yanzhang

It was July 2014, winter in southern hemisphere. We camped on the

ridge along Mt Cook Range. We got up at 3am after moon set and walked

on the ridge for 20 minutes from our campsite to this location, where

we witnessed one of the most stunning Milky Way skies I have ever

seen, from such a high mountain viewpoint.

 

The lights down the mountain came from Mt Cook/Aoraki Village, while

the curve line in the valley was the river from Muller Glacier Lake on

the very right side outside this image.

 

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Just processed this image taken in my 2012 New Zealand trip, that

reminded me the most intensified sunset during that trip. Thanks for

viewing this image.

Taken on 5 April morning in Coalcliff coast, a place I first visited.

This is an place with many interesting rock formations, providing good

photography opportunity when the light and tide are right. Before 5

April, it had been raining for three days, I was not sure if that

morning would have any chances even the horizon was already getting

bright. However, the stunning light just came in a sudden and all

those clouds turned to alive. This was a one-frame shot without using

and filter, With D800E, I was able to capture all details from dark to

bright. Thanks for viewing this image.

It was a dramatic morning in Kamay Bay, South East of Sydney. Severe

lightnings were happening on one side of the sky, but nothing could

stop the sun breaking out of the horizon on the other side.

 

This panorama image was a result of stitching seven successive shots

on the same position during the sunrise period.

 

I re-processed this image, since there is no replacement function I

can use here, I have to remove the previous one and submit this new

image.

 

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Golden Bay is a shallow shaped bay at the northwest end of the South

Island of New Zealand. This image was taken after the tide receded so

that this interesting spot became accessible...

 

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The alpine region Sealy Range in Aoraki/Mt Cook offers so many

interesting opportunities from a photography viewpoint. In my three

days mountaineering training here, I only got very limited time to

explore it for photography. This image was taken in a location not far

from Mueller Hut in the evening on 14 January 2014. After the sun went

down, I witnessed one of the most spectacular sunsets of this trip...

 

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Golden Bay is a shallow shaped bay at the northwest end of the South

Island of New Zealand. This photo was taken on the last day during our

stay in Collingwood in Golden Bay region. After finished shooting

sunset, the tide was receding while a full moon was rising. Deeply

attracted by such a beautiful scene, we stopped to make our shots...

 

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Thanks for commenting this image. For your info, the location of this image is the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. This image was stitching of two shots: nod for foreground and a small part of sky, another is the upper part of the sky. Two shots were under the same setting: f/2.8, 14mm, 6 second, ISO 2000. Thanks D800e and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 to make such different shots possible.

This place has rarely been seen because it is not generally accessible

when the tide is a bit high (not necessarily to be the highest tide).

 

We raced against time in order to make our shots in this location: We

waited until the tide was really low to get there, and had to get out

of there before the tide raised high. It was a full moon night, the

rock stacks were lit by moonlight coming behind us.

 

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Mount Ollivier is a 1933 m mountain in the Canterbury region of the

South Island of New Zealand. Its peak is in the Sealy Range, 2.6 km

west of Mt Cook Village. Mount Ollivier was Edmound Hillary's first

major climb in 1939.

 

In the late afternoon of 13 January 2014, our guide Italian

mountaineer Alessandro Beber led me and Tom to climb Mount Ollivier.

This panorama image, which consists of 11 successive single shots and

presents a super wide perspective, records the moment that we reached

the summit. The standing man on the right was Alessandro Beber.

 

This is my very first image taken from New Zealand Southern Alps, and

will be also a starting point for my mountainous expeditions in New

Zealand from now on.

 

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Glenorchy is a small settlement nestled in spectacular scenery at the

northern end of Lake Wakatipu, about 45 km from Queenstwon. This image

captured a dramatic moment of moonrise over Gelnmorchy in autumn time.

Thanks for viewing this image, and Happy New Year (01/01/2014).

Dear Patric,

 

thanks for the comment and also pointed the glow behind the mountain. I was not aware what the light was when I was in the field, but I captured it in several shots, each showed such glow behind the mountain. I just searched Internet about zodiacal light. Now I think it was indeed zodiacal light.

Devils Postpile National Monument is located near Mammoth Mountain in

in eastern California. This photo was taken around 4.30am on1

November 2013. Getting to this location was not trivial. Due to a

two-day snowfall prior to our trip, the road towards to this place was

closed. We had to hike a whole day on the snow from Horseshoe Lake to

get there.

