Crimean landscapes: wonders of nature and ancient ruins. Seascapes of the winter Crimea or the first photos from the D800

A week ago I returned from the Crimea, where I shot seascapes for seven days in a row. Winter Crimea - perfect place for the landscape painter. Judge for yourself: there are no vacationers at all, housing prices are three times lower than in summer, the sun shifts in winter and you can catch it in the sea at dawn / sunset. In addition, in the absence of snow, winter Crimea almost does not differ from summer Crimea - the same sea, the same stones, the same sand, the same evergreen juniper. And yet, the trip was special for me, as it was a kind of test drive of the newly acquired Nikon D800 and Nikkor 70-200.

There were only two points in the route, so as not to be sprayed, but to try to catch the light. The first point was Quiet Bay near Koktebel. In the background is Cape Chameleon, followed by Kara-Dag:

The first three days we lived in a tent right on the beach, five meters from the sea. If you look closely, you can see it in the upper right corner at the foot of the mountain. During the night, the water "ate" about a meter of sand, and in the tent for the whole night there was a feeling that we were about to be carried away to the open sea)

Here we caught two good sunrises and one good sunset:

We wanted huge storm waves, but, unfortunately, for all seven days we did not see them.

The shore is full of all sorts of garbage, from which you can put together a good concept:

But the main foreground, of course, are the stones:

Or waves:

Or the waves that are on the stones))

I also came across a sluggish frozen crab, which could be put in different poses. He didn't mind:

We spent the second part of our trip in the New World. Here we rented an apartment, closer to juniper grove, and every day, as if at work, they went to shoot sunrises and sunsets. If in quiet bay we shot stones and waves, then in the New World trees were added to them:

All photogenic trees in Crimea have already been shot to holes. And at different times of the year and in different light. And all from about the same angle. I checked it personally - you can’t find another good angle with this pine tree.

The new world did not spoil us with light (sorry for the tautology). Of the four sunsets and four sunrises, only two sunsets were more or less normal. Dawn - none.

And, of course, how to visit the New World and not shoot the mountain rhinoceros Karaul-Oba (which was also filmed from all angles and with every stone in the foreground):

I'm not the first to shoot from this cave either. I forgot to take a double with the sun covered with my finger, and now the photo can be safely called "A Thousand and One Hare":

On the last day we went to the city beach. The sun was shining, it was about 15 degrees Celsius. I bought a loaf of bread and gave the tracking autofocus a test, shooting flocked gulls and swans that swam in. Autofocus was a pleasant surprise - very tenacious and very accurate. 95% of the frames turned out sharp:

And four frames per second is absolutely enough for such a shooting:

Surely everyone can't wait to hear what I have to say about the D800.

And I will say this: the camera is ambiguous. I will describe the negative points first. The main problem for me was that some lenses began to work differently. For example, 16-35 began to lather more in the corners, and in conjunction with the 50th I got a terrible back focus, which is not treated with in-camera adjustment. Moreover, everything is in order with other lenses, and 50 works fine on other carcasses. I also learned the fact that the D800 has a diffraction limit of f 8.1 (f14 for the D700), which means that even at f11 the overall image sharpness will decrease. Let's add here Nikon's recommendation to shoot handheld at very short shutter speeds (to avoid micro-blurring, which occurs due to the large megapixel matrix). It doesn't turn out to be fun...

But! Now let me tell you what I liked. The biggest plus for me turned out to be an extended dynamic range (the maximum range of object brightness that can be transmitted by a matrix) - what was previously difficult to fit in HDR from three frames with the D700 is now easily reduced in one or maximum two frames D800. Amazing result! This is especially noticeable in the sky (I hope you see it too). The second plus is that the shadows are drawn out perfectly, with a minimum of noise. By the way, the noise is approximately at the level of the D700, which is an excellent result. True, you will have to learn how to crush them (processing rabbis is another story). And, of course, resolution. I did not evaluate it right away, it took half a hundred files to process. Now I can crop the picture in any way I like, while getting a size suitable for stocks, or I can always reduce it to 16-12 MP, while “killing” all the shooting or processing flaws.

Something like that. My verdict is the same as others - the camera is good, but requires a special approach. All the disadvantages that I described above can be eliminated over time by one method or another. Or learn to avoid them. But the benefits will remain forever)

That's all for now. See you!

Foreword: January 20th celebrated every year since 1991 Crimea Day. Photo Gallery celebrates this holiday on the main page, as it has the most direct relation to Crimea. Crimea - the birthplace of the owner Photo galleries

Lock " Bird home”, commanding on a high cliff above the beautiful Black Sea, has become a symbol of Crimea and Ukraine, but now Crimea has left Ukraine, joining Russia and has become one of the causes of the Ukrainian crisis. Before us, amazing natural wonders are revealed in the luxurious landscapes of the Crimea, seascapes, in places with big amount caves and ancient ruins of medieval times.

