Dawn in the mountains

Gallery: LandscapePosted July 12, 2012318 views17 comments

I've been trolling through some trips I made last year, the majority of the images having been left unprocessed until now.

This is a lovely sunrise over the Maluti mountains. I tried to make the most of the cloud formations here by composing vertically.

Techs:
Canon 7D with 10-22mm USM @ 16mm
f11 @ ISO-100
Blend of 3 exposures using luminosity masks

I went for a dark-ish feel as it was still pre-dawn.

Comments

17 comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on July 12, 2012 at 4:55 PM

Wow! Absolutly beautiful. This is wonderful just to sit back and enjoy. Wonderful light and color and still with a very natural look and feel. Excellent work.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

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

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on July 12, 2012 at 5:26 PM

I love the vastness of this scene and the colors in the sky are great. Although you wanted to keep a lot of the sky, personally I'd like to see a bit more foreground.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on July 12, 2012 at 5:56 PM

Very beautiful image. I like the foreground here as it doesn't completely overwhelm the rest of the scene. Though it centers the horizon somewhat, a scroll-crop of some of the blue at the top seems to work well.

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

Comment posted by Morris McClung on July 12, 2012 at 7:36 PM

Good comp, lovely color, and a nice balance of tones from your blend. Well done!

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

Comment posted by John Mumaw on July 12, 2012 at 8:03 PM

Quite a lovely scene, and the vertical format was a great choice here. Excellent 'development', too. I agree that cropping the top down would be an asset.

Registered on September 9, 2005, 62 Posts, 2289 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on July 12, 2012 at 9:25 PM

That is one gorgeous sky Morkel especially the glow above the mountains. The foreground is a great lead in.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on July 12, 2012 at 9:58 PM

Excellent development. Another vote for crop the top.

BTW, your larger version does not look large

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on July 12, 2012 at 10:11 PM

A fine vertical frame, Morkel and the wide-angle lens is just great. Love the light in the sky. Not 100% certain about the light on the ripples in the lower left. Perhaps darkening them a bit would make them less distracting.

Best wishes,

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on July 12, 2012 at 11:02 PM

This image has a lot of depth Morkel. And that sky is just beautiful! Love the color in those clouds!

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Oleg Kuchorenko on July 13, 2012 at 3:53 AM

Great capture of the sky! it's amazing feeling when you are on top of the mountain.. great mood and atmosphere ! colors very realistic !

Registered on July 2, 2012, 9 Posts, 111 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on July 13, 2012 at 6:14 AM

Thank you very much for the kind comments, folks. Looking back I wish I had tried some different compositions, but these colours were very fleeting

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Richter on July 13, 2012 at 2:55 PM

Morkel, the shape of the slopes in the lower part and the pattern of the clouds make for a kind of symmetry that works very well for me. I appreciate your exposure and processing, the image reflects the atmosphere of this morning wonderfully to me.

Peter

Registered on November 10, 2010, 218 Posts, 2723 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on July 13, 2012 at 6:41 PM

Great leading line with the rocks and ridgeline heading out to greet that glorious sky. I could possibly see cropping the darkest part of the sky.

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

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on July 13, 2012 at 7:02 PM

Nice job of retaining good detail along the darker ridge of the mountains which lead you right to that colorful sky, well done.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Natalie Mikaels on July 13, 2012 at 7:31 PM

Love the layers of color here. Cropping about 3/4 of an inch off the top might add some more drama to the scene, but I also like it as is. Nice Job!

Registered on November 3, 2011, 45 Posts, 181 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on July 13, 2012 at 7:54 PM

Love the sky here Morkel. Fabulous color. The misty distant hills are really nice too. Would love to see a bit more light on the fg rock area.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on July 15, 2012 at 8:07 AM

thanks for the wonderful response, folks...

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments