Signal Mountain Summit: east, the Elk preserve sprawls across the valley floor
After driving 800 plus feet above the valley floor - 7593 above sea level – Anne and me parked and walked – slowly - it took a day or so to get use to hiking and biking at this altitude - the last 100 yards to the summit: we were rewarded with beautiful views to the west, toward the Teton mountain range, and turning, the Elk preserve sprawling the landscape to the east.
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| Looking east from Signal Mountain Summit - Copyright 2012 Click for larger view |
As a rule, before sunrise and again before sunset, is one of the best times to capture the real beauty this wonderful Earth has to offer – no matter where you live, or visit. The lighting changes quickly; you need to be ready to change camera dynamics to take advantage of what your eyes see and how the brain develops a rendering. Of course, the more experience you have in the field, the easier it is to make the correct adjustments. The photograph above was captured looking east around 6:45pm – in this part of the country, the sun was still a bit high in the sky, but in this case, the cloud formations splashing a crystal blue sky and a variety of textures painted across the Elk preserve, was all the invitation I needed to set up my tripod and compose a shot.
Looking through the viewfinder and pivoting my tripod left and right I scanned the landscape for a suitable composition I felt captured the beauty and emotion I was experiencing.
Technically speaking: after several wide angle choices, I chose the 35mm setting on the Canon F/2.8 16-35mm II L, to best represent my artistic expression.
The Canon 5D Mark II was set in aperture priority and dialed an F/22.0 setting – closing-down the lens yields maximum depth of field, (DoF), what you want on most landscape photographs.
Camera dynamics:
ISO 100
Aperture = F/22.o
Camera Shutter Speed = 1/30 sec.
Exposure compensation = 0
Tripod
Canon RC-1 electronic trigger
Post Production:
The color image file was cropped with a 3:2 aspect ratio and adjusted for chromatic and luminance accuracy that best represented the original scene as viewed through the viewfinder. After I was satisfied with an accurate color image I converted to a black & white photograph.
Workflow:
CS5 for color and luminance adjustments and to remove dust spots
Color Efex Pro to add a slight neutral density filter, (ND), to help maintain a rich blue sky
Silver Efex Pro 2 for the black and white conversion: used yellow filter to help bring out certain details in the BW version in an attempt to maintain textures I feel is one of the focus points, (pun not intended), in this composition.
There you have it – hope you like the photograph and contact me with questions or comments.
Thought you may want to know: The fall workshop schedule was posted on the Kennesaw Parks & Recreation web site - hope you decide to join me for one of my 4.5 hour Saturday workshops! Contact me for details!
Thank you!
Best regards,
Lance
