Monochrome: Big Sky Over Lincoln Memorial

[Mike Buckley]

I captured this photo from the plaza of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. Handheld. No cropping or straightening.

[bnnrcn]

I really learn from your compositions Mike. Very nice I would never think of shooting with such a frame. It is like a sunset shot with a nice sky and the buildings are in a narrow band in the FG.

[John 2]

Lovely sense of space Mike, particularly when you realise how large the memorial actually is. Good comp and good control over the highs and lows.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Binnur and John.

By the way, this image was taken at about 11:45 am Daylight Savings Time. Hopefully it dispels the notion that you should take the advice of leaving the camera in its bag between 10:00am and 4:00pm. Actually, all of the photographs that I made that day were captured during those hours.

[chauncey]

By the way, this image was taken at about 11:45 am Daylight Savings Time. Hopefully it dispels the notion that you should take the advice of leaving the camera in its bag between 10:00am and 4:00pm. Actually, all of the photographs that I made that day were captured during those hours.

Yes, but...you made the conscious choice to convert them to B&W.

[Mike Buckley]

Yes, but...you made the conscious choice to convert them to B&W.

I don't understand your point. Everything I do with my photography is a conscious choice. Should I have not made the color photo shown below because it was the middle of the day?

[bnnrcn]

I would love to be the one who was sitting and watching the lovely scenery , I'm envious of him/her

I don't understand your point. Everything I do with my photography is a conscious choice. Should I have not made the color photo shown below because it was the middle of the day?

[Mike Buckley]

I would love to be the one who was sitting and watching the lovely scenery

That's my wife. She was very comfortable, actually leaning backward because of the natural tilt of the rock surface. Even so, I tried sitting next to her to join her for lunch and I couldn't bring myself to do it. We moved to a less precarious situation.

[chauncey]

I don't understand your point.

My point is when you take images in the harsh sunlight, you do better to convert those images to B&W.

The lovely image of your better half was shot mostly in the shade with the glare showing only sparsely mountains in the distance. Were the subject of that image being the mountains, with little of the shaded portion, I would have suggested a B&W conversion. It should go without saying that if you have an overcast sky that acts as a diffusing element, all that goes out the window.

You have the originals, how do they look without the conversion?

[Brownbear]

Big Sky... Great image. I adore the composition for the beautiful buildings set off by a wonderful sky.

I especially love the 2nd image with your wife seated on the edge of the rocks, for the composition, gorgeous colours and amazing detail seen even in the most of the trees throughout. I hope you share more of these types of images.

I would like to ask if you placed your focus point on your wife? And if you had used an aperture of f/8 (ignoring the depth of field seen in this image) if you still could have placed your focus point on your wife and managed the same sharp focus on the mountain peaks. And if the choice of the bright yellow jacket was a planned wardrobe item - just joking - but the colour sure makes the image pop!

Aside... I have taken images of scenery in the mid-day sun that I love, they usually have clouds in them but they work. Thanks for sharing.

[davidedric]

Great image Mike. As someone else said, an education - I would never have seen it.

Was this the day of your ride to the top of the monument?

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

You have the originals, how do they look without the conversion?

Terrible for all the reasons you explained plus the fact that much of the grass is brown, not green. I knew when I walked out of my house that I would be "thinking" black-and-white also for the reasons you explained.

[Mike Buckley]

Yes, Dave, I took the image of the sky over the Lincoln Memorial immediately after coming down from the top of the Washington Monument. I wish you could have gotten tickets to go up the monument. Perhaps next time!

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Christina!

I took the photo of my wife four years ago but I'm reasonably confident that I focused manually and checked depth of field by magnifying the captured image in the LCD. The camera that I used has no Live View; if I would take a similar image today with my camera that does have Live View, I would use it to determine depth of field before releasing the shutter.

I used f/13 and might not have been able to keep everything in focus using f/8. Even though the focal length was only 18mm, I was quite close to my wife. I do know that I don't like to use a smaller aperture than f/13 with this particular lens because it becomes a little soft at smaller apertures and they would rarely be needed anyhow.

You joke about the yellow jacket being a planned wardrobe but, very seriously, my wife knows to wear either red or yellow for photographic purposes when we're hiking in that kind of scenery. Decades ago red clothing used to be called National Geographic Red because their editors favored photos like this when the person was wearing it.

By the way -- and please don't tell Chauncey this -- but both my wife and I prefer the monochrome version of this photo. We included it, not the color version, in a book that we made commemorating our first 30 years of travel photography.

[Brownbear]

Thank you for taking the time to share. Truly helpful and very much appreciated.

I will just have to buy my husband a whole new wardrobe comprised of yellow and red...

I will not tell Chauncey as long as you don't post the b&w version here for me to see because the colour version is extraordinarily beautiful.

Thanks, Christina!

I took the photo of my wife four years ago but I'm reasonably confident that I focused manually and checked depth of field by magnifying the captured image in the LCD. The camera that I used has no Live View; if I would take a similar image today with my camera that does have Live View, I would use it determine depth of field before releasing the shutter.

I used f/13 and might not have been able to keep everything in focus using f/8. Even though the focal length was only 18mm, I was quite close to my wife. I do know that I don't like to use a smaller aperture than f/13 with this particular lens because it becomes a little soft at smaller apertures and they would rarely be needed anyhow.

You joke about the yellow jacket being a planned wardrobe but, very seriously, my wife knows to wear either red or yellow for photographic purposes when we're hiking in that kind of scenery. Decades ago red clothing used to be called National Geographic Red because their editors favored photos like this when the person was wearing it.

By the way -- and please don't tell Chauncey this -- but both my wife and I prefer the monochrome version of this photo. We included it, not the color version, in a book that we made commemorating our first 30 years of travel photography.