Posted by Tom Stermitz on April 14, 2011 at 3:10 PM
I probably crossed paths with David Kingman this past weekend, but I'm guessing like me he was up before dawn and back after dusk. Weather at sunrise and sunset was either cloudy or clear, which means we didn't have much solar glory. Still, on my Monday drive home I stopped to shoot the Monitor and the Merrimack buttes against the sunrise, and was rewarded with a couple nice shots. Pentax K-5 with my old, manual 135mm f3.5, which I stitched for a great, 6100 pixel pano.
Making Lemonade out of Lemons.
While the clouds resulted in flat, unflattering light for the rugged canyons, they eliminated harsh shadows. So, I got some nice intimates, and some color shots of the arches, and even pulled out my velvia with warming filter to work on the red cliffs.
Posted by Tom Stermitz on April 14, 2011 at 3:17 PM
So, who prefers the gold & orange pano, and who prefers the one with spectacular blue sky?
Posted by Tom Stermitz on April 14, 2011 at 3:49 PM
And one more. Isn't ISO 3200 wonderful? Pentax K-5 with 31mm at f/2.5 and 1/8 sec. To keep the tree in focus, I sacrificed some sharpness in the stars. I probably could have gone to 1/4 or 1/2 sec and a smaller aperture to try for hyper-focus somewhere between the tree and infinity. I guess that would be a real infinity, wouldn't it! The red light on the tree was a surprise. Maybe David Kingman's tail-lights illuminated the tree.
Canyonlands is so far from any city lights that the night sky is extraordinary. Earlier in the evening, the quarter moon gave the tree some unearthly (literally!) illumination. I didn't know my little camera could capture the milky way.
Posted by Jack Garrett on April 14, 2011 at 4:56 PM
Love the night sky photo. You chose a tree with lots of character.
Also prefer the gold and orange silhouette sky version over the blue. Need more separation of the horizon from the land in the second one.
Posted by David Kingham on April 14, 2011 at 9:55 PM
Hey Tom, never did see the brown monster where all did you stay? and when did you find clear skies at night? It seemed as though the clouds would never part. Here's one of my shots from white crack, haven't gotten around to posting it here yet http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidkingham/5615360306/in/photostream
I love the night shot! I prefer the gold version up top--the blue is more grayish than blue.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on April 15, 2011 at 1:48 AM
I also prefer the gold version. However, it does have some have some haloing along the highest contrast transitions. I'm sure the JPEG compression enhances the problem.
I love the red light on the tree. Possibly starlight reflected off redrock?
Posted by Tom Stermitz on April 15, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Thanks guys. Canyonlands is better than Grand Canyon, I think.
@David. Cloudy Fri and Sat, but Sun evening was clearing, and Sun night got completely clear. I stayed at the official Canyonlands campground at the North "Island in the Sky", site 3, on Sat and Sun nights. No 4WD so I didn't drive the rim. Surprisingly, there were plenty of campsites early enough in the day. Snow and cold, or else all the demand is over in Arches. There is a larger campground before Dead Horse Point which never filled.
@Stan. I recently changed to Photoshop CS5, and need to examine my whole color process, in this situation for JPEG export. Could use a real photographer monitor, also.
@Bill. Thanks for pointing out the haloing. Too much contrast mask, and the silhouette of the horizon doesn't really need it.
None of my other sky photos had the red light on the tree, so I think it must have come from somebody's car taillights, although I didn't notice at the time. The quarter moon puts out a surprising amount of light-silver blue, so much that it killed a lot of stars and completely swamped the milky way earlier, so I had to set an alarm to drag myself out into the frigid night.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on April 16, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Nice selection Tom. I prefer the gold sky color of #1, but I like the comp of both buttes in #2 better. Doh! I think your taillight explanation is the likely cause of the red color #3. It's exactly what I was thinking happened too when I first looked at the photo before I read your description and the comments. It's a very effective and beneficial "accident" to the photo though!
Posted by Dan Walters on April 17, 2011 at 5:50 PM
Discussion
11 repliesMaking Lemonade out of Lemons.
While the clouds resulted in flat, unflattering light for the rugged canyons, they eliminated harsh shadows. So, I got some nice intimates, and some color shots of the arches, and even pulled out my velvia with warming filter to work on the red cliffs.
Canyonlands is so far from any city lights that the night sky is extraordinary. Earlier in the evening, the quarter moon gave the tree some unearthly (literally!) illumination. I didn't know my little camera could capture the milky way.
Also prefer the gold and orange silhouette sky version over the blue. Need more separation of the horizon from the land in the second one.
I love the red light on the tree. Possibly starlight reflected off redrock?
@David. Cloudy Fri and Sat, but Sun evening was clearing, and Sun night got completely clear. I stayed at the official Canyonlands campground at the North "Island in the Sky", site 3, on Sat and Sun nights. No 4WD so I didn't drive the rim. Surprisingly, there were plenty of campsites early enough in the day. Snow and cold, or else all the demand is over in Arches. There is a larger campground before Dead Horse Point which never filled.
@Stan. I recently changed to Photoshop CS5, and need to examine my whole color process, in this situation for JPEG export. Could use a real photographer monitor, also.
@Bill. Thanks for pointing out the haloing. Too much contrast mask, and the silhouette of the horizon doesn't really need it.
None of my other sky photos had the red light on the tree, so I think it must have come from somebody's car taillights, although I didn't notice at the time. The quarter moon puts out a surprising amount of light-silver blue, so much that it killed a lot of stars and completely swamped the milky way earlier, so I had to set an alarm to drag myself out into the frigid night.