Silver Sword on Haleakala Crater

This is a view of the Silver Sword plant on Haleakala Crater. The

elevation is about 10K feet (3048m). I would be interested in comments

regarding composition. Please view this LARGE, Mahalo.

Shooting the craters in Hawaii, and the lava fields, I found was very challenging. Having a focal point like this plant helps a lot. The polarized sky is beautiful, and I think overall the composition works very well. I'm going back in September to try my hand at it again....

Wonderful! Watch out for the waves this time Linda. Regards.

Wow, very interesting shot.

Wow, stunning location. Where is this?? Great composition too...

Beautiful shot from that magical place. I got a picture of the silver sword when I was there but it's not nearly as good as this one. Maybe I can rework it... Regards.

Nicely done, Walt, and quite artistic considering that it would probably be considered a very good documentary shot as well.

 

Walt, from the thumb I could see that this was a big plant and that the clouds were below you. We saw huge plants above tree line while crossing the eastern sierra in Ecuador back in 1998. I was always astonished to see such huge plants sticking up out of what is called the "paramo" in Ecuador, that barren, cold area above treeline that is just a brown expanse from a distance. We were at something over twelve thousand feet, since we were right on the equator, but the peaks in that area went up to close to twenty thousand feet--with perpetual snowfields.

 

I've always loved the way one can change climate by walking uphill. In Quito, I could walk across the expressway and start walking uphill to find winter time conditions in a very few hours, even though I never got to the summit of Pichincha, right across the highway from a city of 2,000,000 people.

Thank you Lannie! That was an interesting story. I wish today that I lived near some high mountains; being able to change one's perspective by taking a walk is appealing. Regards.

The 45mm lens is working well here! I make that equivalent to about 19mm in 35mm-speak(?). It makes the plant very prominent and gives tremendous dof but pushes the drama of the cloudy bit into the background. I don't know what kit you had with you but I wonder if a slightly longer lens might have brought that forward somewhat.(I don't know if that would have been possible - it is just an armchair suggestion!). I think I might also have worked on the foreground rocks on the left in PS to give more of a lead in to the background. But a cracking shot! Do you find you can hand hold the 'Big Pup' or do you always use a tripod?

Walter, this is very good, 6A 6O. It must be looked at in large view since the jpeg compression problems are still evident in the normal view.

Thanks for the critique, I'll keep that in mind. This picture's really nice, it really gives you the feeling of being on top of the island looking down...Haleakala really is beautiful.