Denali Emerging

Gallery: LandscapePosted August 31, 2017286 views11 comments

Sony A77II
Sony 70-400G @ 400mm
ISO 200, 1/1000 @ f8
3 Image blend/HDR in Lightroom CC
Denali NP, Alaska

My wife and I had been planning our first trip to Alaska since last December.and left Houston August 23, two days ahead of hurricane Harvey. I had no clue that we were planning our evacuation so far in advance! Fortunately our home is on very high ground and although we live less than 200 yards from a major creek system our home emerged unscathed.

I fear we may have brought the wet weather with us as we've only seen the sun parts of two days during the trip. I shot this today as we drove into the park for the first time and some of the land forms in the distance peeked out from the low clouds. Hoping for better weather tomorrow for some flightseeing. All comments welcome. >=))>

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by gary phillips on August 31, 2017 at 12:24 PM

I'm glad you made it out of Houston before the storm hit and that your home is OK. Our thoughts are with the folks of Houston, it's going to be a long slog for sure. I have not tried the HDR feature in Lightroom, but I might after looking at this image. Very nice. It's a hard call on the little bit of sky, but I don't like the crop options. Lovely detail throughout and the fore ridge sets up the layering that follows nicely. I hope you have a great trip and that your home stays in good shape.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on August 31, 2017 at 4:15 PM

Being a Texan by birth, my heart goes out to everyone there. I am glad your home is safe, Bill. I like this image.The layers of texture and color work very ell. I agree with Gary about the sky, but a crop would unbalance the composition. It looks like Autumn is on its way there. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
--P

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on August 31, 2017 at 7:24 PM

I was wondering about you today, Bill. Glad you came through unscathed, and wonderful that you get to go to Alaska. Perfect time to be there, I understand. I hope to make it someday myself.

Love this shot for the textures, layers, and colors!

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

Comment posted by Ed Williams on September 1, 2017 at 2:19 AM

Bill, so glad everything is OK with your home. I really like the subtle tones and details in this photo. Hope you got more chances to see Denali while you were there. Also hope you had some great encounters with wildlife along the way.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on September 1, 2017 at 10:45 AM

Bill,

This is an awesome use of the long lens to compress the mountain landscape. I really like the layers, lines and diagonals as well as the geometry. This is very cool. I'm unsure about the small patches of clouds up top, but not sure if cropping down improves anything. very minor though.

I was only there once in the 90's and over a 4 day period we saw Denali like for 4 or 5 hours total. Hope you got a good view of the mountain.

So glad to hear you escaped disaster with your home. It's a terrible situation and I'm sure you'll have plenty to do when you return. My thoughts are with all those affected.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Koepsel on September 1, 2017 at 10:00 PM

Bill, the overlapping diagonals and fading towards the distance is really nice. I could see maybe a tiny crop off the top to rid the small piece of sky top center, and maybe lightening the lower left diagonal section a tiny bit. Nice variation in contrast ranges between the slopes.

Registered on April 1, 2010, 196 Posts, 1592 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on September 1, 2017 at 11:07 PM

I find this image to be a bit awkward in that the near shadows look so much darker than those beyond the ridge. It would be interesting to see the original image. Perhaps it really did look that way due to a mist.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on September 2, 2017 at 1:25 AM

Igor: While it may not be readily apparent there were a lot of low clouds shrouding the BG mountains.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on September 3, 2017 at 7:19 PM

First of all, I'm glad to hear that your home was undamaged from the hurricane. Although I live in Nashville now, I'm originally from Amarillo. I wasn't in Nashville in 2010 for the flood so apart from the images that I have seen on TV I don't have a frame of reference for the kind of flooding that occurred which as I understand was historic in its scale.

Regarding your image, I like the mood with the foggy conditions. The autumn color on the tundra is also beautiful. I also like the strong diagonal lines as well as the way that this shows the immense scale of the landscape.

Registered on May 28, 2004, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on September 4, 2017 at 8:09 PM

Vey much like the sense of depth and the layer of light. Maybe the sliver of light above the mountains could be cropped for a more abstract comp.

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

Comment posted by Genny K. on September 4, 2017 at 9:43 PM

Don't feel bad if you don't get to see the mountain very much. This is the rainy season.....
Yup, this is classic Denali. I like those diagonal ridges.

Registered on June 5, 2006, 132 Posts, 2001 Comments