Day's Ember

Stunning light you captured here. I love the sun star and I think you did a great job coming up with an original composition. This image is just a pleasure to look at.

Marvelous, John. Ditto what Jason said. I bet this image was a pain to blend. Looks totally natural to me.

Absolutely amazing, John. Good work.

Absolutely beautiful.
georg

When nothing's going on in the sky you really know how to work the situation John. Beautiful use of the elements to bring out a great image. Superb!

Fantastic, John! Great sunburst and very well balanced comp.

The composition with the gnarled tree so wonderfully positioned and the lit grass make up for a stunner, John. Very elegant and dramatic!

The shot is in your face but still has many touches of softness. Perfect positioning of the tree.
Wonderfully handled exposure and blending

Looks great to me John, your processing work is very natural looking. Well seen and captured.

Wow, this is a knock-out John! Absolutely fantastic. Great light and equally great blend, matched with the perfect comp. One of your best IMO.

Excellent! I really like the soft glow on the grass, great work

Fantastic, John. I love this. A real joy to look at. Wonderful work!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Great use of the tree and sun, John. This is a compositional masterpiece.

Composition-wise, this is really a notch above from all the Oregon coast images that get posted here. I like how you used the flare/sunstar - I do think that a little bit of space to the left would be a bit more pleasing to my eyes

Excellent, John. This actually reminds me Marc Adamus' early work. Very nicely done and some great skill in blending.

Superb, John! great blend and great sunstar! I'm a little undecided but I think I like a crop just to the right edge of the tree.

This is beautiful - a real pleasure to look at . A very different and original composition.

Hi John,

Certainly an incredible demonstration of blending and vision. Your top notch processing skills are absolutely on display here. Overall, I like the image just fine, but I would stop short of saying it is one of your best.

One nit I have is the colors seem a bit strong/pushed. Most notably the orange highlights along the horizion and even more so in the tree bark/trunk, which looks purple on my monitor. Speaking of, I can't tell for sure at this size, but it looks like there might be a little residual lens flare there as well that didn't quite get removed all the way.

I am being a constructive critic because I know what your capable of John and I echo Dean's comments about creating a special scene when there is nothing going on in the sky. This is excellent work and I do think it can be improved upon even more....

Michael

Outstanding comp and capture!

Strong composition, John.This is an excellent blend too; it looks very natural.

Magnificent composition and control of the light John. Beautiful work on the blend as well.

Nicely done, this is a beautiful image.

Whoa a fantastic work John!

Love it, John! Great lines, and processing is dead on.

Perfect arrangement of the elements in this photograph. I feel like if someone was going to paint this scene they wouldn't want to move a thing.

Sensational comp and a wonderful job with the blend. Nice work.

That's some amazing and beautiful light you captured here! Love that sunstar as well. Nice work.

This comp is very natural and the light is gorgeous. Nice work, John. My favorite image of yours is your Mt Adams image from last fall, but this one is up there!!

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone. (I'm a huge fan of constructive criticism Michael, I'll play with the suggestions.)

Mat- You're correct. One of the harder blends I've done in awhile.

Thanks for the comment on the sky Dean. I appreciate it because I spent the entire four days trying to find ways to work around the beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Nothing like being out on a sunny hike and grumbling about it. We photographers are a strange lot, never satisfied. I mean, we could probably catch perfect light at a perfect icon with a perfect rainbow and we'd still wish for a bit of lightning...

I'll be #30 to comment on this one, John. It's awesome in both technical and just nice to look at aspects. The light on the close up grasses is awesome and the sunstar, while a tad on the bright side, gives you that frozen in the headlight feeling that works really well for this one. Well done

This is great John. The composition is perfect and the sunstar really takes this one to a higher level. The blending looks very natural. No nits from me.

This is really well done, John. I love it.

What a fantastic composition. Very creative use of the available light too.

great light and composition
congrats ale

Incredible scene John and masterfully blended!

your comp here is just AWESOME, John... very unique and original...
oh,, the light is nice too

Awesome sun star and the comp is great

Mahvalus John. I'm loving the blending job. Wonderful composition and nice to have detail in the foreground tree. It really anchors the composition.

Beautiful image John, and I'm really impressed and inspired with your ability to create this despite the clear conditions. Perfectly composed.

This is a masterfully crafted image, John! Just incredible!!!!!!

Chris

Such gorgeous and warm light, John! I can just feel the sunlight hitting my face. Excellent composition too - unique and engaging image of the coastline!

Beautiful shot, John. I like the way you've framed the shot with the tree. The roots are a nice curve into the shot and the branch frames the island very nicely. Your color work and blending are stunning!

This is an interesting comp with some great light! I like the sunrays and the intense red colors on the ground.