marcadamus

Well, you'll just have to imagine it with a big, dark border, frame

and nice dim lighting. I HATE this ugly bright white background here.

Mark, thanks.  My only intention at Mono was find something unique and develop it.  My other shot is probably more creative than this, but I hadn't seen either before.  We may not agree on vignettes all the time but at least we can agree on that terrible autotune!  I turn it off immediately if that stuff gets into the music I'm listening to.

Rock formations on Mono Lake at sunset. Single exposure double

processed for sky and water, polarizer, 8 seconds at f/18.

Guys, thanks.  It doesn't seem like I'm seeing exactly the same thing here, as I'm not noticing noise in the foreground (maybe a little heavy on sharpening?).  The moonrise light is just like sunrise light - it's quite warm, and I think the first rendition represents that.  I had to desaturate the Milky Way area and shift further towards blue as it is. 

What can I say...pretty morning on the river, eh? A little light and

a little luck.

At night, light is every bit as important to photography as it is

during the day. Unless you want to artificially create your own light

with painting techniques, waiting for just the right moment to capture

the landscape under night skies is crucial. Out here in the Arizona

desert I wanted to record the summer constellations of the Milky Way

while illuminating the cracked surface of White Pocket in natural

light. The only way I was able to do both with a single exposure was

to shoot at ISO 3200 using an aperture of f/2.8 and exposing for 30

seconds (any longer will produce star trails) while the moon was still

very low on the horizon. Although the moon appears full in this

image, what I saw of it was only a tiny sliver, almost completely in

shadow. The brightness created here is simply a result of the camera

recording more light than we can see with our eyes. I blended another

image focused for the foreground with the same specs to ensure proper

depth of field throughout.

Ah yes, I'm so used to getting the polarizing filter and wide angle questions it didn't occur to me.  Simple.  I don't have a polarizer for that lens!  I simply entered the wrong lens ;-)  I used a Canon wide for this one because I remember fussing with the polarizer.  All other wides I posted lately were with the Nikon, so I guess I was on auto-pilot when I jotted down the tech stuff.   Thanks!  Nevertheless, I hope people who do have other questions about the polarization of wides get something out of it.

I had both my cameras fixed as soon as possible.

Zsolt, thanks for asking.  I get this question all the time.  The two things of most importance that people understand about the polarization of wide angles are that; A: it really depends on WHERE in the sky you need the polarization and what the clouds/textures/tones surrounding the polarized area look like and B: it is VERY EASY to even out an uneven polarization of a sky in PS by using the most simple dodge/burn tools (perhaps in LAB to not affect color) or paint techniques from duplicate layers for the more advanced.  Here I needed polarization in the center to help those cloud textures show up better and burned the shadows on the left side selectively to even it out.  An easy 1-minute correction.

Blowing sand on a remote dunefield in Death Valley. Tech: 1/200

second shutter, f/16, Nikon 14-24 at 20mm, polarizing filter.

Caught this dramatic sunset deep in Arizona's Superstition mountains

at a spot I've been working on for years now. If you are not a fan of

saturation, just move on. Thanks. ;-)

Jerry, very true.  I address a lot of this on my website too.  For the more 'purist' crowd of photographers out there, it might be good to keep in mind do spend most of the year in the field to get only a handful of shots, so whether the end result is put together partially in Photoshop in order to overcome the technical limitations of the camera (as was the case here) the fact remains I have to work very hard in the field for each and every capture, just as us nature photographers always have.  It was three days spent here, all for the one fleeting moment you see here.

John, I would agree if I reworked every photo to match the specifics of the constraints of the presentation.  Here, you have to put up with no frame and an awful bright white background which does not do any favors to the darkness.  Imagine this in a dimly lit surrounding with black bordering and it might just do perfectly as it is.   Since my website is black, I usually match my web presentations to what seems best there. 

Sorry to repost this. 

Moonlight illuminating the ancient king. Standing upon the sandstone

throne. Clouds sweeping across stary skies.

Chandra, thanks.  The light was quite soft by this twilight hour so the exposure wasn't too difficult - about 4 stops difference between brighter sky and foreground shadows.  I double-processed the same RAW file for the highlight and shadow areas and manually blended the two together with my painting technique to control the exposure. 

On a secluded shore at California's famously photographed Mono Lake, I

was hiking with a friend when these interesting textures caught my

eye. There's a small spring here bubbling up underwater from which

you can see ripples in the mid-left of this image. Mono Lake's

'Tufa', shown in the background, was caused entirely due to such

springs. The Tufa formed underwater as deposits left behind by the

springs, after which the water receeded.

This spring was forming it's own interesting deposits show in the

foreground but you could have easily just walked right by them. The

entire lower third of this image measured less than 1.5ft across and

only 8 inches or so front to back! I used an extreme wide angle 14mm

to give the impression the foreground was MUCH larger than it is and

accentuate the textures and colors in this twilight exposure. To do

so I shot the image blind, my camera placed on the ground, surrounded

on three sides by Tufa, and scratched it considerably during the

process. I actually had to use my 5D II because my 1Ds III wouldn't

fit! I would take three bracketed shots so I could achieve focus from

2.5 inches to infinity each time I shot. Most of them were crooked

due to the fact I was shooting blind so it was a time-consuming

process. I went back several times to try to figure it out and catch

some decent light and skies above. I took the image in March and by

April the formations had become covered with gravel from the waves and

the lake level had risen from snow-melt.

Reading this after trying to figure out what's shown here? This is a

200mm shot of salt flats in the early morning in Death Valley.

There's a variety of streams crossing through the flat which is

rendered slightly blue by the strong gold color temperature of

reflected light in the water. The reflected light comes from

mountains in the distance catching the first rays of sunrise. The

reason this reflected light fills the entire scene is not because the

mountains were twenty thousand feet high, but rather because I

compressed the scene at a very low angle with a long lens and then

blended five images together for the extreme depth of field needed.

Those images covered the areas depicted here, which ranged from 15ft

to over half a mile away. Everything was shot at f/16. Since I

previsualized this and witnessed the scene with my eyes, I didn't want

the camera to have the final say in what can be sharp and what can't,

hence the blending.

Cholla Cactus are famous for their glow, and Teddy Bear Cholla (these

guys) glow more than any, especially when backlit by sunset. To show

them off I compressed the scene with a 200mm lens and blended five

images together for maximum DOF.

With quality enlargements in mind, the blending is not easy. It took

about 3 hours to complete and I then made other blends for exposure

and flare control. All of this has to be visualized and executed in

the field first, which is another challenge given the fleeting nature

of good light.

Dust was kicking up in the valleys distant, adding to the atmosphere.

Tech stuff was 1Ds III, 70-200 at 200mm, no filters, 1/8 and 1/80

second exposures all at f/13, ISO 100. Minimal processing except the

blending for various technical reasons.

Wow!  That is indeed some really special light there.  Incredible scene, especially with the snow!  Glad you were there to capture it. 

Thanks everyone for your generous comments.  I really got lucky on this evening.  It had been a long time coming for me and this mountain.

The photograph is from near my campsite on the south ridge of Oregon's

Three Fingered Jack peak. It's a long day or two days backpacking to

reach it. A storm was clearing and there I was, at sunset, sitting

just above the clouds on my own mountain island in the sky, not

another soul for miles.

Oh, my God.  There aren't a lot of photos that make me think that.  One of the most magnificent captures I've ever seen.

Good light can be far and few between on the Olympic coast in winter

but patience pays off. This island is located near my campsite just

south of Goodman Creek, a rugged 15 or so mile backpacking trek that

goes through what I think is the best sea-stack terrain in the

country. Much of the area is accessible only at low tides and I found

myself backpacking at night from time to time to safely cross certain

headlands.

This one is suffering from the small size, as there are actually

several Starfish visible throughout the rocks to the lower left.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.