Direct Speech, Education and Science, Latvia, Technology

Photography is an art and science of capturing and describing particular light. In addition, photography describes specific emotions depending on how bright the light is or how dark the light is. In particular, what emotions do the white scattered clouds convey and what emotions do the heavy and dark thunderstorm clouds convey? Especially when we are photographing nature, not only we paint the photograph with light but also use concrete lighting conditions to express landscape’s emotions, mood and feelings. What special colors, lighting conditions and emotions does the Gulf of Riga express that can attract landscape photographers to photograph many times and yet produce completely different photographs each time? Also, why photograph the same scenery more than once and perhaps several times?

Let us start by addressing the following questions: is it possible to see the same shade of blue cloudless sky more than once? Is it possible to notice the same cloud formations more than once? Is it possible to see the same system of waves in the sea more than once? From my personal experience, the answer is definitely no. The immediate question to address is why definitely no? For example, the amount of sun light that the clouds allow through varies not only from day but can vary several times even within a day. Therefore, that is why the cloud formations cannot be possibly identically the same, nor can they portray the same shade of white or the same shade of grey. Thus we can similarly conclude that the same formation of waves’ in any body of water cannot be observed more than once either as the wind speeds change and the size of the waves will also depend on whether it is high tide or low tide.

Now, if we like photographing the coastal scenery and sunsets, why photograph the Gulf of Riga scenery and sunsets in the Gulf of Riga? Why not photograph the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean instead? What is so unique about the coastal scenery along the Gulf of Riga and in the sunsets in the Gulf of Riga that we cannot and perhaps will not see anywhere else? What emotions, feelings and moods does the Gulf of Riga communicate in terms of waves, cloud formations, its colors and its sunsets that are so unique to observe and photograph?

First of all, even compared to the Baltic Sea the Gulf of Riga has substantially less salt and thus portrays the autumn haze color where it is shallow and the dark red color where it is deep; the Baltic Sea on the other hand exhibits the green color where it is shallow and the dark shade of blue where is it deep. In fact, this difference can even be noticed from the airplane on a clear day (about half an hour before landing in Riga right after the airplane crosses the Baltic Sea over Kolka). Have you ever seen the autumn haze color or the dark red color in any body of water?

Second of all, not only the colors of the shallow water and the deep water are quite different in the Gulf of Riga compared to the Baltic Sea, but the water in the Baltic Sea reflects the sun light and the water in the Gulf of Riga absorbs the sun light instead. Therefore, this creates challenges in taking photographs when the water does not reflect the sun light as much and especially the water becomes noticeably darker during heavy overcast conditions. On the other hand, the sun paints very specific dark shades of silver and very specific dark shades of gold in the Gulf of Riga when the sunset begins that you cannot see in the Baltic Sea. Generally the waters in the Gulf of Riga require much brighter sun light to capture its unique details as the water does reflect light well and absorbs the sun light instead. In fact, it is very similar to the difference between photographs printed on glossy paper vs. photographs printed on matted paper.

Furthermore, even the cloud patterns are quite different over the Gulf of Riga vs. the clouds patterns in the Baltic Sea. In fact, it is not uncommon to see either a system of scattered clouds or isolated systems of clouds over the Gulf of Riga. On the other hand, over the Baltic Sea it is more common to see a huge system of clouds coming from one particular direction. Even the shade of the white color of clouds differs substantially over the Gulf of Riga vs. the shade of white color of clouds over the Baltic Sea. The shade of white of the scattered clouds over the Gulf of Riga is generally brighter but the shades of darker grey or black storm clouds of the Gulf of Riga are much darker.  Moreover, even the dark grey clouds and the dark black clouds allow more sun light to shine through them in the Gulf of Riga and allow more scattering light even during very heavy overcast conditions.