Life in the lagoon

Life in the lagoon

The lagoon of Amvrakikos- in the western part of Greece and with exit in the Ionian Sea- is one of the richest and most impressive physical resorts in Europe protected by UNESCO.Hundreds of bird spieces find refuge, through all seasons,in a paradise of rocky shores, plants,reeds, marshes and all that is necessary for protection and breeding.And its fantastic the diversity of coloration that this place is undergoing during each season.The most amazing and impressive change occurs on the thick layer of water, mud and plants that covers the soil to great extent in the lagoon and consists the so called "plangton" which is the most wanted and welcome element for the birds to breed and lay eggs.In various parts of the year this becoms so thick that one can walk on it.
The best time ,not only for bird watching but also for photography in this lovely place is late fall.But-take my word- is extremely difficult to take a decent picture of this..mysterious plangton.I tried many ways in digital but it always came up flat and unimpressive.I got the best results with analogue shooting. I used Fuji Velvia 50 slide film and I "shielded" the lens with a polirizing filter and a ND8 filter to eliminate reflections,prominent sky and excessive sunlight. To my opinion, this is the best way to preserve detail to the greater extent in your field. The negatives were scanned afterwards. Then -after seeing the results- I tried digital camera puting the same filters on and the rsults were very good as well!I took many pictures working fairly early in the morning.I selected two-not necessarily the best but most characteristic of what i was saying above- and I would be most happy to have you sincere judges of my results as always. And I thank you very much for that.