whydangle

The color palette is mesmerizing! This is a real winner John. The playa cracks are visually pleasing and the distant mesas pull the eye inward. I agree with Alf and feel that the perceived tilt should be corrected to resolve balance. This is a grand sky, along with everything else, with it's tranquil pastels. Gosh, John, if I was playing devil's advocate, I would just like to see the sun placed a little more to the right and not so close to center. As well, the horizon line falls in less dynamic location, below the top third but above center. Put those trivial observations aside and you have a truly engaging perspective. My only other wish is that this be on the first page where it belongs!!

Thanks Mike! Glad you were "moooved" by this one!!

Thanks James, Jeff, Stephen, Oliver, Floris and Jeff Bryce for your comments and observations! James, it sure does look that way. Truth is, I applied no saturation to the sun area. I do everything I can to avoid blowing channels, and saturation will do that if applied to a colorful sunset. Perhaps it appears that way because of the context. It looks quite vibrant against the deep blueish hills. Jeff Grant, I agree that your crop is very effective, but like Stephen said, it seems the distant sun provides a destination for the winding road; my original intention. Yes, I have had better skies and I have certainly had worse skies! Jeff Bryce, my only response would be to look closer at the Large preview. This is a blend of three exposures; two for the sky and one for the foothills, road and everything else. I used two sky exposures because I didn't want any noise in the darker right side, but I wanted to retain the detail around the sun. The road is really a rough cut type, with many turnouts because it is almost too narrow for two way traffic. At some of the turns, you are actually seeing road and a wide turnout. You are also seeing cuts in the hills above the road. Finally, below portions of the road are steep shoulders that do not have grass, thus they are also lighter than the surrounding hills. The remainder of the scene is dried grasses. As far as the hills not looking sharp; take a look near the top of the highest hill. Those black dots are cows and in the full res version, you can actually make out the shapes of the cows, so it's fairly sharp. Thanks again for your observations!

Just east of my home in Bakersfield is the southern most extension of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Within 40 minutes, I can be situated in the foothills ready to shoot. Yesterday, the 19th of January, I noticed a nicely developing sky and quickly gathered up the kids and sped out to the Breckenridge Road. I have photographed this curve in the road several times before and it sets up great for the sunset. While the kids collected rocks, I shot several bracketed frames to record the entire dynamic range and, after returning home, blended the exposures manually with layer masks in Photoshop to render the entire range of light. The hills are quite dry, so they provide a rich, earthy palette at this time of day. Thanks for your thoughts!

Off to a late, but very good start! I've managed to get out twice so far, but nothing epic like this!!

Very interesting indeed! Focus stacking would really make this work on a new level and it isn't terribly difficult if you have a newer version of Photoshop. I would consider cropping the top of the darker and bluer ice. I'm guessing the farmers need to keep the water flowing to avoid having the underground pipes from freezing and cracking, but just a guess!

The cracks really help convey the extremes. The straight streaks of wind blown snow intersect with the cracks. This one is remarkable in it's display of the elements. The message is loud and clear. I can hear the wind and feel the chill cutting through my layers of down (or whatever you happen to be wearing). I think I could do without so much vignetting at the top. Sort of looks contrived, but it is your style. You've got a winner here, just like so many times before!!

Thanks Zsolt, I somehow forgot to acknowledge your response! So sorry, I appreciate it! Thanks also to Falak, Bela and Museeb! Museeb, I really can't give a definitive answer to that. I use live view to achieve critical focus and I remember using the rocks as my focus point. I was at F18, so DOF should be very good at a wide angle setting. I did use 6 separate exposures to hand blend this. I basically did it in pairs and then blended the flattened pairs, but one of the exposures was merely used to make sure I had clean shadow detail without noise. This is a tricky circumstance to try and capture and then render in a natural appearing way. I think I pulled it off without having that HDR look, which is always my goal. Thanks for the query!!

