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Sunset at Lands End – Ellingson Island, North Shore of Lake Superior, MN

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, North Shore, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, Wide Angle Photography  No Responses »
Dec 272011
 

Sunset at Lands End • Ellingson Island, North Shore of Lake Superior, MN

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image is just an interlude. A brief and still moment in time where day and night begin to overlap. At the moment it is a metaphor that represents my current situation. Right now, at the mid-point of the holidays I seem to exist in the transitional spaces of time. I have taken down my website, for good or bad, and am in the throws of rebuilding the site under a new architecture with WordPress. I have been thinking about this for some time and finally pulled the plug. Had I been on my game I would have built the new site early and made a smooth transition to the new one. But alas I simply procrastinated, unsure of where I wanted to take the whole thing. But it is coming together and I think I will be ready to relaunch in about a month. And there is more photography to come as well. I have two early trips planned in January to Death Valley with my buds Alec Johnson and Travis Bechtel and another trip at the end of the month to the Grand Canyon that will include a trip to Canyon X and a day of shooting with Tony Kuyper. So good things are going on.

In the meantime please enjoy today’s peaceful moment from Lake Superior. The image was made at sunset on Ellingson Island at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. I shot this during the North Shore of Lake Superior Workshop I assisted on with Alec Johnson. This was one of the last shoots of the workshop and was a beautiful and fitting end to a great time with a fabulous group of people.

This will be a the last post for about a week or so. I will return from Death Valley next week and I hope to bring you a lot of new images and adventures from the trip.

As always thanks for stopping by and supporting this blog.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls No. 5-Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Black and White, HDR Photography, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photoshop Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters  No Responses »
Sep 252011
 

Glen Avon Falls No. 5, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 28-70mm lens at 35mm. See article for exposure details.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am continuing to pour through images from the Lake Superior Workshop and keep finding hidden gems in some of my second tier selects. And though I know some of you may be getting tired of waterfalls I had to post this new image I processed over the weekend (But here is warning. I have some neat shots of two waterfalls from Crater Lake but I promise to hold off on those for at least a few posts). In any event today’s image was not included in my first edits for processing. One reason for this was it was a single capture scouting shot. At the time I must not have liked something in the composition and did not make a complete bracketed set. But on a second pass the shot really jumped at out at me. Which brings up the idea of karmic capture. During scout shots I will often make many captures in a row, often in an unconscious way, looking for compositional interest. At the time I obviously saw something in this collection of rocks and water to interest me but maybe not enough to stop and fully explore the options. But karma and serendipity often work together especially in this image.

I talk a great deal in my posts about the concept of leading lines and I don’t think it will take much description for you to see these in the photograph. But there is also shape repetition, shape intersections, and strong diagonal movement coupled with a way for the viewer to enter the image and move around. There is also some interesting “rule of third” stuff going on here but this gets so beaten to death that I won’t go into it. The point I am trying to make here is that for me, while I am in this self-critique moment, this image works on so many levels. It has a beautiful line of movement and simple forms but also strong, complex compositional elements as well. I also shot it straight into the sun which makes for very dramatic light. But that dramatic light comes at a price, namely a contrast range that is difficult for the camera sensor to deal with.

Technical Details: Even though I was in a scout shot mode I was still on tripod with the camera. Most of the time I will shoot scout images off tripod but I had just finished a bracket off to my left and simply turned the camera right and aimed into the sun. I still had on my 4-Stop Sign-Ray Neutral Density filter (to increase exposure time for water motion). I made one exposure at f22 for 1/4 of a second. I stopped down to f22 to create the starburst effect with the sun. I was in Evaluative Metering Mode with a WB of 5500K. Before the shot I added +1 Exposure Compensation using the button on the Nikon.  This gave me the needed exposure to capture shadow details. I made the shot and moved on. Why I did not shoot a bracket is anyone’s guess. But the histogram was nicely placed with only clipping within the sky and sun which was to be expected. To process the shot I made two RAW conversions; one for the 3/4 to mid-tone values and a second to recover details in the trees above the river. So basically a “light” and a “dark” file that I blended in Photoshop. After merging the two files I used a series of Multiply Blend and Lighten Blend modes along with curves to finish the image.

