Rocks, trees and snow

[tbob]

Spent the holidays at our future retirement spot in the desert area of southern British Columbia. A new environment and new opportunities after living on the prairie of northern BC for thirty years.

The first day we were there it snowed quite heavily the prior night. I am not sure how often I will be presented with this opportunity, however I was intrigued by the way the snow defined the cliff structure. Mixed with the Ponderosa pines clinging to any crevice in the rock.





That night it was foggy and cold (minus 12C which is 12 degrees below normal for the area). From experience I knew it was perfect for hoarfrost formation. So out I went and awaited the clearing clouds/mist.





Almost seemed like the area was welcoming me.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Dave Humphries]

our future retirement spot in the desert area of southern British Columbia.

We'll miss the red barn shots Trevor

Do they still get 'the lights' there?

but I digress ...


Of these, I prefer the ones where sunlight has lent more texture to the rocks and trees, over the flat light in the fog/low cloud.

Cheers, Dave

[DanK]

I agree with Dave.

These are great captures, but you can do a lot to pep them up. Take the third, for example. I like this best in terms of composition, but it seems a tad washed out. So (I hope you don't mind), I did a few quick edits. First, I simply used a curves tool for two things: to bring the black point up (to a value of 30), and to increase contrast above that with a curve. Because I didn't want to increase saturation, I set the blend mode to luminance. The result is this:



Then I figured it would be worth doing something to set the sky apart a bit. I used Nik Viveza for this. I set three control points in the sky and grouped them, and I put a few on the rocks to help limit the first ones. I then pulled shadows down, increase blue a bit, increased structure, and changed brightness. I was just playing with the options for pulling a little more detail out of the sky and differentiating it from the rocks and snow-covered trees. The result is below. Not polished, but I think it illustrates a direction.

[tbob]

I am afraid the northern lights, and the barns, may be things of the past. I plan to spend several weeks a year on the prairie as I cannot imagine not photographing in that (this? too confusing a concept) environment. A few old buildings may sneak in. Unfortunately the aurora is too unpredictable to plan for.

I agree about the more brightly lit scenes. However experimentation will be a large part of the learning curve. Actually looking forward to my failure/success ratio.

[tbob]

I agree with Dave.

These are great captures, but you can do a lot to pep them up. Take the third, for example. I like this best in terms of composition, but it seems a tad washed out. So (I hope you don't mind)

I never object to people playing with my images. Always learn from it. And one of the great things about CinC is drawing on others experience/vision in post processing.

I will revisit the image with your input in mind The second version is quite good.

[madcrow]

Trevor, like your images and Dan's edit.