Earthly Visions w/Repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted April 15, 2014848 views19 comments

Late last night I found myself driving over to Gardiner, Montana, in hopes of photographing the eclipse at Roosevelt Arch but clouds moved in before the moon reached totality. A little disappointed I headed for home and while driving through Yellowstone the clouds cleared briefly. I was able to make a few images here at Soda Butte Cone, in the Lamar Valley. I didn't arrive home until about 4:30 this morning but it was well worth it.

This is actually a composite of three images, two for the landscape at 14mm, and one for the moon, taken at 200mm. During post I scaled down the moon to a size that was more believable.

Thought I'd post it here rather than photo art since the techniques I used were to capture the dynamic range of the scene, particularly the moon. Everything in the photo was indeed there, so there was nothing added. I always struggle with these types of shots since they feel so contrived, but thought I'd share it here to see what you guys thought.

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Comments

19 comments

Comment posted by Ken Smith on April 16, 2014 at 12:09 AM

Awesome! The detail of the moon, as sized and w/tones…is special. Best ‘blood’ moon I’ve seen of the event! Congrats!

Registered on September 5, 2008, 449 Posts, 2444 Comments

Comment posted by Sairam Sundaresan on April 16, 2014 at 12:36 AM

Wow, this looks like an alien planet! Seriously awesome glow on the moon. Perhaps Make the moon a little more subtle to make it blend better with the landscape. All in all, a very unique take on the blood moon

Registered on March 14, 2013, 100 Posts, 643 Comments

Comment posted by Jon Daining on April 16, 2014 at 1:03 AM

Zack, this is a unique and surreal image with great atmosphere. I don't do composites myself, but I'm ok with them as long as they are stated as such. Whether or not this should be in the photo art gallery, I'll leave that to the moderators!

Registered on February 25, 2012, 25 Posts, 191 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on April 16, 2014 at 6:06 AM

Pretty sweet looking. Surreal for sure. But think it works. Nice.

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Cameron on April 16, 2014 at 7:03 AM

Alien planetology. Really interesting shot and I have no problem about how it was attained either. The result is undeniably good.

Registered on August 6, 2004, 1125 Posts, 3318 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on April 16, 2014 at 9:01 AM

Zach, I really like the view with the snow on Soda Butte plus the stars. The moon and it's immediate surroundings "feel" too bright relative to the rest of the sky for a "realistic" image, but an image like this is more about artistic vision than reality. This view has a fine sense of mystery and majesty.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Ben Horne on April 16, 2014 at 10:18 AM

Though I certainly appreciate all the effort that went into this shot, the final result looks too "cut and paste" to me. The size of the moon and the brightness of the moon just doesn't look right. This might just be one of those scenes that can be done in a believable fashion, but I wonder if an accurately small moon would make the shot more believable?

Registered on August 27, 2009, 51 Posts, 959 Comments

Comment posted by Jeffrey Sipress on April 16, 2014 at 12:40 PM

Wonderful results, Zack. I'd like to agree with Ben, but since I don't know how how large the butte is or how far you were from it, the relationship of the moon's size to the foreground may be very accurate. When I simply look down my street at up at the full moon, it often appears to be about the size of some of the homes at the far end of the block. May be an illusion, but isn't that what we are mostly doing?

Registered on February 17, 2004, 236 Posts, 1197 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on April 16, 2014 at 1:10 PM

Otherworldy cool!

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on April 16, 2014 at 2:52 PM

A very ethereal take on the event. It looks very other worldly to me. I'd love to see a BIG print of this! Great vision and composite to pull this together.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Kearl on April 16, 2014 at 2:57 PM

Excellent work putting this together and I like the size of the Moon.
I wonder about making the planet next to it smaller and less prominent?

Registered on September 2, 2013, 209 Posts, 1514 Comments

Comment posted by Jared Warren on April 16, 2014 at 5:51 PM

Very cool, Zack! I think the light cloud cover really adds to the "otherworldly" feel to the image. I think slightly reducing the size of the moon would increase "believability" for some, but I really like the current version as well. Very much worth the effort.

Registered on May 11, 2012, 84 Posts, 931 Comments

Comment posted by Stuart Williams on April 17, 2014 at 1:56 AM

choose your soundtrack - star wars? star trek? Unearthly visions.

Registered on December 7, 2007, 247 Posts, 4792 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on April 17, 2014 at 3:00 AM

My taste would be for a smaller moon, but the comp and processing feels good to me. Full moons can be pretty bright. I think the moon would grab your attention due to its color, so increasing the size might have a less pasted look.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on April 17, 2014 at 9:35 AM

Zack, this is a tough shot. I like the comp and mood but it looks very much like a composite to me. I would recommend either keeping the moon as is and darkening the sky almost to black or brightening the moon and losing fine detail. Then, the sky and moon would flow more cohesively together.

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on April 17, 2014 at 5:25 PM

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everybody. Here's another version with the area surrounding the moon toned down and the moon a little more diffused, hopefully this looks better? I tried scaling the moon down but it just didn't seem right, this is much more how I remember the scene. This was more about artistic vision than reality anyhow, as Mark pointed out.

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Olsen on April 18, 2014 at 2:49 PM

Otherworldly photo Zack! Well done!

Registered on October 19, 2006, 306 Posts, 1571 Comments

Comment posted by Grant Collier on April 18, 2014 at 7:56 PM

Nice capture! I think the 2nd version looks a little more realistic. I agree that a smaller moon wouldn't have worked too well with this composition. I'm okay with a bigger moon in the composite, as long as you don't do something like this http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-moon-at-delicate-arch-moab-utah-terry-lynch.html and try to pass it off as real

Registered on July 29, 2005, 73 Posts, 430 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on April 18, 2014 at 10:37 PM

Pretty wild! Definitely other worldly, but hey that's how something like this should look. Nice extra effort on this!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments