Posts in Category: mountain
8/31/2009
Road to Dent
On our last day in the Lakes and Dales, we took a drive in to Dent. I say “in to” since Dent is at the end of a Dales road, deep in, with no other way in or out. It is a typical Dales road. If you look at the where the road passes round the barn…or rather between the barn and the fence…you will notice it is two lane. At least it has a stripe down the middle. No way could two cars actually meet at that point. Each side is about 2/3s of a car width and the turn is, as you see, completely blind. And, since it is the only road, they drive full sized delivery trucks on this road, at speed, going into and out of Dent. Several times we were only saved because there was a gap in the stone wall right at the moment we needed it where a gate lead into a field. (The roads in the Hebrides are narrower…actually one lane, but they have frequent pull-outs for meeting cars, and everyone drives them like one-lane roads. In the Dales it seems everyone drives like they are on the motorway.)
Dent is beautiful, quaint, remote and worth the visit, but next time I will take the bus.
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F8 @ 1/640 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Punch and Sharpen landscape presets in Lightroom. Blackpoint to the right considerably, and heavy Recovery for the sky (and even then the lightest clouds are blown). Cropped slightly from the top.
From England 2005.
6/28/2009
Infinate Cadillac
Happy Sunday!
This is perhaps an appropriate shot for the last entry from this year’s trip to Acadia. I tried several before getting this low angle, flower and lichen in the foreground, expanse of the rocky top and ziz zag of the environmental fencing, and then leaping out across Frenchman’s bay to the horizon with its clouds. I was trying to capture at least one aspect of Cadillac and Acadia: the sense of being suspended, all life, from the flower struggling against odds to the humans tiny on the near horizon, between the rocky, gritty particular and an awesome infinity. For me, that is an essential element of the Acadia experience.
Practically speaking, I used Program Shift (see In Praise of Program Shift on Point and Shoot Landscape) to get the smallest aperture for greatest depth of field to keep everything from the foreground rock detail and the flower petals to the far horizon relatively sharp. It took me quite a few shots and 20 minutes to find the right flower. F8 on a P&S is pretty deep focus, but I found that I had to put the flower up into the field a bit and let some of the rock go soft right at the bottom of the frame. I cropped out the out of focus area in Lightroom during post processing.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro. F8.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto, program shifted for smallest aperture.
In Lightroom, besides the crop, Recovery for the sky, some Fill Light and added Contrast to compensate in the foreground, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen preset.
6/27/2009
Off Cadillac's East Shoulder: Cranberry Isles and the Atlantic
On a good day on Cadillac the views in every direction are astounding. Though the clouds over the Atlantic were of a different kind and a different quality than those over the landmass, they are no less beautiful, and the Cranberry Isles, dotting the mid-ground before the Atlantic shades off into the horizon make for an interesting vista. This is another shot I have taken on every trip, and another shot that is never the same twice.
Sony DSC H50 at about 40mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and clouds, added Clarity and Vibrance and the Landscape sharpen preset. Because I wanted the foreground to pop, I used a graduated filter effect from the bottom up two thirds, and added Exposure, Clarity, and just a touch of Contrast.
6/26/2009
Off Cadillac's North Sholder (Frenchman's Bay)
Leaving Jordan Pond and the Bubbles behind for the moment, we make our way to the top of Cadillac Mountain, one of, if not the highest point on the East Coast (that is to say, directly overlooking the Atlantic). Reputed to be the point of first contact in the US for each sunrise. There is an excellent paved road to the top, and it has been a major tourist attraction for more than a century.
It is always dramatic, but there are still days when it looks like you can see forever, the clouds provide a sense of infinite depth, and the sea is deep blue to the horizon. This was not quite one of them. You can see, looking north here that there is a haze over the landscape…but still…those clouds, that sky. Who could resist?
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped in Lightroom from both top and bottom to improve composition. Recovery for the sky (which also cut some of the haze). Some Fill Light to compensate. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
6/25/2009
Bubbles Unconventional
I have tried shots like this many times…trying to catch the Bubbles from an unconventional angle. After all, I have hundreds of shots from the end of the pond. Somehow they just never have enough drama. This one is different. The play of light and shadow on the foreground rocks, echoed as it is by the cloud shadows on the slope behind, and the wisp of clouds overhead, make it a satisfying shot, and a worthy tribute to the Bubbles. Of course, from this angle they are much less bubble like, but we still know what they are.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom, then added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset. I may have moved the blackpoint to the right a little.
6/23/2009
The Bubbles
I think I must have a hundred images of the Bubbles across Jordan Pond taken over the years. The fact is, they are never the same any two days, any two years…and on a good day, with weather making or actually happening…any two moments. The shift and angle of light, the sky and cloud background, and, of course, the season all change the view dramatically. Point of View variations are all but infinite…though all my images are captured from one of 4 vantages where you can get down close to the water.
