DavidTriplett

Dave, I took one look at this and said to myself "I bet that's one of Dave Stephens'!" And, so it is. Very nice, and consistent with your quality and style. It's really hard to catch these critters in both daylight and the open, so very well done. What did you have to do to make this opportunity happen, or was it just being ready for the unexpected?

Daniel, thank you for your comments. I likewise have a preference for BW landscapes, but the colors in this scene are so powerful and surprising that I had to offer a version that shows them.

Wayne, thank you.

Scott, just curious as to why you stacked 150 images to obtain this? I'm not being critical, just curious. This image has good detail and avoids the blown-out whites so typical in certain, very reflective craters. I like this phase for the shadow details along the left edge, on the terminator.

Michael, a perfect congruence of sentiment, image, and words. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you, Giangiorgio and Warren for your kind comments.

Thank you! When did you capture this one? It must have been a long time, since we haven't seen so many sun spots in quite a while.

Captured using Nikon D810, T-mount with 2x Barlow, on Meade 114mm reflector, 1000mm focal length, f/8. This image has been heavily cropped and post-processed.

Too bad I'm not a "leg man". Very nicely done. Evocative in a "wish I was there" way. Thanks for thinking of us.

Thank you, Pierre! I hadn't really thought of it as a landscape, since the intent was to capture the rocket booster test, but I'm grateful for your compliments nonetheless. Kind regards, David.

Won't spring every come for you? It's raining again here in the desert, but I'm so very glad it's not snow. Best wishes for a swift thaw! (Oh, and nice image. I like the composition peeking around the tree to the garage.)

[[show-photo-18533652]]

 

Holger, this one seems closer than a mile because I cropped a bit in PP. Here's the original, full frame image:

Holger, thanks for viewing and commenting. I had my Nikkor 70-300mm/4-5.6 on the D5100 for video. I had the Nikkor 200-500mm/5.6 on the D7100 for auto exposures at 3 second intervals. I had my Nikkor 24-85mm/3.5-4.5 on the D810, handheld. My reasoning was thus: The D5100 would capture video at 1080P, there was no real improvement by using a higher-resolution body for the same quality of video. I put the 200-500 on the D7100 to take advantage of the crop factor/higher pixel density. I know I wouldn't be moving the long telephoto much, if at all, so I could set the camera to run and leave it. I put the 24-85 on the D810 because I knew I would want a zoom with wider angle that could adjust framing, composition, and focal length over the course of the test. How this would evolve was unpredictable, so I planned to cope shooting hand held. Most everything worked the way I wanted. The clarity you see is simply the not-too-long focal length. Any of the D7100 detail images is clearly heavily distorted by heat shimmer. FYI, this image was captured at the moment the engine fired. I think I'll try and develop this approach if I can manage to be there for the next test, sometime this summer.

Nice composition and execution. It would be even better if you had taken the time to clone-out the processing artifact which appears as a fine, white line at the boundary between rock and sky. It's just sufficiently distracting to bring the overall impact down a notch. It can be time consuming to fix, but the process is simple, and is frequently needful on highly-processed images. The clarity slider, while powerful, will leave this artifact. I try to avoid that degree of clarity, but sometimes it is simply unavoidable in bringing out the image I want. I just use the PS clone stamp to bring the stripe back to the same value as the adjacent sky.

I like this image better than Sand Art II, mostly because it is in tack-sharp focus. I actually prefer the composition of the "II" version, but I find the lack of sharpness in what appear to be very finely textured elements to be distracting. B&W processing in both images is excellent. Well done.

Holger, I like this one, though I think I like it better in light of the title than I might without. The out of focus foreground might be off-putting without the title to give perceptual meaning to the composition. Otherwise, a nicely detailed and very well composed image. The B&W processing is spot on. TFS

Laurent, please, no problems being called "Dave". That is the name many people I love and who love me use, so it is not an issue. Sorry to hear about the snow. I'm looking forward to your springtime images from the far Northeast. Keep on keeping on...

Laurent, all of the EXIF data is shown above. The lens was a Nikkor 200-500mm/5.6 on my D7100, but the full process is described in my post in this thread: "https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/nikon-dx-camera-and-a-fx-lens.5514274/page-2#post-5743515" I am rather pleased with the outcome, so thank you for your kind words and encouragement. Here's hoping spring is not too slow in coming to your neck of the woods! Happy trails, David.

The airplane appears to be some variant of the A-6 Intruder, NOT an F-15.

Holger & Pierre, thank you both so much!

What should I call him? ;-)

Holger, thank you, as always, for your kind and constructive comments. I really worked the PP on both of these in the hope of making something worthwhile. I'm glad you think I was successful. Regards, David.

Very Nice. Well composed and executed. One suggestion: The jelly over-fills the lower 2/3 of the frame, while the upper 1/3 is empty. It might be better if the neutral space were more balanced, or contained a secondary subject, or if the subject filled more of the frame. What we have here feels more accidental than intentional.

Thank you, both Vincent and Holger, for your kind words. They are sincerely appreciated.

Mauro: good to see you posting again. I missed your work. I like the subtle variations on the two themes of form and color captured in this one. Nicely done.