Rowena Crest {+edits}

I've been on a bit of a photographic hiatus for awhile, part by choice and part not. I finally made it back out yesterday, and popped over to Rowena Crest for sunrise.

The wind was ripping, so compositions were extremely limited to protected spots. I was hoping Grass Widows might be out, but only a few blooms were visible; they were mostly already in the seed pod stage. Fortunately the desert-parsley is getting going.

Struggling to stay out of the wind, this is the comp I finally ended up with. I'm not a big fan of the grassy shelf in the middle, the blooms aren't as balanced as I'd like, and I wish I could have found something to cover the interstate with. Regardless, it was great to be pushing the shutter again and I was happy to see sky color.

Of other note, there are good patches of Glacier Lilies in the oak below Rowena Crest, and I was surprised to see Bleeding Hearts doing well around Latourell Falls. The green in the gorge is still very early.

John, this is very nice. I am glad you are back posting again.

This takes a bit of a hammering against white; here's a black version to see if it helps a little.

The black frame helps. Otherwise the foreground seems awfully dark. It adds to the mystery, but I do find myself trying to make out foreground detail rather than being led inward. Given the conditions, this is a successful reinvigoration!

A really nice capture John under what look like very early lighting conditions. I love the sky colors and overall comp. for my taste I would like too see the foreground a tad brighter.
It's great to have you back shooting, posting and contributing your thoughtful comments!

Thanks for your thoughts!! Here's a lightened foreground to compare.

My mind has been ruminating about this very issue recently. With the power new cameras have to take good shadow detail (in the case of others), or the ability to do blends (as in my case), there are a lot of choices. How much should we be staying true to the lighting of the original scene? I'll post more of my personal thoughts on this when I have time to jot them down.

Wow, the repost and lightened foreground looks great, to me, an eye catching opener that then leads the/this viewer farther back into the rest of the scene and finally taking in the icing, sky, on the cake. Looks great, thanks for posting.

Second repost does it for me John. Nicely done, with a very challenging set of conditions.

Awesome capture John! I suppose all the good wildflowers will be gone when I get there in late May, huh? Is the Rowena area easy to get to?

Thanks again for the comments.

Jack, Rowena is very easy to get to. This spot was a flat five-minute hike from the parking lot. Unfortunately, late May will likely be past prime for the eastern gorge. (Although, we continue to have an amazing run of cool/cloudy/rainy weather here in the NW, so who knows?) The eastern gorge usually peaks in late April to the beginning of May.

The good news is that other areas can be doing quite nicely in late May. Dog Mountain is a good example; it often peaks late May to early June.

I like the second one also. The loss of contrast in the third detracts. I look forward to your ruminations on opening up shadows and when enough is enough. I've been thinking about this too.

Hi, John-
A wonderful scene, so rosy and warm with lots of natural and "hand of man" interest. I like the 1st and 2nd images very much and have a suggestion. Using a layer mask in levels, selectively lighten the flowers in the fg just a very little bit. Suggest this because I like the mood and level/intensity of the color of the light, river, etc, in the majority of the frame, and I think lightening it overall as in image #3 wrecked the ambiance-- well, at least for me.
It's a beautiful shot in your usually so pleasing landscape syle.

Hmmmm... I hadn't thought of that sage idea Catherine. Here's a version that builds on it. It's subtle, but an interesting difference. My take, now that my eyes are bleary from fiddling with this thing, is that I like the lightest version if with a white frame, and this final version if a black frame.

As far as thoughts on processing these. When creating images of nature, I am unabashedly more interested in capturing what I experienced than in capturing what I saw. I want the viewer to “see” the beauty I felt, my awe at the palette nature displayed.

With that said though, I worry about keeping an image believable. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, it’s easy to adjust too far. An image with important subject matter located in both ends of an extreme dynamic range seems to walk an especially fine line, enough so that the lighting you view the image in is important. If you process the bright and dark areas optimally, without regard to each other, the result can look impossible. My impression is that this is a more common risk with blending being used frequently these days.

I was actually thinking about this as I originally processed the image. The foreground was taken about 18 minutes after the sky, so it is bright. (I needed the light to get a fast enough shutter speed to keep the desert-parsley from moving in the wind.) Trying to keep the image realistic, I purposefully experimented with darkening the foreground back towards the photo I exposed for the sky. Just like saturation and contrast though, it’s about balance and I took it a bit too far?

I really appreciate the feedback. (Since I'm an amateur and my livelihood is independent of my photography, I can create images that I like, regardless of what others say or prefer. The irony of course, is that as an amateur what I like is pretty much determined by what others say or prefer .)

It's nice to see you back on NPN posting again John. The last version looks amazing and I really enjoyed reading your thoughts in the last post. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your new work.