"Desert Dream"

This was the first exposure from a memorable sunrise at the Buttermilk Hills near Bishop. I looked past this image several times during editing. The pastel nature of the colors and the layers of atmosphere are what drew me to capture this simple landscape. The cyan/blue color is quite evident, yet much of the color has been scaled back from the RAW capture. Once our processing skills become second nature, it is our memory of a scene that ends up being the most influential processing tool. Whether or not the colors are entirely accurate, this is just how I remember this scene. I would expect some contrasts of opinion about the coolness of palette, but I was there and this is what I saw. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! The distant mountains are the White Mountains. The peak at center-left is White Mountain Peak (duh) and tops out at over 14,000 feet. From this location, they are roughly 25 miles away. This is truly standing up country and the scale of the terrain is rather dramatic. Thanks for offering your feedback. I hope you will take advantage of the Larger preview as it will open up the scene.

Lovely color palette, and layered composition. I think you could probably 'tighten' up your blend here just a tad. You've got a bit of blending 'halo' just above the middle-ground hills. I bet a pass with a 5% opacity brush would cure it. Good work, Mark! Cheers! Chris

Thanks for your impressions. The Larger preview is available!

"Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" - Jimi Hendrix

Just seemed appropriate - great sky... Mike

Thanks Chris and Mike. Also, thanks to anyone who anonymously rated this as a 3/3 or 4/4 without the gonads for an educated comment. It helps me realize how self centered I am for even allowing such a thing to eat away at my vanity. Now Chris and Mike, your comments are quite intuitive. Chris, your response does me a world of good, but I must admit that a 5% brush will make an obvious change in such an even tone. Probably 2 or 3% will be needed. Even then, the human eye, especially a trained one like yours, is hard to fool. Keep in mind, with an even tone like the one on the distant mountains along the edge of contrast, the eye will actually perceive a change in tone because of the darker edge's influence. It is a subtle illusion. In this case, I think it's a little of both. But even the straight out of camera RAW shows an almost imperceptible glow along the edge. The other thing that's going on is because of wind, the valley haze is creating a slightly brighter tone down lower along the mountains. I've gone back and brushed over it again with better results and I will upload that version soon. Haloes are a bitch sometimes!!! Thanks Chris for the eagle eye!

Hey, if its the glow then, by all means, leave it be. I just noticed it; and it is something I am forever dealing with in assembling my blends too. And you're right too; it probably is more like a 2-3% opacity brush. I know the name of that tune as well. It really is a lovely color palette, Mark. Cheers! Chris

Newer version uploaded and attached here (if anyone will ever notice).

Mark,

 

Beautiful image. I love the colors. Take care, Patsy