Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Hard Water, Soft Shadows
‹ PreviousWeekly Challenge GalleryNext ›

Hard Water, Soft Shadows

by Wayne Jones

Gallery: Weekly ChallengePosted January 17, 2015116 views4 comments
Hard to decide which snow shadow images to post, but this one from 2008 has always been one of my favorites, so I reprocessed it.

The brood flowing through this little marsh continues to flow through most of the winter, but it froze up for a long time after nearly a week of sub-zero weather. What I liked about the scene was the soft, overcast light. It was just bright enough to cast soft shadows as well as some rim-light glow on the cattails. (No, that's not from sharpening.)

Canon 20D; Canon 100-400mm
1/250 sec. @ f/7.1; ISO 200

hmmmm... just wondering how many of you notice the same color shift I see on my monitor. The thumbnails seem very cyan, but the images look OK when opened.

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by Alberto Patiño on January 17, 2015 at 4:17 PM
The soft rounded shadows in the snow are very peaceful!
Registered on December 2, 2014, 278 Posts, 1736 Comments
Comment posted by Angela Classen on January 17, 2015 at 8:05 PM
Love the comp in this one, Wayne. It conveys a very serene mood, and the blue tone makes me shiver! Those cat tails certainly add a lot to the scene.
Registered on June 13, 2007, 434 Posts, 2742 Comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 18, 2015 at 11:41 AM
The very soft light does a great job of letting the details show here, Wayne. I really like the meander of the creek, the amazingly deep snow along it's banks, and the scattering of cattails.

The place I feel like there's a color/brightness shift is between the 720 px version and the larger version. Do you let the NPN software create the 720 px version or do you do that yourself? I let the NPN software create the regular version and routinely notice significant loss of detail in the darker tones, but that doesn't look to be the case here. After a couple more looks, it does seem that the thumb is a bit darker and more saturated.
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments
Comment posted by Karen Kane on January 18, 2015 at 12:10 PM
I can totally see why this is one of your favorites Wayne. Balanced composition, soft rolling snow contrasted by the recently frozen ice, and just enough cattails. Love it! :toast:

* there may be a cyan cast, but for me, that's a normal part of snow images, so it's not something that I noticed without reading our comment *
Registered on August 4, 2012, 66 Posts, 726 Comments