Stratified City - Full set 13 images (Patreon)

Photographing Nausicaa Yami in the Stratified city on Lanzarote was terrific.

The sun was shining, and there were clouds in the sky; the only two disadvantages were the somewhat heavy wind that made hair have a mind of its own and the very sharp rock, which we nicknamed devils pebbles.

I was there doing a one-on-one workshop with a UK photographer, and we would take turns shooting, and he would do some drone footage when I was shooting.

A couple of camper vans had parked overnight, but other than them, we had the place for ourselves, and it’s a place with plenty of options.

We had dropped by the day before to find the best spots so as not to waste too much time walking around.

I wanted to try to shoot a more extensive series, which poses some issues:

Since there both are the direct sun and overcast light, it takes some extra effort in editing to get a similar look, but also you have to think about variability. For a good series, you want varied compositions, some far away, some closer, perhaps even some close-ups, but in any event, you want to create a visually exciting set and not almost all the same.

That requires some internal “scorekeeping” to remember what you have done.

If the background is close and clean when shooting something like this, as in non-disturbing, I will usually use something like ƒ5.6/8. If I have a more busy environment, such as the arch, I will shoot wide open (1.2 on my 35mm Sigma art, or ƒ2.8 on my 24-70 Sigma Art.

Yes, if you have followed along, I’ve changed from Sony to Sigma lenses; my trusty Sony 24-70 had been beaten up so autofocus had become unreliable. And fixing it was almost the same price as a New Sigma, so I opted for that.

And frankly, I can’t tell the difference; both are great (when in focus).