ELena Morelli Analysis
Elena Morelli is a photographer I stumbled upon whilst searching for nature photographs, specifically woodlands. Her work caught me off guard as it was exactly what I had in mind, as her photographs capture the breath-taking wonders of nature. She uses several cameras to take her wonderful photographs: a canon 5DmkII, a Hasselblad 500c/m, a rolleiflex 2.8f, a leica m2 and a Polaroid 250. This gives her the opportunity to vary her work such as some photographs appearing older, having a different light or feel to them due to the different cameras used to capture them. Morelli’s goal is to photograph ‘the beauty we live within, the poetry of small, everyday things, the smells and the colours’ and this is truly conveyed through her vivid photographs. Although she does not confine herself to just woodlands, trees and rivers, I was most interested in that aspect of her work, as I can relate to those photographs due to the many walks my parents took my sister and me on when we were little (and still do).
Her woodland photography is captured using a canon 5DmkII however it is not explained at what ISO, shutter speed or aperture they are taken at. Since there is always strong light from the sun, we could deduce that the ISO varies between 200 to 800, depending on whether, the sun was partially blocked and the camera’s position in relation to the sun. As for the aperture, some of her photographs have a very shallow depth of field which creates a bokeh effect where the sun filters through the leaves of the trees. As for the shutter speed, since the images are quite sharp, it is possible a tripod was used or that it was relatively quick, such as between 1/100 - 1/250 of a second, it would not necessarily need to be any lower due to the strong natural light present.
Her photographs range from lines of trees to a simple leaf or broken branch lying on the forest floor, bringing you to a more natural and vibrant world than the boring grey one we travel through each day. Lines and shapes play a significant role as they guide us through the image. For example, a bridge will lead us into the forest, or the lines of the trees will direct our eyes towards the sky, and a broken tree will split the photograph in two and provide a symmetrical aspect. These lines re-inforce the soft texture or the trees, leaves and branches, and the colours are so vivid they shock our eyes with their vibrancy. Due to this, it is possible that Elena Morelli alters the brightness and contrast of her photographs however these appear to be kept to a minimum so that the resulting images keep their naturalistic atmosphere. Furthermore, light is evident in her photographs and is used to enhance the textures and colours of the environment, by making them more visible.
What truly interest me about her work is firstly how she manages to capture such vivid photographs and secondly how they take me back to my childhood (which sounds slightly cliché), to the woods that I saw and how magical it felt to walk through them and observe the way nature gives us these wonders to admire. Elena Morelli takes photographs of woods to capture an instant of life, to show others what her eyes see when she goes to these places. Although some are sometime sometimes under-exposed or over-exposed the beauty is still there, there may be some technical slip ups, however it is what the photograph conveys which is important in her photography.
Her woodland photography is captured using a canon 5DmkII however it is not explained at what ISO, shutter speed or aperture they are taken at. Since there is always strong light from the sun, we could deduce that the ISO varies between 200 to 800, depending on whether, the sun was partially blocked and the camera’s position in relation to the sun. As for the aperture, some of her photographs have a very shallow depth of field which creates a bokeh effect where the sun filters through the leaves of the trees. As for the shutter speed, since the images are quite sharp, it is possible a tripod was used or that it was relatively quick, such as between 1/100 - 1/250 of a second, it would not necessarily need to be any lower due to the strong natural light present.
Her photographs range from lines of trees to a simple leaf or broken branch lying on the forest floor, bringing you to a more natural and vibrant world than the boring grey one we travel through each day. Lines and shapes play a significant role as they guide us through the image. For example, a bridge will lead us into the forest, or the lines of the trees will direct our eyes towards the sky, and a broken tree will split the photograph in two and provide a symmetrical aspect. These lines re-inforce the soft texture or the trees, leaves and branches, and the colours are so vivid they shock our eyes with their vibrancy. Due to this, it is possible that Elena Morelli alters the brightness and contrast of her photographs however these appear to be kept to a minimum so that the resulting images keep their naturalistic atmosphere. Furthermore, light is evident in her photographs and is used to enhance the textures and colours of the environment, by making them more visible.
What truly interest me about her work is firstly how she manages to capture such vivid photographs and secondly how they take me back to my childhood (which sounds slightly cliché), to the woods that I saw and how magical it felt to walk through them and observe the way nature gives us these wonders to admire. Elena Morelli takes photographs of woods to capture an instant of life, to show others what her eyes see when she goes to these places. Although some are sometime sometimes under-exposed or over-exposed the beauty is still there, there may be some technical slip ups, however it is what the photograph conveys which is important in her photography.