Bear Mountain (Ayu-Dag) in Crimea, place natural heritage. This is one of the 10 Crimean natural places, which are included in the top 100 Natural Wonders of Ukraine. National Geo TV channel included Crimea in the list the best places for travel 2013.

Do you know that in Crimea there are Grand Canyon? This is one of the waterfalls in the Crimean Grand Canyon.

On the way to the Crimean Grand Canyon, Uch-Kosh gorge

Lost lighthouse in Crimea.
Waterfall “Dzhur-Dzhur”

Arch created by nature itself "Golden Gate". nature reserve Karadag view from the Black Sea. The reserve was established in 1979 to protect Europe's only rocky Jurassic coastal massif. All of these are extinct volcanoes.

Winter Crimean landscape of Ai-Petri, the most famous mountain from which you can see all the beauty of the Crimea.

Laspi Bay, these rocky mountains are also called the Devil's Finger
Massive panorama of Balaklava Bay

Underground, Balaklava used to be considered a submarine base, which operated until 1993.

St. Vladimir's Cathedral rises above the vast excavations and ruins of Chersonese. Chersonese is ancient Greek colony, founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula. Ancient city located on the Black Sea coast on the outskirts of Sevastopol. This place is called "Ukrainian Pompeii" and "Russian Troy".
Cave on Mount Ai-Petri.

Cave city Eski-Kermen in the Crimea was a medieval city-bastion.

Mammoth bones in the Marble Cave. Although Marble Cave not named one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Ukraine (in the past), this place is worth a visit.

Cave city of Chufut-Kale in the Middle Ages it also served as another fortress. In that cave city there are about 200 caves that have been used as shelters, churches, mosques and prayer houses for thousands of years.


Rocky island of Adalary, Gurzuf, Crimea

Kizil-Kaya- a ridge falling from the Yalta Yayla to the southeast, north of Yalta in the Crimea and is the Yalta mountain reserve. Yalta is beautiful resort town on the Black Sea, this city has a large number of historical and modern attractions.

tree on rocky mountains Crimea
Flight over Koktebel

Cape Martyan located near Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Crimea. The length of the Cape Martyan reserve is 240 hectares and is evenly divided by land and the Black Sea.
Except natural wonders, Crimea is the owner of magnificent architecture, and one of the examples of such architecture is the Swallow's Nest castle, as a symbol of love.

Autumn waterfall in the forest of Crimea

Sunlight and Crimean mountains- view from helicopter

View of Balaklava from the Genoese fortress
Genoese fortress located in the Crimean city of Sudak, which was founded in 1371. The fortress was erected on top of the ancient coral reef, which is now at an altitude of 150 m above sea level


Clouds over the Khapkhal gorge, as a symbol of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Double rainbow over the village of Tankovoe, Bakhchisaray district

Storm, waterspout on the Black Sea

Other perspectives of Crimea, cable car over Yalta.

"Ring"- photograph in one of Crimean caves.

Crimean lighthouse at sunset. Looking at these photographs, it is not difficult to understand why, a loving country would like to become the owner of Crimea as its own.

The article was prepared based on the materials.

The nature of the Crimea served as a source of creative inspiration for many masters of fine arts. It seems that not one of the artists who have been here, from the 18th century to the present day, has remained indifferent to the peculiar beauty of the “noon land”. For example, beauty Gurzuf. The exoticism of the south combined with the pathos of the steppe expanse of the western plains and with the solemnly severe pathos of the mountain range east coast present a truly grandiose panorama.

Each of the artists working in Crimea , managed to see in him something of his own, cherished, that found a response in the soul. The works of these authors have become a kind of “bridge” that connects the viewer with the Crimean landscape, sometimes completely unknown to him, but awakening in him feelings and experiences associated with the indestructible power of man’s love for nature.

For some landscape painters, work in the Crimea was episodic, but for the work of three, who long time lived or systematically wrote here, the Crimean nature had the most immediate and profound impact.

After the accession in 1783 of the Crimean peninsula to Russian state artists rushed here to capture the unusual southern landscapes and views of intensively built cities.

In 1820 A.S. visited the beautiful shores of Taurida. Pushkin, who enthusiastically sang the nature of these places in his poetic works. In the 1820s, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz traveled here, creating a wonderful poetic cycle "Crimean Sonnets". This aroused even greater interest in the Crimea among artists.

Throughout the 19th century, representatives of various artistic movements worked in Crimea, and Crimean nature received a very diverse reflection in their work.

A.I. Meshchersky managed to vividly express the romantic beginning of his Crimean landscape. The spectacular state of the blue sky against the background of the rocks is conveyed in warm colors along with old poplars, the tops of which are illuminated by the light of the sun's rays.

"Crimean landscape" I. Shishkin

The largest representative of the Russian realistic landscape I.I. Shishkin, who visited Yalta in 1879, extraordinary view highlands prompted the creation of a series of drawings and prints. In the painting “Crimean Landscape”, he masterfully depicted a forest path leading to the house, among centuries-old Crimean trees.

A well-known master of lighting effects in painting A.I. Kuindzhi acquired in 1886 a small plot of land in the Simeiz region. Here, in the summer, he painted sketches, trying to capture the whimsical play of colors on restless water, to convey solar or moonlight. Laconically painted his landscape "Cloud".

The author skillfully depicted the moment when the pale pink light rising sun forms cumulus clouds over the blue stripe of the sea. The etude "Sea" is extremely generalized. Quiet, gentle sea and calls to plunge into the morning water.

Many amazing paintings were painted in the Crimea by the master I.K. Aivozovsky. It makes no sense to exhibit his masterpieces here again and again. It is worth noting his students, who turned to the traditional themes and methods of art of the venerable artist and at the same time showed their creative individuality. These include the artist A.I. Fessler, who lived in Feodosia for more than fifty years. He is the author of many deeply poetic views of the coastal cities of the Crimea.

A.I. Fressler. "Gurzuf".

In the painting "Gurzuf" he resorts to the romanticization of the landscape image in the spirit of Aivozovsky's painting. All components of the landscape serve to express the early morning. The artist's style of writing is sharp, with bright color contrasts, well conveys the mood of this cozy town bird's-eye.

Another native of Feodosia, L.F. Lagorio constantly lived in St. Petersburg, but visited his homeland almost every year. He enthusiastically sang in his marinas the beauty Black Sea coast, including Gurzuf.

Artist E.Ya. Magdesyan sought to emphasize the diversity of Crimean motifs in his paintings. In his "Seascape" the harsh solidity of the rocks is perfectly conveyed against the backdrop of the restless movement of the waves. The blue and blue tones of this canvas reproduce the special transparency of the air and the unsteadiness of light water with a greenish tint.

"Seascape"

Naval officer A.V. Ganzen as a child, in the house of his grandfather I.K. Aivozovsky, imbued with a love for art and was seriously fond of marine painting. In the Crimean landscapes, he revealed the greatness of the sea element, while maintaining the remarkable subtlety of the natural look and introducing lyrical coloring into the artistic image.

"Moon rise"

Artist K.F. Bogaevsky was also born and lived in Feodosia. His first encounter with art took place in the workshop of Aivozovsky, and in 1897 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied with Kuindzhi. “No matter how much I wrote pictures about the Crimean sky, mountains, sea, Crimean nature gave me more and more new themes for my works,” Bogaevsky claimed. Here are his paintings Old Crimea”, “Feodosia”, “Evening by the Sea” and the Crimean landscape. The last one, "Crimean View", in my opinion, is a complete masterpiece of the play of colors and colors.

"Old Crimea"

"Feodosia"

"Evening by the sea"

"Crimean view"

Ancient Cimmeria served as a source of creativity for Bogaevsky's contemporary, poet and artist M.A. Voloshin. Each of his works is solved in a certain color key, expressively conveying the nature of the depicted motif. And in each of them, in the smooth rhythm of lines and color spots, the author gives the viewer the opportunity to feel the world of beauty that nature gives to man. His work "In the vicinity of Koktebel" is characteristic.

Around Koktebel

Academician of battle painting N.S. Samokish lived in Simferopol during the Soviet period of creativity. In 1917-1921, while undergoing treatment in Evpatoria, he enthusiastically painted cozy courtyards shaded by tree leaves, market squares, old mansions and dachas. In these sketches, the artist's brilliant pictorial gift was revealed. In his work “Evening in the Crimea”, he skillfully depicted the illumination of peasant life, a rich palette of blue, yellow, white and green colors.

"Evening in the Crimea"

The Crimean landscapes of K.A. Korovin, a prominent representative of the Moscow Union of Russian Artists. In 1911, he built a dacha-workshop in Gurzuf, where he liked to write directly from the balcony opening great views south coast mountains and sea. Korovin subtly felt nature, the eternal play of light and shadow, giving the whole environment a feeling of trepidation, mobility. His painting "Gurzuf" confirms this.

Sonority color palette Crimean nature revealed by Korovin in his next landscape. There is a stormy dynamics of colors, life, bright sun. This was achieved by the virtuoso impressionistic style of painting, which the master uses in his work.

"Balcony in the Crimea"

Landscape, as an independent genre, occupies a place of honor in fine arts. It enables craftsmen working in this area to create an artistic image of their native land with great emotional expressiveness.

Here are the works of talented artists of different eras and generations, which form the basis of the collections of paintings and drawings in art museums And art galleries Simferopol, Feodosia, Sevastopol and Alupka.