Columbia Contemplation

This looks great John. Hard to tell if the DOF blend is perfect at this size, but it looks good to me. Was this taken recently? I haven't been up to Dog mountain this year, and if the flowers are still there I might have to go this week.

I took this on Tuesday evening Scott. The balsamroot is getting a bit beat up, the paintbrush are peaking, and the lupine should be better by then. One huge problem with Dog Mountain is that the wind whips those balsamroot around so much that they have a hard time staying nice until the other flowers catch up. There were some nice ones, but in general they were ragged. (Notice that I chose to place them farther away in the comp.)

Wow! What a beautiful view. I get a very nice feeling looking at this, John. Must have been wonderful being there for this. The misty look in the bg and those beautiful flowers in the foreground really compliment each other. Great colors and wonderful feel.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Well composed; beautiful sunset colors mirrored by the paintbrush and balsamroot. The hint of backlighting on the paintbrush is perfect.

Beautiful image, very well composed. The pastels in the sunset echoing the richer colors in the blooms are particularly nice.

This is gorgeous! I love how that one paintbrush is catching the last few rays. The DR blend looks very realistic for the lighting conditions.

Beautiful colors and comp. I like the way the river is picking up the color of the sky.

Wow, John, that is one very awesome image. Upper and right sides seem to have a drop shadow. Just a wee bit of an intrusion into this gorgeous image.

Very nice eye candy, John! Color combo is awesome. I have one nit that i also mentioned with one of Marc's near-far-flower comps, which is that there is such a sharp break between the lit fg and shadowed bg, that its hard to connect the two. Ideally i wish there was a clean view of the slope leading back into that valley, but i know youre limited by the terrain in the field. It's a winner, regardless!

Incredible, John, the color and glow of the paintbrush and the distant clouds are wonderful together. The strong diagonals of the river and the balsamroot really move the eye nicely through the image. Amazing array of flowers. Beautiful work.

Nick, it was beautiful, but the photo doesn't tell the full story. I got away from work late and had to dash up the trail as quick as I could to try and get the good light. Since I was doing a quick overnighter my pack was pretty light, but it's about 3.5 miles and a little under 2900' so I was a bit worn out at the top. As I mentioned in my reply to Scott, the other part of the story was the wind. NOAA was predicting 8mph in Hood River, which was one of the reasons I made a mid-week dash. My guess is the wind was more like 20mph with gusts above that. This was the only image I took, but I took hundreds of shots trying to catch a calm. In addition, the foreground was taken about a half hour prior to the background and sky; I had to have the brighter light to stop the motion with my D80 even at ISO 800. (Above is a snapshot from the first time I hiked Dog Mountain. My buddy and associate at the animal hospital where I work took me there in 2004. Notice our clothes. We're not wearing fat suits; that's the wind filling out our clothes.)

Tony, that's a weak attempt (misguided?) at adding elegance to the simple frame. I've been doing it for awhile and you're the first to mention it. Too obtrusive?

Thanks so much everyone. Your thoughts and suggestions mean a lot!!

Very Very nice John! Color is spot on and that sunset adds balance to the whole scene.

This is staggeringly great John. Love the beautiful, rich tones. A real beauty to add to your impressive collection

Excellent!

I'll be hitting it hard the next few days.

John,

Gorgeous. I love the combination of the closeup view of the paintbrush and flowers AND having the grand scenic view all wrapped up in a single view. Well done. The diagonal of the flowers following the Columbia river is nicely composed as well.

Minor nit, and I mention cause this is print worthy (and I'm closing my eyes as a write...) is to clone out the two cars and headlight on the far shore.

Beautiful image John.

Lon

John that's a very lovely mountainside shot with flowers that just don't exist in our high alpine areas of Scotland. I quite like the flower base being ever so slightly gloomy it reflects what I perceive to be as a very accurate balancing of light throughout your blend.

Impressive shot with great light and lovely deep colors.

Great color palette. Sky compliments great. Kudos

aF

Very nice, John. I like the way the yellows and reds in the sky are mirrored by the flower colors. A beautiful scene. Excellent work with the blending job.. a very fine image.

Gorgeous color John. I love how the layers of flowers mimic the layers of color in the sky. The diagonal of the river also works well to transport the viewer through the scene. Stunning scene beautifully captured.

I think this is really lovely, the interplay of the colors, depth and light is really great. Very natural exposure too...

Awesome shot John, with great light and a wonderful composition. Superb image IMO.

Excellent work, John. The diagonals create an effective composition and the flowers have tremendous visual appeal. And a nice sunset on top of that. Processing looks flawless as always.

wow !!

just a perfect light

I see that it is a classic for a very good reason. Wonderful foreground/background combination.

Excellent

Nice one, John!

This one sure catches my eye with the beautiful red paintbrush right in your face. I use to wait for hours with my 4x5 on shots like this. Digital has made it a much easier. Thanks for the info. Really fine shot John.

Thanks John for the extra info. I also enjoy the picture of you and your buddy with the wind filled clothes. I guess it is pretty windy there! Thanks, Nick ...fantastic image...again!

This is outstanding John! The blend looks great to me and I really like the comp. I went up to Dog Mt last week for sunrise and had a hell of a time getting the flowers to stay still long enough to capture them sharp. The wind gusts were in the 20-30 mph range and there were very few breaks in the wind. Hopefully I will get around to processing my images from there sometime soon. Once again, great job with this one.

Simply gorgeous!

Beautiful glow created around the paintbrush and clever to separate expsure capture to suite the conditions. Maybe a little more balnce in the lighting to bring up levels closer to the FG, but such lighting migh exist if sun poked through cloud to illuminate a portion of the FG. I would loose the boarder- doesn't work for meespecially on 2 sides only. Maybe a small standard boarder?

Really nice image John. I for one appreciate the inclusion of the tech info on a sophisticated shot like this.

Great perspective and color here. Very nice.

Awesome flowers John. What an incredible scene.