Alvord Desert Playa, First Light

Scanned from a 4x5 Velvia transparency. A slight shift in color

temperature to correct the early morning blue. Otherwise, this is a

pretty straightforward presentation of the film.

John, The quality of the 4 x 5 has paid off as has the use of velvia. The choice of GND filter is spot on. This is a very fine image with exquisite detail.

Best Regards Richard

Wow! This is incredibly beautiful, such a simple and honest rendition, yet so perfectly balanced in terms of colours texture and composition. I agree with Richard the use of the ND grad was a good call. There is an almost imperceptable dip in the horizon to the left, not that it matters much, and indeed it could be a result of the natural shape of the terrain, I just thought I'd mention it in case it was one of those tiny things you discover later and curse.

Sincere Compliments

Alf

This is just an amazing work, great landscape very well captured and processed.

Thank you for the visit and the kind comments. Alf, thanks for the catch on the horizon. However, the "dip" you see is almost certainly the curve of the playa's far shoreline. I'm pretty confident of this, as I use a bubble level with large format work. The mountains on the left side of the frame are actually about two miles farther away than the rim that dominates the right 2/3 of the horizon (and roughly 1500' higher).

Still, there is the question of whether the image is worth rotating to correct the perceived tilt. This is something that comes up fairly frequently in landscapes that use a long view over empty terrain. Not sure what I think of it here. I'll play around with the image a bit, perhaps.

The color palette is mesmerizing! This is a real winner John. The playa cracks are visually pleasing and the distant mesas pull the eye inward. I agree with Alf and feel that the perceived tilt should be corrected to resolve balance. This is a grand sky, along with everything else, with it's tranquil pastels. Gosh, John, if I was playing devil's advocate, I would just like to see the sun placed a little more to the right and not so close to center. As well, the horizon line falls in less dynamic location, below the top third but above center. Put those trivial observations aside and you have a truly engaging perspective. My only other wish is that this be on the first page where it belongs!!

John, this photo really caught my eye since the sun is so effective. It always seems to me that taking pictures of the sun or the moon is disappointing because they end up so small in the photo. By focusing on the foreground you solved that problem. I love it. The horizon does seem tipped to me. It must be an optical illusion. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Mark and David. Mark, though I see your point about the horizontal placement of the sun. Originally, the placement occurred because the most interesting sky was there to the right of the sun, but I wanted Mickey Butte and the Sheepshead range (the mountains in the left of the frame), as well. That's probably worth playing with a crop or two.

As for the perceived "slant", well, the camera really was level, but it seems the distant shoreline and mountains do give the impression of a slant. In fact, there's no way to make the horizon truly level, as there is a downward curve from right to left. This was evident on the straight edge of a rotation crop I attempted. Still, popular opinion about perceived leveling seems to be against me on this one! That's actually an interesting example of perception vs. physical reality.

When I saw the thumnail I thought it was just another seascape sunset. 
Athough I have seen this area images before this one is quite striking in the color and detail.  I like the previous one with the blueish tonality also but being a warm tone preference kind of guy I prefer this image.  I do like the pathway of the rock in the other photo though. thank you for your time and kind comments on my images lately.  Take care, rek.