Edge of a Storm III

Best viewed large. Amazing clouds, constantly shifting forms and colors,

often with thunder directly overhead, while I watched for a couple of hours

from a high hill. The light makes this photo one of my favorites.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

I can appreciate why this is a personal  favorite of yours, the illuminated cloud gives a distinct impression of a heavenly platform drenched in soft light, its lower extremeties falling to earth in waves, almost biblical in appearance. Stunning image captured to perfection, hence no suggestions for improvement from me.

Best Regards

Alf

It is a very beautiful representation-- simple, contemplative and illuminating. I really appreciate the space and contrast shown in this photo.

Steve, this is a knockout! It's also the sort of shot that shows how much better the H4D is than any DSLR. I can imagine the smooth tonality that this would have. I assume that yOu are more than a little pleased with this?

Thanks very much for the comments.  Alf, your impression is very similar to my own.  I was really photographing the clouds and just had to include some of the ground for context.  Bobby, thanks for the comment.  Jeff, I'm just blown away by the tonality and dynamic range of this camera, and I'm slowly learning the software that meshes so well with it.  This is a single shot, and I just adjusted the endpoints of the histogram with a tweak to "clarity" to get this result.  Some time I'll have to tell you the story about how this camera landed in my lap.

I thought that I already knew it.

Yes, you do.  ;>)

Stephen This an excellent shot - and I can only imagine how much better it looks when enlarged. Lens seems to deliver fine tones if you got this result by adjusting the histogram a bit. But quality costs, so along with the other "guys" I eagerly await your story how this camera with this particular lens happened to fell into your lap:) br Hannu

a very moving landscape, congratulations!

Hannu, I'll oblige regarding the story of the camera.  I've loved film for many years, and I've done well with medium format film scanned on my Nikon 8000 (later 9000) scanner.  But with some of my favorite films no longer available, with 220 and local labs going extinct, and with the hassles of scanning, I've wanted to find a digital camera that would best emulate film.  I think the high end Canons and Nikons (and certainly other manufacturers as well, but I am less familiar with them) are excellent, but I've also felt that just as there is a difference between 35mm film and 6x4.5cm, 6x6cm, and 6x7cm film in terms of revealing detail tones and structure, I've wondered about the difference between my Canon 1DsMkIII and medium format digital cameras (notably Hasselblad and Phase One).  

I came to appreciate some of the advantages (as well as limitations) of medium format digital through a lot of reading and talking with folks who owned such cameras.  One big downside of medium format digital is that the cameras are so damn expensive!  Being retired and living on a modest pension and social security, the high initial cost kept me from doing anything beyond reading about the format.  Last Christmas, I saw the specials that Hasselblad was promoting (essentially a free lens, any lens, with the purchase of a digital body), but even that failed to push me.

Jeff Grant in Australia was aware of my interest, and he has shared his opinions and experiences of the different formats with me.  A couple of months ago Jeff saw an ad on one of the online forums about a Hasselblad "Christmas special" that had never been picked up by the customer, and the dealer in Michigan was offering it for sale.  It was the H4D-40 and 35-90mm lens, which was just the combination I would have bought if the right "push" came along.  This super deal was the push.  Jeff sent me an email, I considered the ad for a couple of minutes and then sent an email to Michigan saying I'd purchase the camera and lens.  I later learned that within 30 seconds, someone else did the same.

So it took an international email from Jeff, followed by a transcontinental email to the dealer, for me to get a terrific deal on an ideal medium format digital system, and it was done with 30 seconds to spare.

I'm very happily using the Hasselblad H4D-40, and I have Jeff Grant to thank for making it happen for me.  What an incredible world of communications we live in!

Stunning light.

Stunning composition.

Stunning shot.

thank you  !

Isabelle

Remarkable capture with amazing light! I really think it has to be viewed large to fully appreciate how grand it really is! Excellent work! Thank you for sharing. :)

Excellent, bravo