"Dawn of New Life"

Lake Isabella always conjures up thoughts of an earlier time when the earth was no more than matter. The waters were a soupy mix of various elements and when a cluster of the right types of elements were energized by a bolt of lightning on the water's surface, this clump of elements transformed. Without the water, there would be no electrical charge strong enough to provide the energizing force, thus no life. Works for me! Of course, even given this theory, or any other for that matter, one can still ask why. Why was any of this here to begin with? OK, a little too deep, so a lighter note. I arrived here on this morning in need of energy, in need of new life. It had been almost a month since my last venture. While my children provide me with another source of energy, I often need to discharge from them and from my daily existence. My wife is generous and suggests I get out twice a month to recharge. Nothing like a light show over a mountain lake to bring me back to the land of the living. For this morning, my objective was to shoot a pano in order to insure a very large file for printing. Six vertical frames at two exposures each for dynamic range should give me a good result. The two exposures for each vertical were hand blended in Photoshop, then the resulting blends were stitched. A single exposure could have worked, but opening the shadows would have introduced noise, so I used the brighter exposures primarily for the shadows. Please utilize the Larger preview for the whole enchilada! (This is a cropped version; the sky extended upward, but I wanted to provide more focus on the rocks and lake.)

Thanks for your insights! Please don't neglect using the Larger preview!

MArk, I think the Dawn has arrived some time ago, you are now seeing the bright day. You have been doing fantastic for last few days, and this one is just terrific. The light the composition, the colors the mood. Just very superb.

an awesome and fantastic everything in this great image.

a masterpiece of excellence.

Rated.

Excellent work Mark,you are top for hard work,not just shooting but processing as well,amazing shot,top marks

Thanks Lalit, Saad and Harry!! Lalit, luck helps, but luck is nothing if your not there. I have had some true luck with the skies the last few times I've been out. For me, in the end, it is all about the sky. If you have a good sky, then the busy work of setting up a composition is all that's left. Harry, thanks for pointing out the work. It's really a labor of love, but what we love we put the most into. This was a real bugger to put together. The main challenge was the horizon. You see, I have a rather cheap tripod that is not really capable of getting a true plumb bob. It has a ball head, but can't be clamped at level, so these panos with a definitive horizon are challenging. I also use an L bracket I built myself, so I wouldn't put much faith in it either. I actually have to level out each vertical frame in Photoshop before stitching. The whole postpro process was about 2 hours, give or take. I am hoping there is a better tripod and L bracket on the horizon, no pun intended!

Good composition and well stitched. Blending for dynamic range has also worked well however there a few telltale signs like the deep shadows behind the rocks in the mid-ground which are deeper than those in the foreground or distance.

Good composition and well stitched. Blending for dynamic range has also worked well however there a few telltale signs like the deep shadows behind the rocks in the mid-ground which are deeper than those in the foreground or distance.

Another beautiful example of the wonder that is in the world around us. Well composed and stiched together.  I'm jealous of your environs must be great to live where you are priveleged to find so many images you have captured and presented for the rest of us to enjoy.  Kudos, rek.

It all looks so simple, and yet the execution you describe is complex. What I like particularly about the composition is the way the dawn is framed between the arching clouds above and the curve of the rocky shoreline beneath.  This gives the scene a great unity, despite the wide expanse it covers.

Gran trabajo y deliciosos tonos.

Saludos.

Thanks Brendan, Richard, PJ and Rueda! Brendan, most of the blending involved dropping in the shadow areas into the proper sky exposure. Therefore, the shadows including the rock shadows were from a much brighter exposure. Basically what I am saying is that all the shadows are from the same exposure more or less. Why the boulder shadows are darkest across the water while the remainder of the shadows are opened more is a little puzzling perhaps. When I processed the brighter exposures in ACR and pulled in the blacks, the first place they showed up were in the boulder shadows on the water, long before any other place in the scene. A phenomenon I couldn't explain! Richard, I am lucky to live in such a diverse environment!

Ah! So gorgeous, serene and beautiful! One of the best landscapes.