Earth

I was recently in the Canyonlands area, shooting landscape and had to

get a few other angles of this iconic location. The conditions were

perfect....90 degrees, partly cloudy with afternoon T-storms, and mostly

clear to partly cloudy AM's. I got to Mesa Arch at 0430 hrs, camping in

the lot ensuring I got the "prime" location before the other photogs got

there. yup, there was a little unruliness between two other photogs, but

cooler heads prevailed.

I am calling this "Earth". The view from Mesa Arch during sunrise is both

mesmerizing and takes you to a different world. This scene reminds me

of my image of what Mars could look like or some other distant

planet...but, this is Earth. This image was a 4 shot composite taken at

different focal points at f/8 and exposed accordingly...then blended in

CS6. Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8, CP filter. Mesa Arch -

Canyonlands National Park, Utah. July 8, 2012.

As always, comments are welcomed!!

© Dejan Smaic | SportifImages.com 2012

Very nice view.

Best regards

Xavier Corcobado

xcorcobado.blogspot.com

Great shot, good timing, and nice job on post. I don't understand the "different focal points" technique - did you  zoom in on certain areas to emphasize them then composite in Photoshop later?

Jim, I used different focal points to emphasize sharpness with respect to hyperfocal distance. Then processed them in CS6 in Auto-Align, to Auto-Blend to standard processing. This process ensures only the sharpest portions of the images are used to create the final product. Hope this helps.

Dejan

Well done both artistically and technically. It's a great landscape shot. Good color, interesting, and good DOF.

I like that area too, so much great stuff to shoot, and it's fun to be in.

Dejean,  Wow, you nailed this one.  It's amazing.  Best regards. Larry

Wow - what an amazing vista, and thanks for the helpful explanation.

Phil

Christoph, the light from the sun creates an "unnatural" orange glow beneath the arch...one of the reasons why this arch is so popular during the AM.

Dejan

I really like your version, Dejan.  This arch is shot so much, and I like that you hace chosen to focus more on the scene in the background than the arch itself.  My friend and I were there this past spring, but unfortunately we slept in a little late and did not get this lighting.  Very nice work.

Paul

You are absolutely right, I also had the same feeling when I was there, that this is some other planet and I am dreaming Star Trek. But this is really Earth.

Very nice composition by the way.