Sunset seascapes
Landscape photographer Jerome Colombo captures stunning skies and makes his own luck by visiting the same locations again and again
If I like the place, but the sky doesn’t suit my vision, I will come back another day when conditions are more suitable
Ihave always been drawn to photography. I got my first real camera at the age of 16, after my first summer job (a long time ago...). It was a Nikon EM, which I travelled with a lot! After practising different aspects of photography with other cameras, I developed a real passion for landscape photography. I began to read everything related to the subject and my life has revolved around this passion ever since. I am always looking for the most beautiful landscapes, most of the time in Brittany or Britain, preferably by the sea and with dreamy light.
For me, the Nikon Z 7 paired with the Z 14-30mm f/4 S and Z 24-70mm f/4 S is the perfect combination for landscape photography. I also remain an avid user of graduated ND filters, and standard ND filters for long exposures. I find the results are better than by merging exposures in post. The sky is an essential part of the photo for me. If I like the place, but the sky doesn’t suit my vision, I will come back another day when conditions are more suitable. The photos shown here were all taken around my home, but not on the first visit. You must be patient and tenacious if you’re to capture stunning landscape light.
The sky’s the limit
The sky doesn’t have to be perfect as
I will change my style depending on the conditions I encounter. For the photo of the île du Guesclin [1], for example, there was a decent sunset, but the sky didn’t please me. I therefore chose a very long exposure of four minutes to convey movement in the sky and add drama.
I rarely use a telephoto lens, but if you ever want to capture a sublime sunset at Le Mont Saint-michel, you’ll have no
choice but to frame the island from several miles east. I shot this image at 200mm [2], which is the minimum focal length I’d recommend. I now keep my AF-S 70-200mm f/4g ED VR permanently in my bag, while I await the release of the Nikon Z 100-400mm.
For the Solidor Tower in Saint-malo [3],
I wanted to have the sunset over Dinard with the Tower in the foreground, but access was closed to the public due to pandemic restrictions. I had to change my plan, so I opted for a composition integrating the plants along the cobbled footpath leading to the Tower. I used a 1x1 crop to eliminate several cars parked on the right-hand side.
I was faced with a dilemma when photographing Pointe du Décollé [4]:
I wanted to use a long exposure to photograph the sea, but this would blur the clouds and the sky was particularly beautiful that day. The solution was to compromise with a two-second exposure, which was long enough to convey movement within the sea but short enough to retain the shapes of the clouds. I found myself in a similar situation when shooting the Presqu’île du Perron [5], but this time with an additional layer of difficulty. When you are facing the sun at roughly the same level you can obtain a beautiful sunstar at narrower apertures, such as f/11 or f/16. But my time was limited, and I had to work out the right shutter speed for my long exposure. At times like this it pays to have your kit organized so you can access everything you need quickly. You don’t want to waste precious time looking for filters, for example, so I always attach my filter bag to my tripod.
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