Wednesday Landscapes, 22 November 2017

You are invited to upload one or more of your landscape photos and, if you’d like, to accompany your image with some commentary: challenges you faced in making the image? your intent for the image? settings? post-processing decisions? why you did what you did? the place and time? or an aspect you’d like feedback on? And please feel free to ask questions of others who have posted images or to join the discussion. If you don’t feel like using words, that’s OK too—unaccompanied images (or unaccompanied words, for that matter) are also very much welcomed. As for the technicalities, the usual forum guidelines apply: files < 1 MB; image size <1000 px maximum dimension.

 

A creek flows across a beach at this location, and all sorts of interesting things happen as the waves and changing tide interact with the streamflow. Here, the stream had downcut slightly through the sand in response to the ebbing tide, and drainage from occasional high waves had cut channels across the stream’s newly eroded bank. Water was still draining from the last wave, so the sky was reflected in the shallow water atop the sand on the right. Most of the Lightroom post-processing here was intended to increase the contrast in texture between the sand channels and the reflected sky: I increased clarity and sharpness in the channels, and radically reduced clarity in the sky; I also darkened the blues slightly to bring out the sky color a bit more. There was a blue cast to the original image, and I left it that way—I’m not altogether sure I agree with my decision on that. My rationale was that I thought the blue contributed to the strangeness of the scene, but I suspect the real reason was that I really like the shade of blue it produces.

 

Also a beach scene for me this week. Sunset at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California. Main issue is getting the sand out of my clothes, hair, and camera (the latter being the hardest!) after a late afternoon / evening at this beach, which is usually just about windy enough to blow over even the heartiest of stock.

 

I was walking the dog on Hendry's beach, Santa Barbara, early this morning with an incoming tide. As in Leslie's photo, waves cuts channels in the sand which confine and direct the flow of the well-aerated surf. The Channel Islands are in the background.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Glenn McCreery

Sticking with the beach theme, this is Leech Lake, in northern Minnesota. Shot with 35mm film about 2003.

Might as well stick with the beach theme. Image created awhile back, can't recall what went into the post-processing.

Image created awhile back

That's a beautiful image, Dieter! Where was it taken?

Where was it taken?

A bit west of Goleta (west of Santa Barbara) along the Gaviota Coast; the view is west. Depending on the sand situation, the stones may or may not be visible.