Thanks for stopping by today. I promise to have a “non” waterfall shot next time. In fact the next one will be other-wordly.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls No 4, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Black and White, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, Photography Trips, River, Robert H Clark Photography, Sony α900, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Sep 232011
 

Glen Avon Falls, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 42mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1/3 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Here is another image from my Glen Avon Falls shoot on the Beaver River. On my other posts the images show the real power in the falls as a fast moving flow is cutting through a channel of granite. I love the power in those shots but the falls also contain smaller and more intimate vignettes that show a different side to the river. I passed this image over in my first cut and on a second look decided to give it chance to come to life. Aside from the trees along the banks and the water of the river Glen Avon is nearly monochromatic. The dark rock seems to swallow all the color and light. To this extent removing all the color and processing as a black and white makes the image, in my mind, more cohesive. The conversion simplifies the shot and reduces everything to lights and darks which in turn helps give emphasis to the forms. Like many of my images this one has a strong series of leading lines and anchor points that frame the main subject.

I did the black and white conversion in Lightroom and exported the file out to Photoshop for the final work. Oddly this was a scout shot only and I only took one exposure. Fortunately I pushed the histogram to the right and was able to recover a lot of highlight detail. To further aid the shot density I created a Multiply Blend Layer in PS. I needed this density increase in the upper regions of the file. I reduced the opacity of the layer to 80% and painted in where I needed the density increase. I also used several curves adjustments and a dodge and burn layer. I am glad I gave this one a second look.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Superior Sunset – Silver Bay, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Adobe Lightroom, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, North Shore, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photography Workshops, Reflections, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Zeiss Lenses  2 Responses »
Sep 202011
 

Superior Sunset, Silver Bay, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 2 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Well folks just file this image under the heading of “insane”. I can’t remember when I have seen a sunset this incredible. I made this image two days before our Lake Superior Workshop while Alec and I were out scouting the locations. We had driven up from Minneapolis in a driving rainstorm that did not give any appearance of breaking up for the evening. I was just a little bit jet lagged and tired from my early travel and so resigned myself to an evening of rest. Oh me of little faith. By the time we had finish lunch in Duluth and began the final leg along the north shore the rain broke and we could see the beginning of possibilities.

By the time we got to Silver Bay in the late afternoon the clouds began to break up to reveal small patches of blue. As the light began to change the clouds looked like giant puffs of cotton candy as the wind carried them out over the Lake. No matter where you looked, up or down the shoreline, it was amazing. When the color came the clouds exploded, airbrushed in hues of yellow, red, orange, and magenta. The shoreline absorbed the colors and the atmosphere glowed with light. On my first visit to Lake Superior I had been given an ethereal gift. What a way to start the week.

Technical Details: The image was shot with my Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. The relative brightness in terms of stops of light was nearly the same for the lake and the upper part of the clouds but brighter along the horizon. In order to hold this correctly I used a 4-Stop Singh-Ray, Daryl Benson, Reverse Split Neutral Density Filter. This is a secret weapon that I use quite often and it is tailor-made for these light conditions. The filter is made with a darker strip on the bottom portion of the resin which fades up towards the top. It is specifically designed to hold back lighter horizon lines which can be a few stops brighter than the sky above or even the foreground. In my mind it is a must have for the filter kit. I would not leave home without it. The RAW file was processed in Light room and finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls and Trees – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Minnesota, North Shore, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Sep 172011
 

Glen Avon Falls and Trees, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 50mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f8 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am returning to an image I made on the Beaver River on the North Shore of Lake Superior. During editing I passed over this image and jumped on the more dramatic waterfall shots I took. But on a second take I think this may be the more successful image I took. On my first scout trip I picked out this grouping of trees almost immediately. The wonderful way the trunks twisted and rolled at their roots seemed to emulate the fast moving water rushing by.

Photographed in the early evening the shot required a long exposure to capture detail in the deeper part of the woods and at the same time to capture the water motion. There were not a lot of specular highlights to contend with so I did not use a polarizer. Instead I employed two of my favorite Singh-Ray Filters; a 2-stop, Soft Edge Split Neutral Density to cover the water, and a Singh-Ray 4-stop Neutral Density to add exposure time. The RAW file was processed in Lightroom and then finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls No. 2 – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Black and White, High Dynamic Range, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Technique, Photography Tools, Photography Trips, Photomatix HDR, Photoshop Technique, Photoshop Workflow, River, Water, Waterfalls, Wide Angle Photography  6 Responses »
Sep 102011
 

Glen Avon Falls, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 17mm. See story for capture details.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am returning to Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River. This is the companion shot to the composition I posted on August 22 and was taken the following morning from the top of the rock chute and just below the upper falls. On this day a light morning mist filled the river below the lower part of the falls and diffused the sunlight rising just behind the large rock on the left. I want to talk about this image in regards to some recent discussions I have heard concerning HDR photography. So if you don’t want to hear me get on my soap box then please stop reading here.

