Milford Sound: The World of Imagination (View in large)

Milford Sound is a fjord in the south west of New Zealand's South

Island, within Fiordland Nation Park. Because of its special

geographic location, each year there are almost 300 raining days.

 

Surprisingly, during our two-day staying in Milford Sound, it was

sunny and cloudless, while I was told that just a week before, there

was a fierce storm here and it even damaged a scientific facility in

Milford Sound Observatory Centre. A starry sky was rarely seen in

Milford Sound, as I was told by two local photographers in Milford

Sound. Luckily, this time I saw it, and moreover, I was able to

capture this magic scene of Milford Sound.

 

This image was taken on 11 July 2013. The photography process was

rather difficult. Nearly 3 hours before sunrise, it was very dark, but

the sky was just dramatic through my camera. Since the tide was

extremely low, I had to jump into the cold water from the other side

in order to get a perfect reflection of the mountains. The water was

freezing cold, about 0 degree. After standing there for nearly 2 hours

with my wader on, my tripod was frozen by the end. But the result was

rewarding...

 

Thanks for viewing this image.

I have seen many an image of Milford Sound, including some poor ones of my own making, but never one as dramatic as this.

An excellent image, and a good story behind it as well.  Thanks for sharing!

A beautiful shot of a wonderful place, Yan. The only thing I find a bit puzzling is that the reflection is lighter than the sky. It could be that the reflection was too dark to capture in the night, so you may have had to wait until it became lighter, I am not sure. I am happy you shared the image with us and told us the story behind it. It is far from easy to get a shot like this. Best regards. Peter

Very nice shot!. Best regards.

Fantastichttp://tinyurl.com/c7l9ck6

Peter,

Thanks for your comments. The fact that the upper part of the reflection is brighter than the sky was due to the exposure setting, because in order to capture the reflection part, I used a different setting. I have adjusted the high light to accommodate this:

http://yanzhangphotography.com/p510230156/h661251cb#h661251cb

Thanks, Yan

A superb shot in every aspect and a great reward for all your hard work. Very well seen and executed, best wishes William.

Wow! Breathtaking. 

Very evocative.

I had the same thought as Peter.  While the color adds a bit of drama, I find the impossibility (or at least unlikeliness) of this combination of light to be distracting to an otherwise interesting photograph.  The green on the left seems quite bright for this time of day and amount of light available.

Thanks for your comments. But I need to dicate that the color around the mountains and tree were due to artificial lights from both left and right sides of the location. Even it was very dark, as long as you took shots (correctly exposed) through your camera, the color was revealed like this. There was no any trick for creating such colors in the image.

Yan, thanks....I can understand that.  A long exposure can reveal things (and colors) that the eye cannot see.