An Adventure Beckons by Connell McCarthy
‘An Adventure Beckons’ is Connell McCarthy's sixth installment of his photography showcases where he try to maintain a specific theme while taking photographs, match them with a song and display them in a little gallery on Behance. He had the initial intention of taking some nature photographs with a moody atmosphere, so making use of the rainy Saturday, his girlfriend and I went out for a hike to take the photos.
My main inspiration for this project was the countless photographs that strike such a rich emotion of wanderlust that I find on Instagram and Tumblr. The atmosphere that this project gives off is always one that I’ve wanted to achieve for a while now and it was the coincidence of being at the right location and the right time that perfected what I wanted.
-Connell McCarthy
I’m still really new to photography so I haven’t yet found my distinct style. It’s always changing because I’m consistently trying to push my limits of what I can do stylistically, and my inspirations are shifting all the time. I know I’m leaning to more of a vintage film style as I take more photos. A couple of my big inspirations are Forrest Mankins (forrestmankins on Tumblr), Christian Watson (1924us on instagram) and André Josselin (andrejosselin on Behance). Their styles are so consistent and they are the photographers I look up to.
-Connell McCarthy
The best advice I can give to everyone is to go out there with a camera and nothing in mind. You’ll find inspiration in the moment, rather than feeling blocked while trying to come up with ideas. Some of my best photos have been because I just took my camera with me somewhere and seized the moment of a good shot. The other advice I can give is to refrain from editing your photos to the point of over doing hdr and saturation haha. I’ve seen too many of those.
-Connell McCarthy
I use a Fujifilm X-E2 camera with an adaptor for non-Fuji lenses. I shoot with my favourite lens, the Carl Zeiss 50mm 1.4; but I’ve been borrowing a friends Nikkor 10-24mm 3.5 Wide Angle lens, which is perfect for nature shots. All my photo editing is done in Adobe Lightroom.
-Connell McCarthy
Fun fact: I don’t even have a tripod. When I want to take long exposure shots I make use of my weird rock balancing skills and build a sturdy structure to take a photo off of. It makes the photo much more satisfying and keeps the mood light and fun.
-Connell McCarthy
About Connell McCarthy
Connell McCarthy is currently 19 years old, living on the west coast of Canada. He grew up in a town outside of Ottawa, Ontario and eventually moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 2014. That move ignited a passion for nature and the intrigue of the views beyond the city and surrounding mountains. He didn’t grow up being a photographer but rather a digital artist and developer, and mainly found photography as an escape from working everyday on the same art medium. He's currently running a design team for an electronic music label called Monstercat and photography is just a side hobby. See more of his works on Behance or his website.
I love the sensor in the X-E2, really similar to the XPRO1 which is a pleasure to use, I know they're noisy but you're probably pushing it too much in post, be wary of oversharpening too in a lot of your images, it brings out dirty detail in optical errors from the cheaper lenses you've got, which aren't strong enough to be argued as an artistic effect. It's definitely worth investing in some nicer lenses, the wide angles are gonna be full of aberration which is actually the opposite you want for shooting landscapes. If you're liking the filmic look then you may as well invest in an old refurb from the 60s, like an Olympus Trip, it'll give you that rustic look, and make you think way more about your composition, to the point where you'll need very very little post.
However as always your colour edit in post is on point, and I really where you really open up the aperture on the 1.4, just be careful of how far you push because you'll lose detail the more you open, the middle range of the lens, so about f5 ish is where you'll keep the most detail.
Thanks so much for the honest feedback! I definitely want to invest in more gear but it gets so expensive haha. I'll lighten up on the processing and keep them a tad cleaner.
Really nice capture of nature. I like it! :)
<3 Thank you so much
This looks so fabulous. =)
Thank you! :D