A friend and I went up to Lake Isabelle early Sunday morning for some sunrise shooting and the lake was just as beautiful as ever, except with a lot less snow/run-off. I made my first visit to the lake last year on Aug. 6th and there was about twice as much snow up there then as there was this past weekend.
The sunrise was a bit odd. The layer of smoke cast this nice but intense red light over everything! That made it very hard to get a good shot because most of my photos look like I had a red gel over my lens. White balancing helped a litte. The slight color cast with my filters already magnified the red light of sunrise, but on Sunday morning it was nearly overkill.
We also shot the creeks above and below the lake, but I wasn't too happy with the results so I went back tonight and got what I wanted. There is very little evidence things are as dry as they are right now up there. It's amazing. I would estimate that area will look very different in a months time though. I think the outlet creek at Lake Isabelle has only a few more days until it stops flowing. The snow is melting soooo fast.
Posted by Grant Collier on June 26, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Nice shots here! You might consider cropping the first image just below the plant on the lower left, to get rid of the rock at the bottom right, which I find distracting. I also find the stuff on the top-center of the second one distracting and it might benefit from a slight crop (or perhaps I just have ADD and get distracted easily )
Posted by Doug Koepsel on June 26, 2012 at 1:25 PM
The second shot is my favorite. Love the diverging lines and contrast of pink/green colors. I also would crop the top, but just a tiny bit. I would want the place where the single flow of water starts to turn into two kept in view. Perhaps consider a small amount of content aware fill or cloning to get rid of the rest of the log on top?
Thanks everyone! I cropped the second photo and I have to agree, it's much better. I looked at that photo so much that I think I became almost "numb" to the distracting log at top-center.
Discussion
6 repliesThe sunrise was a bit odd. The layer of smoke cast this nice but intense red light over everything! That made it very hard to get a good shot because most of my photos look like I had a red gel over my lens. White balancing helped a litte. The slight color cast with my filters already magnified the red light of sunrise, but on Sunday morning it was nearly overkill.
We also shot the creeks above and below the lake, but I wasn't too happy with the results so I went back tonight and got what I wanted. There is very little evidence things are as dry as they are right now up there. It's amazing. I would estimate that area will look very different in a months time though. I think the outlet creek at Lake Isabelle has only a few more days until it stops flowing. The snow is melting soooo fast.