Evolution Valley +REPOST

The shot was well worth it. At least you didn't capture a bunch flying in front of the lens or did you clone them all out?

Carr Clifton has an exact same composition in his Reflections book, in brighter light. This is really nice Jason, I like the sunset colors reflecting in the water in your version that isn't apparent in his. I'm sure it isn't tilted but it does have the optical illusion that it is. Very nice work, I'd stand here too!

Insidious little insects, those mosquitoes. I spent many hours contemplating the ethical and biological ramifications of my snapping my fingers to make them go extinct (if I only had the power). Ultimately, I decided that this would probably do more harm than good (millions of human lives saved due to the eradication of malaria vs. all the species that depend on mosquitoes and their larvae as a food source). When you run out of DEET, your mind starts to go a bit haywire...

I'll have to look for that Carr Clifton book, I love his photography.

I think this image has great promise, but IMO needs more work. It seems as though you could extract a lot more out of it, including color, contrast, tonal variation and sharpening. I am not talking a huge amount or anything, but as is, it has the feel of a RAW file.. It also seems to be tilted about 2° CW. This is great image, well worth putting in a little more time to make it sing.

Just my two cents.

Shane

Jason,

This is a lovely reflectionscape; serene, quiet and also the comp with great symmetry. I do happen to agree with Shane however as he picked up on some key elements that I think could improve the image overall.

I can see the light hitting the peaks, but it leaves me wondering why isn't it warmer or more visible? I'm suspecting looking at the cloud cover that the light is pretty diffused over the peaks, so that might make sense. But having said that, I think you could squeak out a little more contrast and color. It's certainly a worthy image to make it look it's best.

Lon

Beautiful shot, great cloud action for the Sierras! The soft pink tones are excellent. I didn't get one cloudy evening on my entire JMT hike! What a hike though, loved it!

Beautiful, tranquil scene. You did well to fend off those nasty mozzies.

This is a beautiful comp! It makes me want to go there, for sure. Do you know the name of the peak on the right side?

Chris

Thanks for your comments everyone, especially Lon and Shane. You're absolutely right, the image posted here (as it appears in my Firefox browser) looks very different than it does when I view it on my own website, or in PS. The saturation, brightness - basically everything that Shane mentioned, is just night and day different. This is really strange because it's the same file, all I did was resize it a tiny bit smaller. Both are being viewed in Firefox, so I don't think it's a color management or sRGB issue.

If anyone gets a chance, I would encourage you to check out this same image on my personal site (link below my name). This image is number 17 under the "new work" category. I'm very curious if you see any difference between that image and the one I posted here on NPN.

Jeff, the weather was a blessing and a curse during my entire JMT trip. We got rained/hailed on nearly every single day and I was wishing for blue skies, to tell you the truth. I did get some nice sunsets, though. We had to do the last 38 miles in one long day/night because a ranger told us a storm was coming (expecting 3-4" of snow) and we had to get out and over Whitney to make it to a wedding.

Chris, I believe that peak is known as "The Hermit" at 12,328 feet high.

I also took Steve's advice and fixed a bit of the perceived tilt. I'm not sure if it was tilted or not, but it does look better now.

The new version still looks a bit odd to me, I think I'll have to reprocess the image from scratch to really nail it (all I did here was increase the saturation and make a curves adjustment).

If you're in the market for a new monitor, I strongly advise against a wide-gamut display. This thing is the source of all sorts of color issues...

Jason, I remember your first post after doing the JMT hike last year and looking forward to seeing the rest of your images! Hurry up man!!

I looked at your image on your site and it does appear better to me. But part of that may be the black background and part of it may be the JPEG rendering in Flash vs FF. I think you are safe to still at a little more contrast and sat in some areas. Anyway I love the comp, and how the skyline works with the clouds.

EDIT: I just saw the repost. Looks pretty good but I think some of the trees on the sides lost a bit too much detail.

Beautiful post Jason, especially the repost. This does look so peaceful and serene, and I love the soft colors.

Beautiful. Repost has much more pop. My first thought when I saw this was - wow the skeeters must've been bad (then I read your post).

It's a very peaceful scene. I actually prefer the first post since the saturated colors in the repost tend to take away from the peacefulness. But, who knows what I'm looking at compared to what others are looking at. You'll have to show me a print sometime. Regarding the apparent tilt, I'd aim to make the trees near the center of the frame vertical. It looks like that's what you did in the repost.

Jason,
Very pleasing image. I agree with Lon's comments. Its a beautiful image, with a lot of potential. Best Regards.

The repost certainly has more pop but I think I'd personally prefer something between the two as I like the more subtle tones and shades of the original. Tristan

It wouldn't be a classic Sierra image without skeeters... love it.