Morning Trail

In my hubble opinion those rocks are not nearly as interesting as the lake and mountains...think the focus should have been there.

I disagree with Paul - the texture you captured in those rocks is fantastic. But I'm a sucker for texture and/or beautiful saturated colors, and this has them both. I love it.

Just lovely. Great use of DOF and geometry. You have an unusual eye and a terrific eye for composition: all the lines and shapes merge eccentrically, yet remain in parfect balance. The complementary colors simplify the whole thing. You have made a fine photograph out of nothing. Good job.

anyone who's hiked a lot knows that those rocks can be a welcome sight and often your attention is focussed more on them (cairns) than the surrounding scenery. interesting shot. i like the selective focus.

So simple and so beautiful. Very Nice!

You did fabulous work, projecting that completely amazing view into an image.

I love the color in the background and the texture of the rocks. It would be interesting to see the shot again at a very large and a very small aperature. I like both the foreground and the background, so I would be interested in seeing how very blurry mountains would compare to the way they look now, which is not that blurry. I also like the conventional shot of a scene like this with everything in focus. Breathtaking image.

Josh got it, this pile of rocks is a cairn (or duck) that marks routes where there are no trails in the high sierra. Of course I could not resist taking a classic sunrise shot, but frankly, I've seen shots like these quite often. I knew this when I got up this morning and was therefore happy to see the cairn above me on a flat piece of rock in a field of talus. So I climbed up and tried to capture something that can act as a symbol for hiking in the mountains above treeline. Maybe I could have opened up 1 or 2 stops for more background blur, I recall trying differerent apertures checking DOF in the viewfinder and finally settled on this one.

The major problem here was that I took only two shots, that both left the cairn pretty much in the dark, so I had to do considerable digital darkroom work to pull the duck out of the shadow (so to speak). I am always amazed how much detail can be found in the shadows of Provia F, but here the dynamic range of this fine film (or the Dmax of the LS-2000) is clearly exceeded in the deep shadows. Maybe a drum scan would help a little bit.

Considering this I'm glad that Jodie and Philip like the texture in the rock.

 

Thank you all for your encouraging comments.

Nice colors, textures and lines, but I would have liked to see what this shot would look like with the mountains sharp instead of completely out of focus. Right now the composition places the only focus on the pile of rocks, which in themselves aren't very interesting.

Yes! This one is great. Clever composition, wonderful lighting, perfect slightly out-of-focus background - what could one ask for more? Congratulations!

Fabian,

I respectfully like to disagree. The pile of rocks can be interesting, at least to people who have been hiking in areas where they are a common sight and sometimes very relieving, because they tell you that you found a route and are not totally lost in the middle of nowhere. Consider it an effort to give an often seen coverpage eye-candy (blue-red color contrast) a new twist.But I'm totally aware that not everybody feels or can feel like that. For those this picture might work better. It's what you wanted, sharp mountains that are the focus of the pic. For me personally it's nice but not too interesting. One reason why I posted it nevertheless, was to see what difference the "pile of rocks" makes in the opinion of the photo.net community.

This is just fantastic. The DOF, colors, composition. The best I've seen in quite a while.

 

Another thing that amazes me is the illusion created by contrast of sharp/blurred and cold/warm light. It looks like you staged this shot inside with a projected slide as the background.

 

Edit: My only very minor nitpick: I would like the cairn a little more to the right to leave a bit more shadow where the rocks are the closest to the sunlit background (hopefully, that was understandable).

I like the idea you were attempting but this image doesn't work for me. The cairn comes out of nowhere and the interesting part of the image is out of focus.

I do like the way this picture is presented with the cairn in the focused foreground. It makes me think of hiking and trails, and the blurred backdrop is still very visible... just giving you a slight feel for the enviornment that the hiker is traversing.

 

Clear and appealing photograph -- well done.

 

 

Beautiful. The colors, texture, composition are all appealing. It also has meaning - the work is not over, the best is yet to come. Maybe I would remove the comparison shot of the background that you've posted - keep teasing us.

Funny, what most folks complain here is what I think makes this photo outstanding. But then again, there are lots of silly pet shots around here with greater ratings. I love the shallow depth of field. I would be curious to see how this would look with your 85/1.4. Dude, quit your day job. Your work is amazing.

Thanks Gus,

 

I can not quite remember what f-stop I used, but I know that it was smaller than 2.8, probably 4 or 5.6. I recall checking DOF with different f-stops to get the background blurred but still recognizable. Using the 85/1.4 wide open would have rendered the background one big blur, but I wanted both elements, the cairn and the mountains. I even had the 85/1.4 with me on that trip, but I didn't use it much. As this cairn was on a rock (with room enough for about 2 people to stand) in a steep talus field, I would not have had the space to move back I would have needed for the 85 anyway.

 

Qualitywise the 28 is very good IMHO, the main quality limiting factor in this pic is the underexposure in the foreground together with sub optimal scanning and post exposure work. I'd love to have this scanned on Tony Dummett's mutant Imacon or a drum!!!

I've little to add to the comments of some of the photo.net gurus. An avid hiker, I love cairns and I love the shape and colour complement between the mountain and the simple, yet man-made, pile of stones. It might have been interesting to also see a "postcard" all in focus shot, but I understand the limits of DOF and -even more- duration of sunrise!

Timeless! I can feel the silence. Excellent nature photography and great use of your tools! Congratulations! Krum