Aerial Views of El Peñol y La Laguna de Guatapé, Columbia
Written and Photographed by Johan
Artist
Johan is a professional drone photographer from Belgium, going by the alias of Johan Drone Adventures. In January 2019 him and his girlfriend quit their 9-to-5 corporate jobs to travel the world. With his DJI Mavic 2 Pro always in his backpack, he has amassed an impressive portfolio of drone photos in the last 15 months, from amazing adventures all over the world. These images can be seen on large travel accounts all over Instagram!
He mainly shoots natural landscapes and the occasional urban/architecture photograph. Always trying to be creative and find a unique angle Johan likes to find inspiration from nature's surprising forms and patterns.
Guatapé in Colombia
The man-made lake of Guatapé is definitely one of the most beautiful spots we’ve experienced in Colombia. The area was flooded to create the biggest hydroelectric power station in Colombia. This has created a really peculiar orange shoreline, which contrasts with the green pine trees. The lake is now home to several water sports attractions and it is rumored you can still see the cross of the flooded old church on the bottom of the lake!
The main attraction – right outside the colorful village – is ‘El Peñol’, the big rock formation. It takes 740 steps to get all the way to the top, but you do get a super scenic view over the amazing surroundings. This was bound to be my first drone location on this trip. We started our ascent late in the afternoon, in order to be at the top for sunset. There were not many clouds, so the sunlight was perfect, from the platform I took off with my drone in search of the perfect angle.
I had seen a lot of drone photos from the front of the rock, with the staircases. They looked nice, but I knew I had to find a different angle to create something more unique. That’s why I circled around the rock and found the opposite perspective to be much more engaging, as it allowed for a long view over the lake. This view made much more of an impression on me. I put the horizon on the top third line of my in-screen grid, as I find that often works great for landscape composition and I positioned the rock more towards the right side. Once your eyes are done ‘feasting’ on the main subject, the rock, this composition technique allows a bit more breathing space to wander around to the left and discover the surroundings and the lake.
Be the judge yourself to see which side you prefer 😊
Tip: For all of the photos mentioned in this post I use the 5x AEB mode for photography, as I find this gives you way more dynamic range to work with afterwards in Lightroom. You can easily merge them into an HDR photo before you head to the ’develop’ panel. Especially handy for photos with a lot of bright sky in them, like the examples above. This way you can easily bring back the details in the clouds etc…
For a full tutorial using the 5-AEB method click here!
Amazing Textures
The very next day we were sleeping in the Bosko glamping next to the lake. This hotel is uniquely situated on the hills of the lake and thus gives you a splendid view right from the comfort of your bed! Here I recorded an ‘on location’ video for my upcoming Drone Adventurer Masterclass, which is online now! You’ll see me launching my drone from our terrace and giving some commentary in search of the perfect angle. In the previous episode of the course we had scouted the area online and now I was planning to take these beautiful photos from our glamping location, with the Peñol rock in the backdrop. Great setting if you ask me. Exactly what I had in mind.
But it wasn’t until I started flying around afterwards, that I discovered just how awesome the views and the textures of this lake actually were. Flying towards uncharted territory (nothing like this on Instagram), I was welcomed by views like these:
A bit further out I also noticed some cool textures. By flying at 500m altitude and pointing my camera all the way down in a perfect 90 degrees angle, it allowed me to get some really abstract views of the tiny islands that were formed when flooding the area. The sun was really at its very last breath – which you can see by the long shadows – when I shot these and that makes the atmosphere just magical. I knew when I shot these, I had found my truly unique shots, oww yeah!
Camera settings
I know some of you will be curious as to my exact settings when I shot these photos. So here you are:
Drone: DJI Mavic 2 Pro (Hasselblad camera with 1’ sensor, 20MP photo and 4k video)
Filters: PolarPro polarized ND filters (for golden hour I always use the polarized ND4)
Camera settings: iso 100-120, 1/60-1/80, f2.8-4.0 (keep it below f5.6, as then it starts losing sharpness)
Batteries: 3 batteries were used to shot all of these photos.
If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out 😊
If you enjoyed this series of images, feel free to follow me on Instagram!
Keep on flying, keep on exploring! - Johan Drone Adventures
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