Took a hike to the famous Guatavita Lake, once though to be the place of the legend of El Derado, or the city of gold. The water is naturally green. It is green from the seta-mint of the metals in the lake that oxidizes the water. The day was almost perfect, perfect cloud coverage and not too much sun to create glares.

I took this shot wanting a lot of detail and a lot of color to pop out. To insure that I wanted a long exposure. During the daytime it is harder to create a long exposure, especially as the clouds started to clear up. The trick was to stack a circular polarizer (used to cut down glares and intensify color, like sunglasses do) and 2 neutral density filters (used to cut out light, but not change the color). This allowed me to take an exposure for 1 minute of time allow for cloud movement and amazing color.

Camera: Olympus OMD E-M5
Lens Model: OLYMPUS M.17mm F1.8
ISO: 200
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Shutter: 60″
Mode: Manual
Filter: Circular Polarizer, NDx8+NDx512
Tripod: Yes
Post Processing: Aperture 3.5

Erick Redcloud

A partially blind Graphic Designer, Freelance Travel Photographer, Artist, Buddhist and Vegetarian who loves to travel. Erick loves traveling by being with the locals and going off the beaten path. He is the founder and owner of Pathlesstravels and loves inspiring others to follow their dreams, whether it is to travel or something completely different. He started Pathlesstravels to hone is photography skills and to meet amazing people, and to help a friend break into journalism. Check out his photography at his link.

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