I spent Memorial weekend in the Capitol Creek Valley. A few years ago I spied a line on Haystack Mountain's west ridge that melts out faster than the rest of the mountain. Sunday evening I located that exact line and hiked 2000-ft from my camp to the summit of Haystack Mountain... without snowshoes! At 12,200-ft I had a very nice view of Capitol Peak and explored the ridge to Mount Daly. I stayed up there until 8:30pm and made it back to my camp at 10:30 after a brutal descent in the dark. Even my GPS couldn't save me from experiencing a different route down than up. BTW, Daly actually looks more impressive than Capitol from this perspective.
I had to go with Black and White for a lot of my mountain images because of the red layers of dust that merged with the snowpack over the winter. Red snow is not pretty to look at.
Man, you weren't a-kiddin' about Mount Daly from that angle. That's incredible! The one posted here has me all discombobulated, but I take it that's because it's a "dream" image, as in, you dreamed up some artistic license. Is that right, or is it just the way the shadows fall that are making it look strange?
"A Daly Sight from Haystack" is amazing.
Posted by Jeff Hackett on June 3, 2010 at 10:23 PM
Very nice lines. The light on the foreground is very mysterious.
What a great set of images. "Artistic License" or not, I like the processing on these, esp the B&Ws. Pretty sweet that you scouted this years ago and finally made it happen. I'm glad you got the goods for your efforts.
Todd, you're funny today. The mountain and cloud are really there Todd, however I cropped out the "scrappy" grass first, just for you. Yes, you are correct. This was my artistic liscense in full swing! I used a reverse vignette on the lower half of the image (for the first time in my life) and kind of liked it.
This is a nice image. A bit dark along the FG ridge line for my monitor. But the one that includes Daly is just fantastic. The strong zig-zag leading back to the peaks is a fantastic composition. And the ridge line connecting over to Daly from haystack is not as dark. Well done.
I haven't seen many reverse-vignette images, and I think in this case it is really a cool effect. Didn't realize Mt. Daly could be so impressively triangular-looking until checking out your other images. That's quite an interesting point of view you shot these from.
Discussion
14 repliesI had to go with Black and White for a lot of my mountain images because of the red layers of dust that merged with the snowpack over the winter. Red snow is not pretty to look at.
http://www.kaephotography.com/gallery/capitol-creek/
"A Daly Sight from Haystack" is amazing.
You're welcome for the red dust. Love, Utah
This is a nice image. A bit dark along the FG ridge line for my monitor. But the one that includes Daly is just fantastic. The strong zig-zag leading back to the peaks is a fantastic composition. And the ridge line connecting over to Daly from haystack is not as dark. Well done.