landed on me while photographing the mushrooms, shortly followed by the frogs that were inhabiting the lake next to where I was standing. The frog was particularly hard to photograph as it kept itself hidden in the dark undergrowth pretty well. I was trying to use an F stop of over F/4 to try and get as much of the subject in focus as possible despite the lack of light while also keeping the ISO to a minimum.

The macro lens was only used on one other occasion which was while in the saltmine there was a miniature scaled representation of the mine and what was above it back at the turn of the century. I had a lot of fun going around it and picking out some of the details in it again with minimal lighting and a glass front.

KRAKOW

Street art really is my achilles heel when it comes to photography. I find it very difficult when walking around a new city to pick a composition that will not look like a tourist snapshot of a scene or building photographed a million times before in basically the same way. I find myself being very impatient with a shot that might look good ruined by a million and one people walking in the way of it. I also find I am at my most self conscious too which also does not help in my enjoyment of this side of the hobby. Because of this I find I don’t tend to take many images when walking around, and will always try to get the shot that might come out as quickly as possible. As well as this, I also tended to be walking around Krakow at night or in the evening, where motion blur and grain becomes a problem shooting hand held. due to all these factors most photos I took were swiftly deleted, but a few shots all taken using the 35mm lens did get through so can be seen below.

One revelation was of course using the drone over Krakow. I have been weary of using it in built up areas due to the issue of getting somewhere quiet to take off and land from. luckily I had thought ahead in this instance and was staying in an apartment with its own terrace and balcony. from here I was able to confidently take off and land whenever I wanted with minimal/no interference from bystanders. This then meant over the course of the stay I could explore the city from above, in a way that is very unique and different in its point of view. Below are some of these images. I mainly flew around the Jewish quarter but as I became more and more confident, I was able to fly over and around Krakow castle and the surrounding area too. I loved that I was able to wake up and just fly the drone from the comfort of where I was staying, meaning the drone was used to great effect throughout my time here.

AUSCHWITZ BIRKENAU

One of my main goals when visiting Poland was to go to Auschwitz. A place that has always fascinated me and a sort of bucket list place to visit in a macabre sort of way. Photography wise I knew it was going to be tough but not quote as tough as it turned out. several factors made this trip a nightmare to photograph. No.1 you are not able to take a bag in with so I was immediately down to using the 35mm F/1.4 and 5D MKIII. No.2, the place is absolutely rammed with tourists all vying for their own photo. And finally No.3, the dark, dingy buildings and glare on almost all the glass cases containing what I wanted to photograph the most.

As previously discussed, the glare and lighting was a massive issue for me. This became particularly apparent when on the tour of the blocks in which a lot of the remaining artifacts of the holocaust are stored. I was lucky however that I have a very fast F/1.4 lens that came into its own in this situation.

As you are filed round the dark rooms you only have a brief moment to get a shot of what is behind the glass which tended to contain a lot of dark colours punctuated by reds and oranges. To get as much glare out as possible I ended up putting to put the lens right up to the glass until it touched. You can see in my image ‘Shoes of the dead No.2’, that when stood back, glare from the sun coming through an open window in the room was inevitably going to cause issues when trying to get a decent image of what was behind. Settings wise I needed to be spot on, so I was shooting wide open at F/1.4, and had a shutter speed as high as I could (around 1/60th of a second), to stop the ISO going crazy, while also stopping motion blur. it was really tricky and I was quite pleased with the results given the circumstance.

Once the tour had concluded it was on to Birkenau to where the Holocaust took place. This was very different to the concentration camp of Auschwitz, and was on a much larger scale, very open and sparse. To give a little background on this, the Nazis when realising they were losing the war, tried to destroy the evidence of what they had done here, leaving a large area of land mainly empty of buildings, with the train track that brought the Jews to the camp and its main building remaining

. Photography wise this provided another challenge as literally thousands of tourists had descended on the camp on this hot sunday afternoon, meaning getting an image without a party of japanese/Israeli tourists doing selfies in the middle of the tracks was almost impossible.

The final image I took isn’t a particularly great one, but it shows one of the actual gas chambers itself, which the nazi’s destroyed in their panic to hide what they had done there.

Hopefully the images I did get to take while in the camps go a little way to show the scale of the human destruction that took place in these camps. It was pretty nuts and a lot to take in but well worth the visit.

SALT MINES

It was then onto the Salt mines on the outskirts of Krakow which also gives a guided tour over 110 metres below the ground. As with Auschwitz, light was again going to be a problem, but the trusty 35mm F/1.4 came to the rescue again. I can’t stress enough how important this fast lens was to have, but without it I would have really struggled to get anything useable.

At the heart of the tour was the chapel built entirely from salt. A quite incredible place that again had its light and tourist issues. This time I concentrated on the details of the chapel as other tourists snapped away around me.

Again the salt mines were another photography challenge that I think went better than I anticipated. I would have loved to have had more time on my own and not being gently nudged along in a group of 20+ but it worked out well and a fascinating place to visit to boot. Again as in Auschwitz, I was shooting wide open for a lot of the time (F/1.4), keeping a keen eye on the ISO and trying to find spots of light to use as much as possible.

JAWORZNO

I attempted my first full night flight with the drone, picking a local power station which was a real thrill that came with a big learning curve. I have always been advised to keep the ISO on the drone to 100 at all times so when flying at night, the Shutter speed became a real issue. The drone is pretty steady and even more steady in ‘tripod mode’ but it has its limitations. flying at night was not the issue it was the lack of light that meant when I did come to take an image, even with the lights from the power station, I was having to shoot at over 1-3 second exposures. Any movement from the drone left the images blurred and unusable. Luckily two images did come out as seen below. I will be doing more night flights in the future hopefully so watch this space.

The final images of the trip were taken over an old quarry that has been filled in and turned into a dive centre and area of natural beauty. I was able to fly the drone for quite a substantial period of time over the crystal clear waters which gives it the nickname the ‘polish maldives’. The water colour was amazing and changed drastically depending on the depth which made for sme really stunning images. I used the opportunity to try and capture some more artistic, minimalist shots which I love when they come out with the drone.

SUMMARY

In summation, Poland was full of surprises, photo opportunities and challenges for me which I loved. It was a complete trip in terms of what I was able to photograph and achieve over a short space of time, providing me with some amazing lasting memories. Krakow was a delight, as was all of the places I visited, the people I met and the food I ate.

As well as all this, the drone has been a revelation, and it was amazing to be able to take something like this away which is so portable and easy to transport. I will also reiterate the life saver that was my 35mm F/1.4. Could there be a better travel lens? I’m not so sure.

I was also able to photograph and visit some places I have always wanted to go to and experience, and going in Autumn was the gift that kept on giving.

I will be back.

FIN