Mt Shasta Panoramic

Finally had the chance to visit the North Eastern Part of California since

there aren't too many iconic spots up there but I found some other spots

that I liked, some on purpose and some were found serendipitously

such as this one. Shasta is the highest peak in the Cascade Range

Thanks for the 5 - 4 on the rating system!  I delete and repost it I guess you're waiting for me oh well! 

I know there are some great people out there on the internet but it's a shame we have to deal with the bad ones. 

Gorgeous shot Shasta Steve. Lovely light on the peaks, and foreground, and excellent pano work. I finally gave up on the rating system, and any chances of it changing. I'm no longer rating or requesting ratings. Mostly just out taking photographs these days. Excellent work...

All the best,
Neil

Everything looks good except that it's too symmetrical for me. The two peaks may not be of the same height but as a whole it looks symmetrical left and right. And then horizontally, I see dark section at the bottom and bright section at the top--another symmetry pretty much.

See my crop. Now the darker area occupies about bottom one third. That framing change alone will probably make me happy. But the vertical symmetry is still not ideal for me. So I cropped so that I isolated the peaks that way the height difference is more obvious and we lost symmetry.

Note that I'm not against symmetrical composition. I just thought it doesn't work for this particular photo.

Well Joshua, as long as you're happy. Frankly, I'm happy with the way it is now. I like the line of trees along the bottom. I've always wondered why Shasta didn't get equal time or near equal time to Rainier, Hood or Adams. I've seen it once briefly many years ago and was quite impressed, meanwhile I've never seen Rainier and I spent more than a week there. Socked in the whole time. This looks pretty majestic. I may get up this way in August and hopefully get over to Mossbrae falls, but I will be with family so I will be limited in shooting time. Nice shot Steve!

Joshua,

Thanks for taking the time to critique the photograph.  The crop you have picked works just fine and I'm sure many will enjoy it.  I really do like the way the trees add scale from the bottom.  With such a large scene there are many possibilities inside the frame and the choice of crops would vary from person to person.  For this to be symmetrical we would have to be able to fold the scene in half and match up everything besides just the peaks but I do know what you mean.  I would have to say both images work for me. 

When a subject is centered it is meant to be dominant and when it is off centered it is more submissive then if it were centered.  The rule of thirds is more of a guideline, when a subject  is massive or very dominant in a frame it's gets centered a lot.  You probably think I'm crazy but do a google search for Mt Shasta and you'll see many centered works.   I think it is OK to center subjects when you want them to play a very dominant role in the composition and Mt Shasta is massive, it can be seen from a hundred miles away.  I have another shot similar to comp with the light at it's peak so I already know you will enjoy that one more.  Thanks for your time and I value your opinion. 

Steve

Mark,

You will love Mossbrae, I just saw it for the first time last week.  It's at least a 20 minute walk on railroad tracks so keep your little girl close to you at all times.  They pass through pretty slow and they are louder then the falls.  You'll be safe right on the narrow foot path along the tracks if a train does pass at the worst time.  I shot it at noon and early in the morning. 

Steve

Great shot in the original Steve comp :-) The trees give it the dramatic scale, terrific light and colours. Cheers, Mark.

I also like the trees in the foreground to "ground" the view so to speak and provide scale, plus the lower slopes of the mts help illustrate how isolated they are. 

Many years ago, I spent the longest, coldest night of my life on the top of the peak (Shastina) on the right... with a deflating thermarest on sharp rocks :-[

I love the colors and the cloud hiding in the mountain.  What time of day.  Got your point about centering but not sure I agree.  Centering definitely gives emphasis to the main subject!  Anyway I have been there and climbed the mountain and I think this is a very good rendering of the magic of Shasta.  

I'd prefer the original one. the composition works very well. great colors.

Dear Sir,

I highly enjoy and appreciate your excellent photo of this Mt Shasta!

I like your way of using the exposure to emphasize the light and shape of the twin-peaks!

Just so enjoyable!

Thanks for publishing this master work of Photography!

Wishing you all the best and happy shootings!

Charl