Then too, the lake itself changes. The shoreline is never the same twice as levels rise and fall, and the water depends on the wind and wind direction for its texture.
All in all, the ideal subject. Which is, of course, why I keep going back to it.
This shot is taken fairly low to the water using the flip out LCD, and the clouds are as interesting as the mountains themselves, which is why I zoomed out for tighter framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 65mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the sky and clouds. Recovery, again, attempts to recapture dynamic range by pulling back the highlights, but it does it in such a way that differences in high grays and whites are also emphasized. It is ideal for this kind of complex cloud detail, and allows me to expose for the foreground, using standard Programed auto, without worrying about the sky too much. Without Recovery in my post processing toolbox I would have to work the exposure much differently for a shot like this, and then do some levels and curves work in post. Recovery is one of the most powerful of Lightroom’s tools, at least for my style of shooting.
I also added Clarity and Vibrance, moved the blackpoint slightly to the right, and used the Landscape sharpen preset. Total post processing time under 2 minutes.
6/22/2009
Jordan Saddle
Going even a bit deeper into the view, still from the same location as the Pic of the Days from the 18th and 19th, I found the cloud on cloud effect over the saddle to the southeast of the Bubble very interesting, and experimented with various framings to bring it out. This, cropped in Lightroom for better composition, is the most successful.
The various shades of white to gray in the cloud on cloud layers was not easy to render. In Lightroom I used a graduated filter from the top, reducing exposure just slightly and increasing contrast. The whole image received a boost in Vibrance and Clarity, and a bit of extra contrast (the shoreline in the image is at least a mile away and there is a lot of air between me and it). I used the Landscape sharpen preset.
Sony DSC H50 at about 300mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
6/20/2009
The Bubbles over Jordan Pond
You may recognize this as essentially the same view of the Pond and Bubbles as we saw yesterday. (We will be spending some time around the pond the next few days as I work through the views from this trip.) This image was taken from the same spot as yesterday’s, but this time I zoomed in to about 100mm equivalent to show the detail of the interesting clouds behind the mountains, and to make it essentially a composition in blue and green. This is still a landscape, but more compressed. What it loses in majesty it gains in intensity. Or that’s the theory.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom I applied Recovery for the sky, to bring out cloud detail and increase contrast between the blue and white. Recovery especially helps in cases like this, where you have layered clouds. Clarity and Vibrance also increased the molding of the clouds, and brought out more detail in the trees and the stone of the mountain. (Brought out…that is to say that the information is already there in the digital file. These manipulations do not add anything to the image, they simply adjust relative values to make what you are interested in more visible in the final image.) Landscape sharpen preset.
4/14/2009
Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness
I took this, and other pics of Urquhart Castle literally between raindrops. I had my hand and hat shielding the camera the whole time, wondering just how wet I could get it before something shorted out and I fired the camera. We were considerably damp by the time we got back to the car.
And of course, finding a view from the parking lot was next to impossible. They have planted hedges along the edge, on purpose one suspects, to discourage casual enjoyment of the grounds. If you want the view they expect you to pay the fee and walk down to the castle. We had no time, and were not so inclined considering the weather. So I was scrambling to get something, anything, worth taking home here.
Still, it is a magnificent vista, out over Loch Ness and the Castle, and I did find a gap in the hedge deep enough so that I could tip the LCD out and hold the camera high and get a few views. Next time I will pay the fee (if there is a next time).
Sony DSC H50 at about 80mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/160th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto. I tipped the camera up to read more sky than foregound, used the exposure lock, and reframed.
Still, it needed some help in Lightroom. Graduated filter from the top over the top third of the image to darken the sky to its remembered bleak rainy self, and graduated filter from the bottom over the whole image to brighten and increase contrast. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape sharpen preset. I also touched the blackpoint slightly to the right to deepen the colors and did a minor color temperature adjustment to tame the yellow that brightening the image brought out.
From Scotland.
4/13/2009
A Valley on Skye
Another shot from the few hours I spent on Skye coming back from the Hebrides. Typical weather and scenery from what I saw, though I am certain (pretty sure) they have brighter days. Every shot in this light was an exposure challenge.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F4.0 @ 1/80th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto
In Lightroom, my usual Presence adjustments (plus Clarity and Vibrance). On the first pass I used Recovery for the sky and moderate fill light for the foreground, but on a second pass, I used the Graduated Filter effects to darken the sky (pulled down from the top) and to brighten and increase contrast in the foreground (pulled up from the bottom). I also used the Adjustment brush to tone down the brightness of the light areas of the clouds.
From Scotland.