Feather Light

After the better part of a day rock climbing in typical, changeable

spring weather at the Frenchman Coulee climbing area in Washington

State, we finally sought shelter from the wind and sleet under the

overhanging cliffs of the Powerhouse Wall. Back at camp, I switched to

my photographer's pack, and my partner and I scrambled to the mesa top

directly east of a series of free-standing volcanic basalt spires

known by climbers as The Feathers. With the light changing quickly,

and a huge, backlit rain squall moving in front of me and rapidly

metamorphosing, the scene kept me busy.

This image represents one of my more complex attempts, both in the

field and back at the computer. It is, first of all, a two-set

vertical pan. Going into the final Tiffs that were stitched together

in CS5 were six exposures each, one each for the land (there was much

overlap in the two sets) and five exposures to fully accommodate to

very wide luminosity of that backlit rain squall you see above The

Feathers. Having climbed and photographed at Frenchman for about

twenty years, I was just beside myself as my partner and I scrambled

unto the top of the mesa to get these shots.

Comments and critiques most welcome.

very nice shoot

Exellent take Marc. It is a wonderful time of the year to take photos. Regards. Bob

I'm simply amazed with this beauty with kind of dramatic mood and again so relaxing and delightful! Congratulations Marc!

Best regards!

PDE

Weird and wild as nature can be! Well documented. Congrats!

Sam

wow!

interesting work!

good colors!

great compositon!

best regards!

This is superb, a very dramatic and dynamic photograph of the area (I've driven down this road many times).  Your processing was excellent; this would have been impossible with a single exposure.  The square format works very well for the composition.  Outstanding work.

Thank you everyone.

   Stephen, I am always a bit uneasy with this nearly-square format (I've done a few other upward pans). In this case, especially, there are some rules of composition I have broken, besides not committing to a landscape or portrait crop. The horizon is nearly in the horizontal center, flaunting the 2/3rd's rule. Also, the storm cloud is very black and might give the impression of "pressing down" on the valley. None of the above were planned, or even desired as the image took shape in my office, but this scene determined the final outcome to a greater degree than most. BTW, I'm going back out there tomorrow before dawn. Have you seen the dunes just downstream from Echo Basin? Thought I'd explore them in the AM light...

Marc, those "rules" are really "guidelines."  They are applicable in many cases, but not all.  When I looked at your photo, I thought that you had filled the frame very well, left to right and top to bottom, with nothing extra and nothing missing.  In other words, the square (or nearly so?) works.  You have great interest in the clouds as well as in the rock formations below, so any issue around placing the horizon line in the middle is meaningless, IMO.  For me, your composition works all the way around.

I once used a Hasselblad 501cm primarily because of the square format.  It required a different way of looking at the landscape, and it was a gentle kick to my way of seeing compositions.  For some scenes, it was wonderful; other scenes did better with a rectangular format.  I enjoyed the experience, and I sold the camera only because I moved away from film.

You mentioned the darkness of the cloud, and I was initially wondering about that as well.  But it seems to merge with the clouds on the right side, and for my eyes it's fine.

Many of my visits to this area were for bird-watching, and I'm not familiar with the dunes.  I've explored the area more with binoculars than with a camera, and scenes like this make me want to make a return visit, especially in the spring months.  Basalt and sagebrush are a great combination.

This is a magnificent photograph by any standard and the complex structuring and and care in processing of the image shows in the results.  As for the square format........well in all honesty I'm not a great fan of them, but I think this has more to do with being "conditioned" to landscape format by the very things we view on a daily basis i.e. TV screens and monitors rather than there being anything wrong with square format. Interesting to read Stephens comments relating to looking at the landscape in a new way. I think the composition works really well, the 50 / 50 split  isn't something that jumps off the screen as being obvious and again as Stephen commented these "rules" are not really rules at all, simply a form of guidance.  To summarise, this is a spectacular image and there isn't anything I could suggest to improve it.

Best Regards

Alf

nice one Marc!

Nice composition, well done.

Superb shot that works well in this format. As already mentioned rules are meant to be broken and using other formats really keeps photographt alive. I love the dark sky and how this adds an almost alien look to the shot. Well done and congrats for this original and eye catching shot. Best wishes William

Extraordinary work! The lighting the colors are fantastic!

Amazing Shot! Congrats.