The Golden Hour

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 14, 2011317 views12 comments

Been working harder than ever this winter down in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands! This is the first of several images I'll be posting from here.

To make this image, I had to buschwhack through hellish terrain. My machete hand and elbow ached for days afterward. To get the perspective I wanted, I had to bring a stepladder, then extend my tripod and set it on top of the ladder, then duct tape the tripod to the ladder. Then, I took a cinderblock and propped it against the ladder to steady it. I did this for 8 consecutive days until I finally got the right clouds.

I tried to make a visual path leading they eye between the cactuses in the fore and middle grounds towards Buck Island on the horizon. The island is about a mile long, to give you some scale. Also, I selected this cloud exposure because the clouds make a "V" which further pushes they eye toward the island.

5DMK2, 16mm, ISO 100, four different exposures hand blended: three for dynamic range and one at ISO 800 to counteract wind blur in the foliage in the foreground.

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on March 14, 2011 at 4:39 PM

Pretty spectacular effort. And set up. Damn. Overall I feel you're almost there...personally I want to see the camera tilted down just a bit to get more of the cool texture/foliage and perhaps a bit of a step the right as the top right corner is a bit empty. Moving right would perhaps minimize that effect? Not sure if it's my monitor but colors look a bit too pushed too. Will have to check on other one at home. Very cool shot and landscape!

aF

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

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on March 14, 2011 at 4:45 PM

A lot of work taking and post processing. Well worth it, IMHO. While I am not the biggest fan of HDR, I do like to see it intelligently applied. Question—is the water that blue in those light conditions? I've never been to the Virgin Islands, so it feels overstated to me, but I am willing to be educated.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on March 14, 2011 at 6:24 PM

Real nice light and love the colors. The water down there does have a magical blue.

Did you have to bring your own cinder block was well?

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Kory Lidstrom on March 14, 2011 at 6:34 PM

Phil, yep, the water is that blue here. And, regarding HDR, this type of shot simply couldn't be made without some type of HDR, whether it be blending or usee of a GND filter.

Harley, yep, brought my own cinderblock as well. Oh, the things we do to get a shot.

Registered on November 19, 2008, 49 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Nicolaus Wegner on March 14, 2011 at 8:36 PM

Virgin Islands? Looks like a mix of the southwest and Hawaii. Totally awesome Kory. Jungle romps on tropical islands are always a blast.

Registered on February 21, 2010, 133 Posts, 1509 Comments

Comment posted by Jeremy Kessler on March 14, 2011 at 8:56 PM

Beautiful Image!, The cyans do seem slightly over saturated to my eye, especially in the sky and it seems like there is some banding or something going on in the Upper Right. Small nits though, this is fantastic.

Registered on September 13, 2007, 36 Posts, 1283 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Pelton on March 14, 2011 at 9:40 PM

Great exposure blend, Kory. your persistence paid off.

Registered on November 25, 2003, 380 Posts, 4647 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on March 14, 2011 at 10:28 PM

Gorgeous image, Kory. The foreground textures are and so is the light. Could see maybe trying to get a bit more light into the foreground plants.

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

Comment posted by Kory Lidstrom on March 14, 2011 at 11:06 PM

Heh, you guys got me on the saturation. I actually desatched it a bit when printing and forgot to change the master file. Here is the version I've printed.

Nicolaus, yeah this is the very eastern, windward side of the island. Therefore, it's quite dry and desert like. Twenty miles away on the leeward side it's lush and rainforesty. I love having such differing terrains so close together.

Registered on November 19, 2008, 49 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Jared Atencio on March 15, 2011 at 2:57 AM

Tremendous effort to get this shot Kory and the results are well deserved. I love the warm light on the FG cacti and would love to see the detail in a larger version. I second the cyan in the dark patches of water, but love everything else about the shot. I'd love to see a photo of the photographer in action on this one

Registered on June 23, 2009, 21 Posts, 422 Comments

Comment posted by David Moynahan on March 15, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Great story. Hope you were able to leave the ladder and cinderblock. I see why you returned to get your shot... it's spectacular, and nicely composed. (Wish it was slightly less centrally symmetrical, but that's a picky detail.)

Registered on December 11, 2010, 11 Posts, 77 Comments

Comment posted by Sarah Marino on March 15, 2011 at 7:37 PM

Your dedication paid off, Kory! The light on the foreground plants really makes the image pop. The clouds add a lot of interest, as well. One observation: the color of the reflections in the ocean seems a bit inconsistent with the cloud patterns in the sky.

Registered on November 10, 2008, 23 Posts, 393 Comments