Superstition plethora

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 12, 2011159 views7 comments

I might have an addiction, but this one doesn't have cholla first, so that should count for something right? I shot this one yesterday out in the superstition mountains in Arizona. Probably my favorite place that's close to home. I was really hoping for a dramatic sunset with the clouds rolling through, but the cloud cover got too thick and nothing happened. There was a short window of nice light that I took advantage of for this shot. This is a blend of three shots at f/11 for depth of field. Being that I wasn't ridiculously close to the foreground cactus it didn't take too many frames to get everything sharp. I did shoot the scene at f22 but the mountains still appeared a little soft. Comments and critiques appreciated.

Canon 7d
Canon 17-40mm @17mm
ISO 100
three exposures
1/15 sec
f/11
3 stop grad ND filter
Tripod

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by David Chauvin on December 12, 2011 at 6:47 PM

The layers of cactus and warm light are really nice as is the overall composition. There is something about the blend of the the mountain and sky that doesn't look quite right to me.

Registered on August 5, 2004, 1007 Posts, 5595 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on December 12, 2011 at 7:31 PM

Thanks David, I can't say I see anything unusual between the mountain and sky on my monitor, but it could be the contrast of color. The sky was very light colored and the mountain picked up the light even with the grad ND filter. I don't know what else it could be.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by David Chauvin on December 12, 2011 at 7:33 PM

No problem, Peter. It could be from the compression to jpeg that's making it a bit more contrasty. It just looks a bit hard to my eye in this small version.

Registered on August 5, 2004, 1007 Posts, 5595 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on December 12, 2011 at 7:47 PM

That could be another thing, because I had to save it as a smaller file than I normally would to load to this site.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on December 12, 2011 at 10:58 PM

Wow---I really like the layered cactus in this. Looks like some good, soft light, also. I do feel that the dirt underlying the foreground cactus is a bit distracting. Maybe if you darkened it up a bit, it might make the cactus pop out even more?

BTW, I'm liking these desert shots of yours... Looks like fun out there!

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on December 14, 2011 at 1:40 AM

Quite the layering of cactus! This one does lack the dramatic lighting of much of your work, but is still a nice mix of elements.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on December 14, 2011 at 1:04 PM

Thanks John. As I mentioned nothing spectacular happened with the light, but I did take advantage of some soft light about an hour prior to sunset.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments