The Mountain Sea

This is the first image. Not the best, the most original, creative or

whatever - just the first image I thought I'd keep and have now have

decided to process from a 75-day trip recently that spanned twenty

thousand miles from Alaska to Arizona and more than a few other places

in between. The trip cost me both my 1Ds III AND my backup 5D II and

encompassed both many high-points and the challenging point of my

career. I was also fortunate to have lead several workshops during

this time and also to have met up with many friends along the way.

I plan to write about my experiences on this trip soon, perhaps on

Nature Photographers Network.

 

I'm very busy the coming weeks getting things back together around

here so it will be at least a week or more until I can follow up this

post or contribute a great deal.

 

About the image: This was the dramatic sunset we got our first night

out on my Glacier National Park Tour. Although it's hard to tell in

this image, we had been battling ocean-like 5+ ft. waves and 40mph

winds on St. Mary lake to get into position to shoot these beautiful

striations on its shore. Luckily, nobody's camera got totally dunked,

but what an experience! This sky was flat-gray until 8-10 mintues

before this happened, then POW, it just exploded! I managed to get

close enough with my 14mm and fire off only three total shots that

weren't ruined by water spots.

 

Let me know what you think about the comp/color/tone throughout. Thanks.

 

 

1Ds III, Nikon 14-24 at 14mm, 13 seconds (yes, cloud streaks at 13

seconds) for the sky and water at f/22 and 2 seconds at f/11 for

everything else, painted in.

the composition is really great  but the tones and colors are simply amazing, they are the  strong points of the picture. a masterpiece.

I've been watching many years these magnificent photos of yours and I suppose I try to see a bit similar way compositions like you do, all the best for your trips and look forward to see and read the great products of yours...

This photo is as beautiful as this moment have been.

Great colours, light and composition as usual.

Marc, you get a real sense for the conditions explained by looking at the picture, I think you have captured the drama of the scene very well which is why it is so interesting to me.

Look forward to seeing the rest of your photo's from the trip.

Best Regards, Brendan.

Breathtaking photo! Great exposure control, exquisite composition, splendid result. Best regards, Linh Dinh

Great photo.  Nice DOF and composition.  Colors are great and the range is awesome.

nice composition, the lines in the foreground rocks leads one eyes to the opening between the mountains and clouds. Lovely soft colours

Excelente paisaje, preciosa luz y color, saludos Marc.

Marc,  Hats off to you. You are born with the gift of artistic vision.

Stunning tones, clarity, color, light and technical achievement. Bravo.

Thanks God,

Your are back to PN.

Marc,

As you described, about your gear, Canon camera bodies and a nikon 14-24 lens. How possiable to use different mounts?

please tell me in details................... thanks.

Muhammad, there is one company out there that makes them.  You can order them through the website www.16.9.net who will send your order to Novaflex.  It usually takes 4-5 weeks to get an adapter but they are worth it.  The 14-24 is superior to any wide zoom ever made by anyone.  You do loose autofocus capability with the Canon adapter but it's not too important for a wide angle anyway.  Everything else is very easy to use.

Outstanding image Marc! Superbly composed , incredible light and color, and superb foreground detail. Love the colors in the water. Is it just my imagination or is there a slight list to the right? Excellent work! Looking forward to more...

All the best,
Neil

Marc this is a great image.  It reminds me of some of the Galen Rowell images I've seen.  The light and color is wonderful.  The excellent DOF also makes the image work with the sharp rocks in the foreground and reasonably sharp distant mountains.  The water is quite special.  You apparently blended all the consternation of the waves together with a long expsure that gives the water a soft almost fog-like look.  And, the reflected colors of the sky really enhance the water.  One negative is that the horizontal line at the far end of the lake is not straight.  I am sure you can fix this in Camera Raw.  Your trip sounds like the vacation of vacations with pleasurable work interwoven in your time.  I look forward to seeing more of your images and would honor your critiques of any of mine.

Marc, I think this is a superb image: the foreground rocks lauch the viewer into the scene and the colors really add drama and contrast to the landscape and underline the difficult shooting situation you met. Only the water, because of the long exposure, adds a bit of calm to this dramatic scene. Really a professional work!

Just a curiosity: what do you mean by "The trip cost me both my 1Ds III AND my backup 5D II"? Did you refer to the cost of the trip or did you damage your equipment? Your sentence sounds a bit ambiguous...

Regards, Alberto.

I mean both my 1Ds III and 5D II are currently broken, as a result of this trip.

 

 

Fantastic hues and perfect composition with lots of energy flowing in all the right directions. The edge of the water comes off as steamy. The vanishing point just goes on and on!  I too am curious how you lost both your trusted companions.

A unique and detailed story depicting my recent travels and many other things photography will run in Nature Photographers Magazine online in the January edition.  Thanks.

This is an amazing shot Marc. The color is just awesome!

gorgeous image, i've been sitting here going through your recent posting and wishing i could have traveled with you to these amazing places. i was also wondering if you have found a way to use your singh ray grads with the 14-24 or do you have to bracket alot more, thanks.

Jeremy, thanks.  I have not used grads for nearly two years now.  They are simply too inaccurate for what I'm trying to do too much of the time.  I manually blend everything I need for dynamic range.  In my film days and well into my digital days, I was a huge proponent of the grads though.  The times, they are changing......

Thanks so much for the reply. This is music to my ears, I've tried the grads but I just seem to get better results bracketing and manually blending. Thanks again man!

A great picture, the foreground is wonderful witn this reflections. A question about your last comment. When you want to do long exposures you will need the graduated filters, or do you have any solution?

 

Regards