As a former 4 x 5 shooter I used to compose my shots and expose for one take. I had to use whatever means necessary ranging from composition to use of filters to get the shot in one take. Even today, as I have professed in this blog, I am still kind of a one shot guy. Get it right in camera can save hours of time in post production. But I have found that digital offers me a far greater opportunity to “craft” a shot that quite honestly would be nigh on impossible to do in one take. The above image is a prime example. I am shooting almost into the sun with a misty, shrouded fog, dark rocks, and rolling water. In terms of exposure I could get close but not where I needed to be to hold detail in the rocks, water and the mist. The solution is to expose for each and combine the files. My argument is that this shot is an example of HDR-high dynamic range photography. I am extending the capture range of the shot, which could not be covered by the sensor, through multiple exposure brackets.

HDR photography in its broadest terms is generally exhibited through what I might refer to as “wacked-out, over-processed, haloed, grunge” shots where multiple exposures are cooked in an HDR software. If it sounds like I don’t like this style then the answer is yes. I do enjoy looking at those that are well crafted but for the most part much of what I see is akin to velvet paintings. And before anyone jumps on me for that statement please understand that I do not begrudge anyone their art or practice thereof. If it makes you happy then I am all for it. There is plenty of room at the table for all of us to share what we do and love.

But the recent argument I heard, and I won’t say where to protect the innocent, suggested that the concepts behind HDR are not legitimate, partly because it is associated with the over-cooked look” or the “I did not capture it in one take argument” is puzzling to me. Is the fact that I shot and combined three exposures to craft the above image mean it is not a legitimate photograph? In my honest opinion it is legit. This photograph is not over-cooked, or wacked-out through over processing in an HDR program. It is true to my vision for this image and represents what I saw and experienced that morning. It is in fact a high dynamic range shot crafted through multiple exposures. HDR software such as Photomatix, Oloneo, and even Photoshop HDR are excellent programs to help you extend the dynamic range of a shot. All of them allow you, the photographer, to make processing decisions based on your perceived vision of the image. Wack it out if you want or keep it natural. Its your decision. The Glen Avon shot I posted on August 22 was processed in Photomatix. That shot, processed in Photomatix’s Fusion engine, is not over-cooked, in my opinion, but rendered in a natural look to create an image based on my vision. Today’s image was created through layer blends in Photoshop. Both images have a similar look but were achieved using different tools from my toolbox.

The argument that goes along with this that I, or anyone else who shoots in this way, and does not get it right in camera, is either lazy or not skilled just floors me. This might be true for a percentage of shooters but I just don’t think it holds water. If I was lazy and not skilled I would take one shot in .jpg, let the camera make the decisions, and move on. The image above took planning. It was scouted and included test shots for compositional decisions. Then on the day of the shot I had to deal with the light, the water, compose the final composition, think about the foreground, the corners, how I envisioned the final image, processing decisions, color or black and white, and the list can go on. It is the same for all of the other skilled photographers I know who use these techniques. HDR capture and processing is but one tool in our kit. I don’t shoot everything this way but its there when I need it for difficult situations. But to say it is not legitimate because it was not captured in one take or is practiced by lazy, un-skilled photographers is just bunk. I will now stand down from my soapbox.

Technical Details: Three images were combined to make the final shot. Exposures were at 1/4, 1/2, and 1 second. The RAW files were processed in Lightroom and moved to Photoshop where I used layer masks to paint in the parts of the shot I wanted. Once I had the file components to my general satisfaction I made the conversion to black and white. Just so you know I envisioned the shot at capture as a black and white. From there it followed a typical path with curve layers for various parts of the image, dodging and burning, and a mid-tone contrast layer.

Walk in beauty.