Thanks Mike! I was chasing this sunset in my head all day after I dropped my father-in-law off at the L.A. airport. On the ride back, the sky grew fantastic with a lot of high cirrus clouds. As the sun set, the clouds started rushing off to the west, but just enough to occupy the upper third of the frame. I was hoping to shoot a time-lapse, but my intervalometer's batteries were dead, so this was all I could muster. I am thinking this may be a lean year for photography, but then again, I thought that about 2011. In the end, 2011 may have been my best year. Actually, it definitely was!!

Thanks Dave! You know, I may go back and hand blend from a darker exposure to knock down those grasses a couple of stops, especially the bright patch right below and left of the sun. I noticed that and I did actually address it, but not in the best way. Thanks for your spot on observation. Let's all get up now and do a quick rain dance!!

Happy New Year! This is my first landscape of the year from a favorite spot just east of Bakersfield. I have photographed this area often before, yet I have never seen it from this angle with these foreground boulders. I'm not expecting to have a productive year for new photography, but I will still be getting out as time permits. Last year, despite the poor spring wildflower season, was a very fruitful year photographically. I had two excellent trips to Yosemite, as well as several other excellent outings, and now my appetite has grown for the big and iconic. If I get back to Yosemite this year at all, I will consider it very fortunate. As for this region; there has been almost no precipitation this winter and I'm afraid that this wildflower season may be a dud just like last spring. Two years in a row will be more than I can endure. I so look forward to the pageantry, but if no rains come soon, it doesn't look promising. If the conditions get better, however, and the wildflowers do come out, then I will grab some shots from this vantage for sure!

Very, very fine work Leo! The effect is stunning for these florals. I think you should start submitting these works to some of the magazines that feature Photoshop art. Even photography magazines would probably be interested in your technique. This one is just fantastic!!

Marc, by definition it is HDR, just not processed by an HDR software. If you need more than one exposure to capture the entire exposure range, then it would be considered HDR because the scene's range of light exceeded the sensor's capability to record that range of exposure in a single frame. I agree with you in that it is not HDR as most know it, but the fact that you processed this by hand makes it even better than HDR. Some refer to the manual process of blending images as EDR, or extended dynamic range. When camera's are able to handle 11 stops of exposure in a single capture, then HDR will begin to become an obsolete acronym!

Your crop works best I think! This is a very interesting structure and the frozen fog is amazing. I really like this image! Including the various plants and grasses in the foreground was a good choice. It's not apparent at first glance, but your dodging of the barn has left a soft halo around the structure, especially evident in the sky portion. You've done a good job, mind you, but I have a keen eye for the subtle aspects. If you didn't change it, most would never perceive it, so it is minor. You are making the best of your environment since moving east. Excellent work!!

Merry Christmas Marc! This is another fine blend!!

Martin, you have some of the best grand landscapes here are PNet, but then you have quite an eye for the intimate! You harnessed a rare composition here, with excellent receding vertical shapes, yet you have introduced a horizontal component that creates just the right amount of tension. Wonderful!!

Very interesting and unique perspective! Top marks for a clever presentation!!

My friend David Speight suggested I convert the original to b&w. My other friend Jeff Grant suggested a more monochromatic treatment, with less magenta and blue. This has a lot less magenta and blue. I'm thankful for friends who chime in when I post and offer sound advice! Please click the preview for the full size image!

Excellent!!

It's great to have a "back way" commute. Gives driving to work a more significant meaning. I used to work at a golf course in Colorado up in the mountains and I always looked forward to going in, especially since there was zero traffic. Looks like you have minimal traffic as well, or at least none on the back way. This is one amazing sky!! Great processing to avoid blowing a channel. For me, the only minor observation would be the limited space along the bottom of the frame. I can easily see this being a bit of a frenzy to settle on a composition while the sky is exploding. Congrats on being there. I bet you were in a good mood by the time you arrived at work!!

Thanks John, Camilo and Mike! Mike, a contemporary tourist shoots with an iPhone while driving and uploads it to Facebook, all within a half mile!