 

Making this image was also technical challenging. This image was a

result of 14 photos stitching together, that presents a 150 degree

very wide perspective including the entire Devils Postpile landscape,

that is beyond our naked eyes, but I still manage to display this

image in a 3:2 ratio.

 

Thanks, for viewing this image.

Thanks for viewing this image.

Had a 4 day backpacking trip to Eastern Sierra, USA during 30 October

- 3 November 2013. Our destination was Minaret Lake. Due to a two day

snowfall prior to our trip, the access roads to the trailhead towards

the Minaret Lake at Devils Postpile were closed. Consequently, we had

to hike 16 miles (26 km) for two whole days to get there.

 

Winter Eastern Sierra was a place where one can experience the true

wilderness. In a cold winter night at Minaret Lake, I witnessed such a

beauty invoked by a calling from the sky. Thanks for viewing this image.

Getting to Minaret Lake in INYO National Forest in winter is not

trivial. We hiked two days for 16 miles while all trails were covered

by the snow. We camped one night in Minaret Lake. This image was

taken on 3 November 2013. From the high viewpoint, I witnessed the

first light shedding on the Minaret Mountain Summit.

 

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The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying

along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of the

South Island of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur

scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch

of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve.

 

This photo was taken on 30 April 2013, the setting sun illuminated the

light on the horizon as the sky was already filled of stars.

 

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Jim,

"This is a nice picture, but except for the location, it has no basis in reality for me. It's a creation, not a photograph."

 

It seemed that you misunderstood what I said and what I responded to your comments. To put this way, I view my works are fine art landscape photography, including this image, that you disagreed. Then please take a look at Marc Adamus works - many of them are illustrate such landscapes beyond the view from your eyes, so you also think they are not photographs?!

 

In terms of the stars whether they are visible from your naked eyes during the pre-dawn time, just go to the wild places to find out. Here is my another image that shows the Milky Way during the pre-dawn time:

 

http://yanzhangphotography.com/p510230156/h7145706e#h5fee1588

 

 

 

 

Roys Peak is a mountain in the South Island of New Zealand, standing

between Wanaka and Glendhu Bay. The view from Roys Peak is

magnificent: it is across Lake Wanaka and up to the peak of Mount Aspirin.

 

This image presents a grand view of Roys Peak of about 180 degrees

from left to right. It consists of 11 single shots that were stitched

together. The original image jpg file is big: 92 MB with 14851 pixels

x 5733 pixels dimension.

 

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It was an unforgettable night at the West Tower with Five Holes at

Jinshanlin Great Wall. The severe thunderstorms and lightening just

came suddenly, and the tower became our only shelter during the whole

night.

 

This photo was taken at the mid night of 4 August 2013. Both the

foreground and background of the great wall and mountains were greatly

lighten by a series of lightening that made them clearly visible.

 

The West Tower with Five Holes (西五眼楼 in Chinese) was built in 1599

with a masonry structure. It once had an important geographic position

in the old time due to its connection of the both east and west sides

of Jinshanlin Great Wall.

 

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Dear Zsolt Andras Szabo,

Thanks for your comments about the bright foreground issue. I will make some revisions on this. Cheers, Yan

The above comment is quite common for those who seek "real" landscapes which are obviously not a kind of art in most cases. Ansel Adams in the old time and Marc Adamus in current days, I admire their works and I view their works are truly landscape photography, but blending (or call dark room technique in old days) is the common technique in their works. In my this work, I can't see the difference between my blending two images and the traditional multiple exposures.

Hi everyone, thanks very much for your comments on this photo. Let me explain how I made this image briefly (a full detailed tutorial will be written and published in my photography blog soon):

 

 

(1) this image was a result of blending of two shots, one was made in the time of per-dawn, that captured some stars in the sky, where everything else was almost completely in the dark; one was made in the time about 30-40 minutes before sun came out of horizon;

 

 

(2) the water reflection and light shading on the rock walls were captured in one single shot. Noted that in this later shot, couple of stars were still visible, but not impressive. So I decided using the previous shot. Both shots were taken at the same position with any change.

 

 

People have asked me how the rock became shining while the sun wasn't above horizon? Well, if you have been in a similar situation, you should notice that quite often, rocks would start to shine even if no sunlight directly shades on them. They were just illuminated that usually not been seen by our naked eyes, but my D800E +14-24mm f/2,8 captured that clearly.

 

 

I also need to stress that the foreground water reflection was not blend separately, it was just there in the 2nd shot, and I didn't change its light in the process.

 

 

Thanks again for your interest in this image. Cheers, Yan

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.

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