A Story Behind the Photo

What comes to your mind first when you're looking at the photos of pro photographers? What's behind those pieces of art? How much time did it take to prepare the shot? How much effort did it take to process the photos? And probably many more questions. We asked Pro users from our Facebook group to share the stories behind their best shots. Here are their answers.

Swapan Jha

I am an avid photographer and I always look for opportunities to take B&W photos of interesting subjects. I was in Paris last summer with Serge Ramelli as part of his Paris Workshop 2015. I have been following his work for few years and have been influenced by his ways of post-processing techniques. In fact, he introduced me to Skylum software, including Tonality Pro (now Tonality CK).

On Day 2 of our workshop, I took this shot around 10:30 pm from under the Pont de Bir-Hakeim overlooking river Seine and Eiffel Tower. This photo directly does not follow the "leading lines" rules, but it does help create depth and dimensionality which draws the viewer into the image. I am very pleased with the final result.

Keith Walmsley

This photo was taken out in Queenstown, New Zealand. I like the stillness of the water, the mountains in the background, the trees on the right and the dead stumps sticking out the water all make for a good reflection in the water all making it a beautiful serene scene.

Andy Haywood

This photograph was taken at Derwent Reservoir, the middle of three reservoirs in the Upper Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England. After a long dry summer, water levels dropped to unprecedented lows. This allowed the opportunity for a rare balanced image, the one where the water didn't dominate. I used the contours and lighting on the water to lead one's eye into the scene. The rich autumnal woodland colours provided that extra WOW factor.

Athena Carey

This morning was a very, very early start, to get up and all the way out to Botany Bay for sunrise. It was a ton of fun though – waiting at the gate in the dark for it to open, driving down the old roads on the other side, and finally biking from the parking lot to the sea in a mad race with the sun. Every moment was laced with anticipation for what we would find when we reached the sand.

When we got to the water, we needed to walk down the shore a bit to get to this location, eager to get into shooting, but taking the time in the predawn light to take in the whole scene, let it speak to me and then focus on what was speaking loudest. For me, it was this tree, and it needed to be captured from the water with a long exposure.

I was there with my good friend and fellow photographer Alistair Nicol, who captured this photo of me shooting this very tree.