Bob

 

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Reflections – Ellingson Island, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Lake Superior

 Adobe Lightroom, Heliopan Filters, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Minnesota, Moab Masters, North Shore of Lake Superior, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Water, Zeiss Lenses  2 Responses »
Aug 252011
 

Reflections, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am off on Saturday for a weeklong trip to Crater Lake National Park. I have a good bit of work there next week but suspect I will get in some shooting time. In the meantime, and until I return, here is a new image from my recent venture on the North Shore of Lake Superior. On Sunday evening before the start of the workshop I did a brief scouting trip down to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. It was a beautiful and very calm evening. Lake Superior was glass like, without ripples and the color of lake and sky seemed to merge with only a thin line along the horizon separating the two. The overhead band of clouds were almost perfectly mirrored in the calm waters. Out from the shoreline, Ellingson Island appeared to suspend between water and sky, connected to earth by the thinnest tendril of stone. I was enveloped by stillness. The lake barely lapped at the shore and for a brief moment time simply stopped.

Technical Details: Though the clouds were perfectly reflected in the water I could not get a good single capture. So the final image is a composite of two images, one exposed to capture the clouds in the sky and the other to capture the clouds in the water. In each case I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer and a Singh-Ray “sandwich” consisting of a 4-Stop Neutral Density and a 2-Stop Soft Edge Split Neutral Density Filter. The two RAW files were processed and combined in Photoshop. The 4-Stop Neutral allowed me to increase the exposure to gain some movement in the clouds and smooth out the water.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will see you back here in about a week.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photomatix HDR, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, Waterfalls, Wide Angle Photography  2 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

Glen Avon Waterfall, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 15mm Rectilinear Lens. See the post for technical details on the shot capture.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am preparing once again to leave town for another trip, this time out to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. After this one I will be able to stay home for a while and rest a bit. So in this brief respite between trips I am getting the cameras ready, cleaning sensors, lenses, and other packing chores. And of course I am trying to process out a few more images from the Lake Superior shoot. Today’s post may be my last until I return so I thought I would show you one I am very proud of.

For me this image represents the constant struggle we face when trying to craft an image. This is a shot of the upper falls on Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River which empties into Lake Superior. I made two scouting trips to the falls and came away simply befuddled. I just could not get a handle on a worth while shot. The problem I faced is common and many of our workshop participants faced the same dilemma. Glen Avon is not what I might call a singular waterfall. It is instead made up of many cascades rolling through different levels. The problem was one of isolating the shot to achieve a uniform and cohesive composition. Alec and I scouted the falls before the workshop and I knew right away it was going to be a challenge.

When we brought out the workshop folks for the scouting session I once again just struggled to understand the place. When scouting waterfalls it is generally best to start at the bottom and work your way up. It is often difficult to see the cascades and features when approaching from the top. So for most the afternoon I mingled in with our students and made my way down stream. Again not much was revealed to me that gave me a meaningful composition to capture. We would all return that evening for the “formal” shoot and I was resigned to leaving the camera in the bag.

On the way out after the scouting exercise I finally saw what I was looking for. Or that is to say what I had missed. Making my way along the edge I came back to a long rocky chute that connected the upper falls with the lower. This was the isolation of forms I was looking for. The shot angle possessed a strong diagonal leading line and prominent foreground features that jutted into the scene providing a beautiful counter-balance to the strong line of flowing water. I saw the shot in my mind as late evening and in black and white. When we returned for the evening shoot I studied the angles once again from the top and bottom of the chute. The bottom was the best for the evening and the top position would actually be good for a morning shot. Around 8:30 pm  I began to frame up the shot. I positioned myself, rather precariously, on a slippery ledge of rock, and put my tripod into a series of contortions to get the right camera angle. To get it all I had to shoot ultra wide with the 15mm rectilinear lens. I shot two test exposures to get a lock on the histogram and then made three sets of three exposure brackets, each bracket two stops apart, to merge in Photomatix. I shot the three sets in order to make sure I had the flowing water captured in a form I liked.

Technical Processing: The RAW files were brought into Adobe Lightroom and I choose the three image brackets that gave me a consistent look to the water flow that could be merged. Each exposure was approximately two stops apart and included a dark file at 8 seconds, a midtone at 30 seconds, and a lights at 2:00 minutes. Each file was processed and corrected in Lightroom and saved out as TIFFs for Photomatix. After import I processed the file twice-once in Exposure Fusion and once in Photomatix Tone Mapping. This was simply to compare the files and see which one I like better. In the end I went with the Tone Mapped version and let Photomatix convert to black and white. The final Photoshop work included some minor curves adjustments for the falls and dodging and burning layers.

