Sunrise in Afghanistan

[mahonri]

Having been stuck on ugly military bases in Afghanistan for the last few months, I haven't had the opportunity to photograph very many things that I consider worthy of sharing with others. For the most part I've contented myself with photographing my co-workers (everybody does seem to appreciate having someone with a photography habit around). A couple days ago I walked outside at around 0500 and saw one of the most colorful sunrises in process that I think I've ever witnessed. Having only a few minutes to take a break from the work I was doing, I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a few photo's handheld with the intention of trying to stitch them into panoramas later.



The sun was still below the horizon, but it was doing a very colorful job lighting up the clouds to the west. This was put together from about 6 shots. I've tried to reproduce the real colors as accurately as possible without overdoing it in post processing. I think I've got it pretty close (at least on my monitor)



To the east and the north the clouds didn't have the same light show happening, but i really liked the texture of them and thought they were also worth sharing. I've been tweaking these pictures in lightroom the last couple days and think I've finally got them how I want them to look. Anybody have any thoughts/critiques? Thanks for looking and reading, and I look forward to any comments.



-Mahonri

[kdoc856]

Mahonri,

Thanks for posting these and thanks for your service there. My son just finished his 5th deployment in the Rangers. He has some really impressive photos of the amazing skies there, and has developed a very nice library of skies and horizons for future use. Make sure to take plenty of shots with none of the FOB structures visible. Be safe and home soon

Kevin

[Donald]

Mahonri - I think a bit more time in post-processing with that third one, could bring out a lot more in the sky. There's some wonderful texture in there that i think you could work up some more.

On the second one, I wondered about cropping even tighter at the bottom and taking out the lights and the buildings, so that we just see the mountains.

And I love the colour in the first one.

[mahonri]

Kevin - Yes, I absolutely love the skies that we occasionally get here. Unfortunately I do have trouble getting into good positions to only get the skies and mountains in the shot.

Donald - Thanks for the feedback. I went back and reprocessed the third one, I think it looks a little bit better now, and tried the crop that you suggested on the second pic. Please let me know what you think.

[Donald]

Donald - Thanks for the feedback. I went back and reprocessed the third one, I think it looks a little bit better now, and tried the crop that you suggested on the second pic. Please let me know what you think.

I'd be interested to know what others think as well. For me, although the re-work of the third one introduces more noise into the image, I think it can carry it in return fro the benefit of getting more texture out of the sky.

And now, in the same way as that third one. the second one, is composed in such a way as to show us the remoteness and openness of the place and the 'big sky' that's around. I like them.

I believe that Afghanisatan, notwithstanding the conflict going on at the moment, is a beautiful place. I think these images give us some idea of the grandeur of the landscape.

[CougarFool]

Hi Mahonri,
I think that the reworked ones have more impact than the originals. Well worth the extra time spent. The reworked first one (which was the original third) has a superb blast of orange coming through now and I do like the crop of the second one.

[mahonri]

Nigel, Donald - I'm glad you both like them, it was definitely worth the extra time spent on them.
Here's yesterdays sunrise, I really like this one:



Unfortunately I blew out some highlights on this image, I've tried doing what I can to fix them with my limited skills, and I think it turned out acceptable. Would love some feedback on this image as well. Thanks everybody in advance.

-Mahonri

[rpcrowe]

Thanks for your service. As we say in the Navy, "I wish you fair winds and following seas!"