Shasta Meadows

A shot from early this winter of Mt. Shasta in northern California. I just reworked this image for a client and thought I'd share it with you guys.

I hadn't planned on shooting Shasta, but I happened to be in the area on my way home from the Sierras and set up camp in the area. When I awoke in the morning I poked my head out and saw the start of some nice light, so I scrambled to throw on my boots and grab my gear. Trying to beat the sunrise, I hurried up a large steep hill to gain a better view down into the meadows. I got there just in time, as this was the second frame I fired off after I set up.

On a morning that I hadn't planned on shooting, I ended up making one of my personal favorites. Hope you guys like it, and as always, comments and critiques are more than welcome. Thanks everyone.

Glad you got up to capture this one! A winner! Your selection of the foreground and handling of the bright snow makes this zing for me. Nice colors on the mtn which echo the colors on the bare branches. Beautiful. Ken S

Wow. Killer foreground and the mountain is perfection! The cloud softens the hard line of the forest so that the image doesn't appear chopped in two. Exposure/processing look spot-on. Great work!

Nice comp and processing. Very appealing to the eye. :)

I'm going against the grain on this one and say I like everything but the FG....I guess I feel it's a little too busy and tends to pull my eye away from the rest of the scene instead of into it.

Fantastic scene, and the atmospherics are killer. Though I do agree with Mark on the f/g; it overwhelms the more interesting parts of the scene. For me, however, it's less about how busy it is and more about how bright and contrasty it is, relative to the rest of the scene. My eye gets anchored right there. There are some very bright patches of snow in the middle ground that would benefit from being pulled in a little as well. Definitely has the potential to sing if you can even things out in the processing.

I would crop off the bulk of the snow at the bottom, and that should improve the comp of a lovely scene.
Nice work.

This is just beautiful every which way! Love your fg element, the fog laying in below Shasta. It's a great scene, and i can see why it's your favorite; would love to have it in my portfolio. Pretty awesome light too. It's just great, Ryan!

I think I'm with Rick and Mark on this one. This is technically very well executed but I just don't feel anything towards that FG bush. It doesn't seem to really lend anything to the overall scene, and having it take up over 1/3 of the frame somewhat diminishes the power of the mountain. I think a more effective composition would have been a mid to semi-tele focal length shot compressing the valley and mountain together, and let the beautiful light do the talking.

Ryan,

I really like your image and the overall luminosity. I think a bit of a tweak up for the mountain and the sky would help to balance out the brighter foreground. Thanks for sharing.

Phil