Ever watch the alpen glow fade and dissapear before it was going to get good, well that's happened but it came back through a hole in the clouds. No wonder it's a favorite time of year for so many photographers.
Normally I stay away from iconic scenes but I was scouting for a workshop and hanging out with NPNer's Eric Good and Chris Chamberlain so there was no doubt I'd end up at this heavily over shot lake more then once. I never complain about the crowd and just shoot around them since it's just the nature of iconic places. I knew the color there would be a lot better there then previous years because of all the extra water in the El Nino year so it would be worth working around the crowds. I spent about 2 weeks out there and can still head back in a week and shoot plenty more fall color in the lower parts of the canyons.
The workshop was a success with 40 plus students and a few other instructors throught out the week. With all of the great fall color out there I wish I could of spent a little more classroom time with the students on processing their photographs. I'd heard there were 60 photographers along the creek outlet here at North Lake the day before. Hope to share a few other images from this morning but my choosing of what to process is very sporadic. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Large version is a pano of the same scene, don't let the rectangle box of your viewfinder (LCD) limit your creativity!
Comments
38 commentsA beautiful scene, especially the panoramic size! I find the light on the righthand peak pushed just a tad too much. It appears to me close to being blown out.
Chris
I can't detect much difference between the original and the repost. As for the larger version, I actually prefer the posted version without foreground - the larger version's foreground just seems a bit arbitrary and off to the side.
Awesome light Steve and combined with the autumn color, very nicely done.
Definitely worth standing in the lake especially for the pano. It is a great visionary take on the extremely special morning.
Paul
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI
Hakon, I will adjust the leveling here as needed in the pano version but it is a river mouth so the line won't be as straight as one might think and there are peaks that need to line up vertically over each other in the reflection.
Jack, slightly burned the light on the peaks in the upper right and tweeked the web version's lake line. The pano was kind of a just in thought during the moment.
Anyway both versions are very nice. I prefer the pano as I feel the shoreline on the left balances out the larger peak on the right, and you get the full perspective of the mountains. The amount of contrast/drama that you pulled of the mountains is what really makes this work tho.
I'm bummed that I didn't make it out there this year with you guys -- hopefully 2011 I'll be back.
The pano was a 5 shot vertical stitch where one of the shots had to be deleted because I moved the camera slightly when handholding the ND grad filter. Thank god for the overlapping of single exposures! I'll try to catch you next year if you're around but I might head off to Colorado since the non El Nino years (they call them La Nina years) aren't the greatest for fall color in California. Everywhere to the north didn't get as much water as they usually do so it was different this year and like I said there is plenty of color still up in the Sierra.
my warm congrats on this beauty, especially the pano version!
ale
As the saying goes, icons are icons for a reason. What makes us keep going back to these places are for exactly the situation you were able to witness here. Dramatic Light! and conditions that you don't see everyday at these popular spots. So congrats on catching this spot in such dramatic fashion.
This is just glorious! I think the light balance between the "real" and the reflected scene is just right and well done. I like the pano version too, but would prefer a bit more shoreline on the left - no biggie.
Congrats on a beauty! This spot never looked so good.
Lon