What Dreams Are Made Of w/repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 17, 2010368 views14 comments

Taken back in September on a pre-sunrise hike to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. There was one other photog besides me here and he set up in the usual spot at the end of the trail near the rocks. I scouted around the shoreline to find a unique foreground to include in my comp. This sunrise was one of the most dramatic I've witnessed. Instead of the usual wide-angle view I opted to zoom in a bit for a more intimate perspective. This also helped me to eliminate other FG objects that would have been distracting. Please don't forget to view the large version!

Nikon D300s
1/3 Sec. @ f/13
ISO 200
Polarizer
2 Stop Graduated ND Filter

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on November 17, 2010 at 10:29 PM

The log almost looks like a big snake. It certainly add interest to the foreground. Very dramatic light for sure, and you've presented it well.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Vance Gese on November 17, 2010 at 11:26 PM

Fantastic light and color, Zack, and I very much enjoy your composition. Must have been an amazing morning. Excellent work.

Registered on November 13, 2008, 298 Posts, 6629 Comments

Comment posted by Krunal Janani on November 17, 2010 at 11:38 PM

Dramatic light indeed & the FG is also very different

Registered on September 16, 2010, 60 Posts, 1370 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on November 18, 2010 at 12:19 AM

I'd be happy to experience trhat too! This looks pretty unique from what i'm used to from here also. The orange reflected light on the water is especially nice.

Chris

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

Comment posted by Jason Kim on November 18, 2010 at 12:29 AM

Zack, I really like the FG tree. I think it's often difficult to make something so big and obvious work, but it does work very well here. The texture of the weathered wood and the way it snakes off into the middle of the picture is great. The light and reflected color on the lake is really nice, but there's something about the background peaks that looks strange to me - to my eye the mountains don't look bright enough, and maybe a bit of a color cast.

Registered on July 1, 2006, 60 Posts, 1233 Comments

Comment posted by dean hebert on November 18, 2010 at 12:41 AM

Great scene Zack.Nice details and comp.

Registered on August 4, 2010, 70 Posts, 1132 Comments

Comment posted by Arild Heitmann on November 18, 2010 at 8:16 AM

Light and composition is really strong!

Registered on October 13, 2010, 27 Posts, 378 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on November 18, 2010 at 8:17 AM

Wonderful, Zack. What a great view of this. I love all the gold and the reflection. The comp with the log works great.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Phillip Noll on November 18, 2010 at 9:38 AM

Very cool! Love the composition and the foreground anchor. The light reflected on the water is wonderful. Something about the mountains just looks off to me. Perhaps a slight magenta cast? I'm thinking that by tweaking curves you could brighten the mountains a tad and also introduce a bit more contrast there. Might make them stand out a bit more. Minor nits, really. Overall a very nice image!

Registered on November 17, 2003, 207 Posts, 1083 Comments

Comment posted by Arnab Banerjee on November 18, 2010 at 10:31 AM

Great shot. The FG while awesome attracts a lot of attention - in other words, I am not finding it complimentary to the BG - if it makes sense at all. That's the only nit that I have

Registered on January 3, 2007, 313 Posts, 2270 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on November 18, 2010 at 12:38 PM

Here's a repost with the magenta cast removed from the mountains (thanks to Jason and Phillip for this one) and also with a little more brightness in the mountains. This was pretty much a straight-out-of-the-camera shot, didn't need much tweaking. I didn't notice the cast at first, perhaps due to the cheap quality ND filter I used, time to get another Singh-ray I guess

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

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on November 18, 2010 at 5:08 PM

Dramatic image, Zack, with the glorious light drenching everything in a golden glow. Wish the trees in the center weren't so yellow, but with the light the way it was... well, it's yellow trees, then. Overall, esp. with the interesting fg element, this is

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on November 18, 2010 at 6:23 PM

What a lovely scene

The foreground log is great.
Well done.

Geoff.

Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments

Comment posted by Adam Gibbs on November 19, 2010 at 1:33 PM

I really like the gnarled snag. Solid image Zack with some great light.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 168 Posts, 870 Comments