Athabasca Twilight

Another shot from my road trip out west.

 

This was taken at the confluence of the Whirlpool and Athabasca rivers

looking north from the point of juncture along the Athabasca. This is

about 11:00 pm at the end of June.

 

3-Stop Solid ND to extend exposure and a 3-stop Reverse ND to hold

back the sky. I also used a polarizer to further extend the shutter

speed and also I set it to accentuate the reflections. 30 Seconds,

f/10, ISO 100, 16mm on APS-C crop-sensor DSLR.

 

All comments are welcome. Thanks in advance.

Great landscape - classic shot, but the light makes the difference.

This has a stunning space and and a very nice DOF. the small rocks in the FG are an eye catching and leads you in. I like the blue ( sky) in the upper and lower parts, and the beautiful soft light in the middle. The light is the main player here, reflects on everything. A nice timing and execution.

 

I hope the problems are behind you ....

Smooth as silk Ian! I think I don't have the guts or the knowledge to try the combination of filters you used but you have given me some substantial food for thought. Cheers, GJ

Pawel, thanks. I agree with you that it is the light that makes all the difference here.

 

I had left my polarizer on from an earlier shot (where I wanted to use it in the classic way to remove the reflections) and was so glad when I discovered that I could reverse its effects and intensify the reflections on the water between the rocks.

 

Pnina, I also love the blue. In fact, that is what separates this shot from all the others I tried at this site. The others lacked the blue in the foreground. I had tried horizontals and verticals (about a dozen total) and all were good but none were great. With the fading light I had to risk going out further into the river to keep the light between the rocks (I am actually standing in the very cold water) and that is when I noticed that by coming out into the river more I had more of the blue sky in my frame and I took this one last shot before I called it a night and got my wet feet back to my car.

 

Thanks as well for asking about my flood at home. We are almost back to normal and have bought most of the material to start rebuilding.

 

GungaJim and Steve, thank you as well. I'm glad you liked this.

This is, in my humble opinion, the cream of the crop so far, What caught my eye was the recorded motion in the sky versus the stillness of the water; an interesting juxtaposition in the extreme. Superbly exposed and processed. Additionally, you could not have formatted this better. Excellent work, Ian; your trip has been a smashing success. Cheers! Chris

Thank you very much Chris!

 

"What caught my eye was the recorded motion in the sky versus the stillness of the water; an interesting juxtaposition in the extreme."

 

That is a very interesting observation. Of course you are correct that the cloud motion contrasts the still-looking water beautifully. But I, of course, have my memories of being there and can still hear the quite loud burbling of the river as it went by -- fast and cold -- and did not notice the clouds in motion at all!

 

So, I have created a photo much in the reverse of being there. And, that element wasn't really my intention. The primary reason I kept increasing the exposure and lengthening the shutter speed was to improve the reflections

 

Thanks again Chris.

It's not an easy choice but I am leaning towards this one as my favorite from this folder, however I like very much the "Above and Below" image as well. This is the kind of photo I have recently been trying to achieve without much success. Is this by chance a blend of two exposures? The silky surface of the lake compliments the evening sky perfectly and the reflected light from the rocks in the foreground draws me into the serene and very peaceful mood you've captured. My only criticism would be the dark trees on the left which I feel intrude a little too far giving a slight imbalance to the overall. Maybe if there were a small amount of detail in them it would not stand out. Very well done.

Hi Fred,

 

This is a single exposure. I have not learned to do blended exposures reliably or predictably. I also can never find enough time to work on my images on my computer and try to get as close as I can in the field to reduce time spent in post production. I rarely spend more than 30 minutes from RAW to ready for posting and usually less.

 

This is an occasion where a blended exposure might be preferable. It would be a more reliable way to get better shadow detail.

 

I also agree with you about the desire for greater detail in the trees on the left. There is some detail full-size and I think it works better in print for that reason (I might still like more though). For posting here, I can't seem to bring out as much detail and keep the size small enough and keep the overall tonality from changing.

 

There is also the issue of monitors being different between viewers. You should be able to see detail along the water level fairly clearly and at least 3/4 to 4/5ths of the way up the first couple of trees in from the left frame edge. I understand, though, that some people won't be able to see that detail due to their settings.

 

Thanks again for the critique Fred -- stop by any time.