A Walk with Light – in Poland!

I’ve always said, “Light is where you find it,” and had a great time finding it during a recent Photo Walk in Poland with fellow photographers! I was invited to SwiatloSila Festival of Light in Gdansk, a wonderful celebration of photography staged and offered by Cyfrowe_pl,a tremendously popular camera store in Poland. Through service, education and outreach, the amazing team at Cyfrowe.pl has fostered a truly vibrant photo community around their stores. Published an Instagram Reel and a few posts from my time in Gdansk a few days ago.

The festival was buzzing with energy. What a fantastic experience! I enjoy the company of fellow photographers, and the crowds were so much fun – welcoming and enthusiastic. I believe the Photo Festival had about 4,000 people come through the doors. So much energy! Our Instagram from last week from our photo walk used hard light, and it prompted some questions about other images and techniques from out on the streets.

We bounced around out there in the historic docks of Gdansk, with blazing sun overhead. We worked with the hard available light, then pushed and pulled the levels with the ever available controls of f-stop, shutter speed, flash, hi speed sync, lens choice and of course, the impromptu choice of setting. You take what the sun and the scene give you, apply craft, and do your best. Our group had the benefit of having Filip Kowalkowski and Tomasz Zienkiewicz out there helping us. Fillip and Tomasz both shoot beautifully, and are mainstays of the Polish photo scene.

Magda, who was able to shape-shift continuously, in all manner of light, gave all our photographers excellent looks.

We worked open shade, hard sun, reflected light and flash, using Profoto A2 units with Clic light shapers Clic Magnums. In the shot above, I introduced a second A2, gelled warm, with the Profoto fresnel and magnum. Given that magnification, via those two shapers, we got a very concentrated back light.

I shot with the Nikon Z 9, and the NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8, and NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lenses, Profoto lighting and Manfrotto Halo Reflectors, which are small in size but big in impact.

For the banner shot, seen again below, that is simply a warmed up A2 inside this small concrete shed, firing through the frosted glass at Magda, who I told to go into some sort of spy mode, and peer through the window. Raw light plus frosted glass is almost always a good combination.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Festival, and special thanks to the stellar staff at Cyfrowe, especially Fillip, Wioletta, Jaroslaw and Daniel. They organized things incredibly well. Here’s the ever upbeat Fillip out on the walk!

I promised Tomasz (below) I’d do his portrait in a stage demonstration. He has great features, and a very elegant style of shooting, so I saw him this way, with a bit of mystery.

Happy and honored to have been invited to Poland. Hoping paths in the future might lead there again.

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