The way to hell

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 22, 20072,582 views33 comments

This is my first photo post in NPN and I hope you like it.

It was taken in the Basque Country in the north coast of Spain some years ago. After scouting the area while there was still high tide and noticing a cloudy sky and a clear horizon, my friend and I decided to enjoy the afternoon waiting for the sunset taking pictures of the big waves crashing in the shore. As the afternoon passed off, the sky was getting more and more interesting. By that time, the tide was lower and we started to look for compositions among the rocks. When the sky turned red we couldn't believed, and a thousand doubts about doing the right things came up into our minds. Finally, after a very stressful sunset, I think I managed to get one of the most incredible dusk I've been witnessed of.

Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF-S 10-22, -3 reverse GND, Tripod.

Comments

33 comments

Comment posted by Marc Adamus on March 22, 2007 at 11:30 AM

I saw this on P.Net a while back and loved it. Of course, the strong lines and brilliant sky are compelling. The thing that bugs me about it though, is that the foregreound is a LOT brighter than the sky, disturbing the cohesiveness of the image, a characteristic I see in a lot of your work. Regardless, it's a pretty impressive scene.

Registered on September 17, 2005, 780 Posts, 8091 Comments

Comment posted by Joel Truckenbrod on March 22, 2007 at 11:34 AM

I saw this on P.Net as well, and enjoyed it greatly. It's extremely dramatic, and the composition works very well. I agree with Marc about the brightness of the reflection, but it doesn't detract to much for me. As irrelevant as it is, I find the title a bit heavy handed. No offense intended, its a beautiful and strong image.

Registered on January 27, 2006, 17 Posts, 751 Comments

Comment posted by Waleed Marhoum on March 22, 2007 at 1:19 PM

this is wonderful
:)

Registered on December 29, 2006, 85 Posts, 421 Comments

Comment posted by David Clapp on March 22, 2007 at 1:23 PM

Phenomenal shot, surely we gan give the man a better welcome than this! Only three replies out of 70 views?!

Registered on November 28, 2005, 137 Posts, 441 Comments

Comment posted by Tomas Kaspar on March 22, 2007 at 1:40 PM

Absolutely amazing. One of the best sea shots ever in my book. Bravo.

Registered on December 26, 2005, 158 Posts, 736 Comments

Comment posted by Ryan Shain on March 22, 2007 at 1:52 PM

Enrique,

I think this is a an excellent capture first and foremeost. The sky you have captured is aboslutley one of a kind. The shapes of the clouds and colors of the red sky are priceless in time. I really enjoy how the lines in the rock lead your eye up to the powerful sky.

A very powerful and dramatic image.

Well done

p.s. I would play around with the foreground as well, to try to darken it a little, because I agree with Marc on it being brighter than the clouds. This is just to see how it looks.

Registered on February 20, 2007, 226 Posts, 4571 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel McKeehan on March 22, 2007 at 1:53 PM

I love the picture, the lines in the foreground lead me to the sky, I would also echo what has been said before about the reflection, that is an easy enough fix to make this a great photograph.

Registered on July 31, 2005, 99 Posts, 590 Comments

Comment posted by Juza on March 22, 2007 at 1:59 PM

Awesome, spectacular photo!

Welcome on NPN Enrique!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 374 Posts, 10466 Comments

Comment posted by Guy Tal on March 22, 2007 at 2:04 PM

Amazing color and great use of the fin lines to draw the viewer into the scene. Very impressive!

Guy

Registered on November 1, 2003, 566 Posts, 15507 Comments

Comment posted by Dale Williams on March 22, 2007 at 2:08 PM

Enrique, welcome to NPN. This has a great composition and I love that sky. I do also like how the lines of the rocks lead the eye into the image and that wonderful sky.

Registered on November 15, 2006, 69 Posts, 1025 Comments

Comment posted by Marc Adamus on March 22, 2007 at 2:23 PM

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention WELCOME TO NPN, Enrique. You're contributions here will be most appreciated. For anyone who has not done so, check out Enrique's website - there is some first-rate photography on there.

Registered on September 17, 2005, 780 Posts, 8091 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on March 22, 2007 at 2:28 PM

Welcome to NPN.

Great colors in that sky! The leading lines make the comp very effective. Very well done! Look forwarding to seeing more of your work here.

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

Comment posted by Enrique F. Ferrá on March 22, 2007 at 2:40 PM

Thank you very much for your comments and welcome. I hope learning from everybody that meets here and I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy yours.

I'll try to play around with the foreground and submit a new version.

And a last thing, sorry for my english if make some mistakes.

Registered on March 21, 2007, 38 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Anderson on March 22, 2007 at 2:43 PM

Enrique,

Fantastic first post! Spectacular composition with those great leading lines into the fiery sunset. Nice reflection too. Overall a very fine landscape. If you are looking for critique, I only have one nit. The reflection is quite a bit brighter than the sky (which can't happpen in nature) and overall I think the top grad was about 1 stop too strong but I'll bet you could fix this with a little work in PS. If you decide to rework it, I'd love to see you post the new version.

Registered on January 31, 2006, 228 Posts, 3072 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Wong on March 22, 2007 at 4:07 PM

Nice. great use of lines. The red is a bit heavy for me, but great scene. I don't mind the brighter reflection because it is still exposed properly. The stuff that bothers me is when the foreground is overexposed and the sky underexposed.

Registered on February 2, 2006, 79 Posts, 2629 Comments

Comment posted by Enrique F. Ferrá on March 22, 2007 at 5:51 PM

Well, this is the new version. I've played only with curves for the darkening the foreground and levels for increasing a bit the contrast of the sky. No saturation has been applied.
I have to say that the sky is hardly saturated. I show you how it was. Well, it was more incredible than it is shown here.

Let me know what do you think now, specially Marc, who was the first in pointing out the excess of brightness in the foreground.

Thank you again for suggesting me this improvement.

Registered on March 21, 2007, 38 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Youssef Ismail on March 22, 2007 at 5:53 PM

Welcome Enrique. Nice first post here. The FG lines relly draw you into the photo. The reflection in the pool does seem brighter than the sky and that does throw me off a bit.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 474 Posts, 5555 Comments

Comment posted by Thomas Biggs on March 22, 2007 at 6:02 PM

Welcome to NPN Enrique! Sweet first post!!

Registered on January 13, 2005, 310 Posts, 1257 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on March 22, 2007 at 6:16 PM

Enrique: Welcome to NPN and thanks for a great first post. You've set a high standard for yourself with this image. Superb capture of the moment. I think the rework is significantly stronger. >=))>

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

Comment posted by Laurent Baig on March 22, 2007 at 6:20 PM

Wow, that's some crazy formation in the ground. The sky is amazing!

Registered on January 12, 2005, 206 Posts, 6784 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Moats on March 22, 2007 at 6:41 PM

Hey Enrique, oh yeah, this is really nice. Well done.

Registered on October 20, 2004, 892 Posts, 6324 Comments

Comment posted by John W. Wall on March 22, 2007 at 6:43 PM

An excellent example of how the good intentions of putting the horizon pretty much dead-center works just fine.

I'm not sure about the darkening of the fins out toward the middle, but it looks like raising the filter some would have killed the highlights on the left.

Registered on July 25, 2006, 53 Posts, 179 Comments

Comment posted by Tad Bowman on March 22, 2007 at 6:45 PM

Beautiful sky with a great lead in lines. Great job Enrique.

Registered on August 15, 2006, 25 Posts, 79 Comments

Comment posted by Kent Mearig on March 22, 2007 at 7:47 PM

Nice effort on the remix, Enrique. It looks great.

Registered on September 4, 2006, 237 Posts, 4748 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Stacey on March 22, 2007 at 7:59 PM

Agree with what most have offered except for the comment re. the foreground illumination where I think this aspect increases the drama of the image. Well done, but.....not sure about the title...

Registered on February 7, 2007, 93 Posts, 297 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Kuglin on March 22, 2007 at 10:17 PM

One word - WOW!!!

Leading lines with great depth and fantastic sky. Perfect

Registered on April 19, 2004, 68 Posts, 389 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on March 22, 2007 at 10:29 PM

Welcome to NPN. I saw this on Pnet too and was suitably impressed at the time. I frequently check out your work there. The postprocessing/NG grad use is pretty obvious but I think this bit of artistic license to dramatize the shot is appropriate. I'm with Mike Stacey; choose another title.

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Barry R. Byrd on March 26, 2007 at 7:08 PM

welcome and well done

Registered on December 20, 2005, 136 Posts, 970 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on March 28, 2007 at 2:08 AM

Welcome Enrique! Quite a grand debut with this photograph, that's for sure. It is so dramatic; those clouds looks like they're absolutely boiling! The fg is beatiful as well. Love the rocks with the lines and the reflection. Congratulations on the editor's pick award. Look forward to seeing more of your posts.

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

Comment posted by Patricia Brundage on March 28, 2007 at 6:53 AM

What a well deserved EP for an exceptional first post. Well done and I'm looking forward to many more.

Registered on March 23, 2006, 1111 Posts, 6531 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Peters on April 21, 2007 at 2:57 PM

What a stunning photo. I can only hope to be witness to a sunset this amazing one day!!

Registered on December 22, 2005, 28 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Forquer on August 30, 2008 at 2:43 PM

Great photo! Love it.

Registered on August 16, 2008, 9 Posts, 7 Comments

Comment posted by Andrew W.T. on October 24, 2008 at 5:02 PM

Very nice picture. It gives this kind of disturbing feeling but also a feeling of awe at the sheer beauty of the location. This is an impressive shot and the edits on the later version just amplify the overall feeling.
Very nice work.

Registered on October 21, 2008, 0 Posts, 4 Comments