The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

Ok, so it's one of my all time favorite movies.... I thought of this when I think back on the debacle that was my trip to LLV. The Ugly... the smokey skies from the fire. The bad... the demise and demolition of my 4x5. The Good... I did manage to come home with just a couple of images from the trip.

The one day, Wednesday was the clearest and we had a good day - taking a short day hike to the Gem Lakes chain. This image was mid-morning on Chickenfoot, just a short distance from camp. The original is not quite as good as the PS'd version... I should have used a 3stop GND instead of the 2stop. I'm pretty happy I was able to rescue the slightly over-exposed slide and work this to where I recall the scene, not just what I caught on film.

Anyway, all was not lost from the trip. I hope this comes thru as fairly accurate - or at least believable.

Thanks - comments appreciated.

Lon

4x5, Provia 100, 135mm

Lon, I really like the very natural look to the scene overall. I'm not sure about the next step up GND as this looks very natural to me. I think the area of reflection working itself right up to the FG and leaving just a bit of skyline room works very well also. Very nice indeed.

Looks accurate and believable to me Lon. I like it.

Jason

This looks really nice, Lon. Having been there several times, I can say this is quite accurate. I agree with Paul that the step-up to a 3-stop may have been too much. The reflection works very nicely and there is nice detail in the walls.

For info, the huge, light granite wall in the center-background is called the 'Ruby Wall'. There are several very difficult climbing routes on it. There is a wonderful lake at timberline, right below it, called Ruby Lake. One would take the Mono Pass trail to get there.

I hope to go to Rock Creek again this fall; weather permitting, of course.

I'm glad you were able to get some images from your trip.

-Preston

I don't think a change in filtration is necessary, if anything the overall exposure seems underexposed to me. But it is certainly balanced exposure-wise.

I don't think this image is underexposed. I believe that what is causing this effect is the smoke in the air. There isn't a lot, but it is visible. Lon, you may be able to compensate for this by bumping the contrast just a 'wee' bit.

-PB

Thanks guys. It's hard to judge is something is underexposed from the web, especially after all the PS changes have been made. So I decide to include the original, straight from the scanner - and of course sized for the web. But no PS work otherwise.

So looking at this again, the original isn't all that bad, but I felt the mountain range was hot and flat - mostly due to the haze and smoke. Preston, you're right... I said while I was there that this particular day was only 90-95% clear.

You can see I altered the color in the foreground rocks. Actually, I could work on that some more. I did very little with the reflection. And using masks, I spent most of the time working on the top, including increasing the contrast. I think an improvement over the original, but worth working more should I ever decide to print this (not likely.)

Thanks for the comments. Oh yeah, I need to attach the image.
Lon

Lon, the original looks workable and acceptable to me and looks like you did a fine job with it. The only thing I would say is the foreground rocks look maybe a little too warm on the reworked image. Being in the shade they probably should have a little blue to them. I love that Sierra clean white granite. That's just beautiful!

Beautiful, beautiful shot Lon. I really like what you did with the processing of the original. Its a shame the smoke got in the way with your trip, but you wouldn't really know it from this shot.

Hi Lon. I actually prefer the mountain and trees in the first one combined with the fg rocks of the second one. This is a really nice comp from chicken foot. When I've been there in the past I seem to have focussed more on Bearcreek Spire and it's reflections. I've yet to come away with a shot from LLV that I've been happy with.

That is a pretty location. I have stood in the exact spot on more than one occasion. You got a nice composition out of it. I am with Corey. I have never gotten a LLV shot that I was happy with.

Hi Lon,

The first thing that grabs me about this photo is the layering offered by the composition and perspective. W.r.t. to the presentation, I'll have to say that the original version suits me better. It has a more pure feel IMHO.

Regards.