Blue Lake (view in large)

Blue Lake is located in St Bathans - a former gold and mining town in

the high land of Otago region of South Island, New Zealand.

During our recent 17-day photography expedition to New Zealand, we

only stayed one day in St Bathans. It was cold morning and we got up

before dawn. When the first light appeared, we witnessed a dramatic

change of the sky.

This image illustrated a magic transition from night to day. It was

made from four shots with 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 14mm end so that I

could capture the entire lake and its surrounding mountain features.

Thanks for viewing this image.

Looks GREAT! Very good work.

Excellent!

Wamest regards,

LuDa

Absolutely perfect use of HDR (I'm assuming on that since you said 4 shots were used).  The fact that I had no idea HDR was used say a lot.  I also use it to expand the dynamic range but my goal is a realistic look.  You have done that masterfully here.  I also love how you didn't color-correct the fallout to the blue side as this lends beautifully to the image.  Congrats on a true masterpiece.

I don't know how anyone can give this less than perfect marks.

Were the 4 images that you combined within seconds, minutes, or hours?

This certainly has a wow factor, but it is really just a dark photo collage.