The final image is born from the struggle that exists for all photographers. We can all point a camera at something and press the shutter. But the crafting of a memorable image takes time, patience, vision, and a little help from the muses. Sometimes our vision is clouded and what we seek will only be revealed by letting go. Easier said than done I can assure you. But working through this is, and always will be, part of the process. Basically some days are diamonds and some days are rust. Enjoy and embrace the struggle for inside lies the genesis of something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Lake Superior Twilight – Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Minnesota

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lee Big Stopper, Minnesota, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Composition, Photography Trips, Photography Workshops, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, Twilight Photography  2 Responses »
Aug 212011
 

Lake Superior Twilight, Ellingson Island, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Minnesota. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens set at 19mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 2:00 minutes.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s photograph is another image from the Lake Superior Workshop taken along the shoreline of Ellingson Island in Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Lake Superior was pretty calm on this day and a few clouds were drifting by towards sunset. Low clouds along the horizon just off to camera left were blocking most of the late sunlight giving a slight blue cast to the overall scene. I have always loved the notion of edges and constantly explore this idea in my images. Edges abound in the natural landscape-light and shadow, earth and sky, earth and water-and it is at the meeting of these edges that photography can be interesting. In this image shoreline rocks give way to the lake environment. Boldly the shoreline reaches its fingers into the cold waters as lapping water rolls over submerged rock barriers revealing a thin defining edge. Beyond this Lake Superior stretches out almost 300 miles and disappears into a horizon of blue sky and clouds.

Technical Details: The clouds were blowing in towards me and with a little filter trickery I could impart a dynamic sense of motion to complement the angles along the shoreline. The camera was set to Matrix Evaluative Metering and manual focus. The white balance was set to 6000K. I used two filters during the capture – a Singh-Ray 4-Stop, Soft Edge Split Neutral Density and a Lee Big Stopper. The Lee Big Stopper is a 10-Stop Neutral Density filter that, as its name suggests, will hold back 10 stops of light. In practice however the filter stops are not precise and it is a good idea to test this in order to get a good exposure. In my case the filter is right on 9-2/3 stops so its close enough. In any event the addition of almost 10 stops affords very long exposures which can impart a sense of motion to the clouds and soften water into a smooth, ice-like surface. The filter will impart a blue cast to the file which can be corrected in post processing. Generally I will preset my white balance up to about 6000K for some compensation but for the most part make corrections in RAW processing.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Silver Bay – North Shore of Lake Superior, Minnesota

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset  2 Responses »
Aug 202011
 

The Golden Boulder, Silver Bay, North Shore of Lake Superior. Image shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm at 17mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 1/2 of a second. The white balance was 5500K.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am in between trips at the moment and have managed to carve out a little time to take a look at some of the images I shot from Lake Superior. Everyone had a great time at the workshop and all the participants took some amazing photographs. During a few scouting trips I managed to get in a little shooting. This shot was taken at a location called Silver Bay. It is a rocky, shoreline that runs almost north to south and affords the opportunity to shoot at sunrise and sunset. there are several small rocky islands out in the lake that make for great backdrops against the shoreline.

On a previous, early morning scouting trip I became fascinated with this orange, lichen-covered boulder. I could only imagine the forces necessary either by glacier or storms that could move this rock. Its orange color was due in some part to geology as well as a generous coating of orange lichen. The boulder stood out in stark contrast to the darker shoreline rocks. Given the sun angles I knew this would be a great shot for late afternoon and sunset. As you can see the light did not disappoint and the boulder lit up in the late evening light. A beautiful band of low-slung clouds moved in from the east and the composition was complete.

I have always enjoyed the many contrasts that nature provides. In fact these are the types of compositions I am drawn to shooting. In this case the huge boulder is so out of place and yet it is not. It represents contrast in the landscape by virtue of its color and seemingly random placement along the shoreline. Compositionally I used the boulder as “mid-foreground” element and a framing device for the distant island. There are some interesting repetitive patterns in this shot as well as the beautiful gold and blue color combination.

Technical Details: The image was shot with a Singh-Ray 3-Stop Hard Edge Split Neutral Density Filter dropped in to a line just above the far island. The camera was set to Matrix-Evaluative Metering Mode with a White Balance of 5500K. Focusing was done manually with the hyper-focus point approximately 2 feet into the composition. This image was shot very wide with a 15mm Rectilinear Lens and did not require a great deal of focusing. At this wide angle the shot was almost in perfect focus anyway. I did some lens correction in Photoshop though to even up any curvature in the horizon. The RAW file was processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Adobe Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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