Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Winter Dawn in Banff
‹ PreviousLandscape GalleryNext ›

Winter Dawn in Banff

by Christopher Martin

Gallery: LandscapePosted February 1, 2012337 views6 comments
The warm spring water holds back the ice on the edge of Vermilion Lake in the Banff National Park. Mount Rundle is silhouetted against the brightening dawn. I used a graduated filter, polarizer and a 1/5 second exposure to control the hues and brightness in the scene.

Comments

6 comments
Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on February 1, 2012 at 8:20 AM
stunning sky and reflection. I kinda wish the mountain was a darker silhouette or gave me a little more detail, but that's just me. like the way the fallen tree leads into the scene.
Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments
Comment posted by Dottie Short on February 1, 2012 at 10:33 AM
Nice lighting and reflections. The downed snow-covered tree is a plus as it takes the eye to the the mountain.
Registered on April 12, 2010, 61 Posts, 375 Comments
Comment posted by Mark Metternich on February 1, 2012 at 5:01 PM
Hi Christopher. i have to say you caught very nice lighting and mood here. Beautiful. Having said that I remember back when I was really learning a ton about composition (going to graphic design school helped a lot, also reading all the landscape books known to mankind). I see what you are trying to do here with a leading line, and thirds, and a play of lines, and foreground interest. A lot of my earlier work looked very similar. At least for me it was a big step further! What I would suggest is to try to keep your foregrounds pretty clean (not too cluttered). Finding the very best foregrounds is a very difficult task (and art form). I would say often less is more. Also, if you do have a leading line that intersects straight into the reflection of your most important subject matter (the mountain) probably ditch it. Might be better to have nothing but a clean foreground in comparison. In a word, clean and non complicated but if you can find leading lines that is great as long as they don't get to cluttery or distracting. I hope this is in some way helpful.

Having said that I still like the image a lot.
Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments
Comment posted by Bill Chambers on February 1, 2012 at 5:41 PM
Beautiful sky and color. Nice reflection too, but I do agree with what Mark was saying about the downed tree intruding into the reflection.
Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments
Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on February 1, 2012 at 9:12 PM
Wonderful light and color. Dark values seem a bit too dark though, sort of inky. Not sure if there's any detail in them, but might be worth trying to recover it if it's there.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments
Comment posted by Paul Gasior on February 2, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Nice color, light and reflection :wavey:
Registered on March 7, 2010, 99 Posts, 502 Comments