On my last morning on the recent CANP gathering in the Eastern Sierras, Lon Overacker, Harely Goldman and Preston Birdwell visited Arie Crag along Rush Creek. The colors were really glowing by early-mid morning with the trees being lit by reflected light off of the east facing slope of the crag and the sage brush still primarily being lit by the blue sky light. An interesting color contrast combination started happening that was very alluring.
I just love the color contrasts and how the central trees are encircled by darker tones making them really stand out.
I had a great time that morning despite the numbing cold. This is a very nice image! The subdued light works very well. There appears to be some pretty strong blue in the sage, but I love the color contrast betweeen the sage and the trees.
I can't wait to get my film back!
ps: The spelling of the place name is "Aerie" crag
Thanks for the spelling correction. I also can't wait to see what you came away with.
Posted by David Senesac on October 16, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Very nice Ismael choosing to take this backlit pic with the background trees still shadowed. Might desat the cyan on the foreground bushes a bit.
Posted by Harley Goldman on October 17, 2008 at 11:06 AM
I like the cyan in the foreground. That is how it looked and it is a great contrast to the aspens. I will be posting one (once I find the time to scan it) that will have the very blue/cyan sage like this. It is what it was.
Youssef, The color is very intense here in this lighting. Makes this one really pop out there.
As you mentioned the compression is hurting this too. I have found my fall color shots are the worst for compression because of all the leaf details. They look fine in TIFF large files but the constant down sizing to web presentation just zaps the poor things. We'll have to see if the larger size Jim is opening up sometime in the future will help at all. Optional posts allowed will be 1200 x 500k. It should help a lot with images like this one.
Posted by Richard Wong on October 19, 2008 at 1:24 AM
Yes, I like this comp better than the ES&S version. I wish the sage was a little less blue though so it would compliment the scene better.
Posted by Rick Dunn on October 19, 2008 at 11:12 AM
I love the combination of colors here, Youssef. I think the one you just posted is a stronger, more balanced comp. The bright area in the upper right is a bit distracting; a slight crop down and some burning could mitigate that if desirable.
Posted by Lon Overacker on October 20, 2008 at 1:11 AM
Youssef,
Brings back great memories from this morning and believe it or not, I still don't have my images back! (hopefully tommorrow!) Not withstanding the compression issues, what I like most here is the framing of the aspen with the sage at the bottom and the evergreen top and background. This grouping of aspen was awesome as we all know and spent nearly 3 hours in front of!
I think we've seen a wide range of opinions on the color and I would also vote for the cyan being a bit strong at the bottom. what's interesting though is that the trunks of the aspens seem to look right, so there's not an overall color issue. This is quite interesting to me and I recall mentioning to Harley <and maybe you also> how I was paying attention to the blues that weekend. I too saw many blues in the shadowed mornings, but I don't remember it being that strong in the sage. But that's just my interpretation of the scene...
Still, a great autumn image along the June Lake Loop. I'm also glad to learn about the name of "Aerie Crag" and just learned that "Aerie" is the what the nest of a predatory bird is called.
Discussion
9 repliesI just love the color contrasts and how the central trees are encircled by darker tones making them really stand out.
Shen-Hao 4x5, Nikon 300mm + 81EF warming filter, f32.5, 1 sec, Fuji Provia 100F
Comments and Critiques appreciated.
I also posted this image in ES&S, commenting there as well appreciated.
P.S. the jpeg compression to the 200K limit was killing this image so I linked to my server and it is a ~800K file at the 720 pixel size.
I had a great time that morning despite the numbing cold. This is a very nice image! The subdued light works very well. There appears to be some pretty strong blue in the sage, but I love the color contrast betweeen the sage and the trees.
I can't wait to get my film back!
ps: The spelling of the place name is "Aerie" crag
-P
Thanks for the spelling correction. I also can't wait to see what you came away with.
As you mentioned the compression is hurting this too. I have found my fall color shots are the worst for compression because of all the leaf details. They look fine in TIFF large files but the constant down sizing to web presentation just zaps the poor things. We'll have to see if the larger size Jim is opening up sometime in the future will help at all. Optional posts allowed will be 1200 x 500k. It should help a lot with images like this one.
Brings back great memories from this morning and believe it or not, I still don't have my images back! (hopefully tommorrow!) Not withstanding the compression issues, what I like most here is the framing of the aspen with the sage at the bottom and the evergreen top and background. This grouping of aspen was awesome as we all know and spent nearly 3 hours in front of!
I think we've seen a wide range of opinions on the color and I would also vote for the cyan being a bit strong at the bottom. what's interesting though is that the trunks of the aspens seem to look right, so there's not an overall color issue. This is quite interesting to me and I recall mentioning to Harley <and maybe you also> how I was paying attention to the blues that weekend. I too saw many blues in the shadowed mornings, but I don't remember it being that strong in the sage. But that's just my interpretation of the scene...
Still, a great autumn image along the June Lake Loop. I'm also glad to learn about the name of "Aerie Crag" and just learned that "Aerie" is the what the nest of a predatory bird is called.
Lon