I had planned on sleeping in but the internal body clock went off around 4:15 am. Tossed and turned then decided to grab the camera and see what the morning sunrise would offer. The nature areas within the city provide some wonderful opportunities for quiet and wonder as the day begins. I headed for the Cattail Chorus Ponds as it’s been a while since visiting the area. A smile came across my face as a meadowlark greeted me when I stepped out of the car. As I walked to the ponds I could feel my pants getting wet from the morning dew. The last time I was out there was about four years ago so there was a lot more growth along the banks than expected. Never the less, I found a rock to sit on along the bank and take it all in. I waited and I smiled.
This is an HDR experiment. The image was taken with my D300 and a Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 lens. The metered exposure was at 17 mm f16 @ 1/60. It is a series of nine (9) images exposed at 1 stop, then processed in HDR Efex Pro. I chose Full Scene Compression preset and lowered the tone compression then adjusted exposure and contrast/tone in Lightroom. I would like you to let me know what you like and don’t like about the image.
12 Comments
Steve Skinner
The clouds just seem to be floating on the surface of the pond!
Monte Stevens
Yes, sort of eerily. Thanks, Steve.
ken bello
I really like the clouds and the glassy look of the water. The HDR looks very natural and not overdone. Nice job!
Monte Stevens
The HDR process brought just enough details in the shadows to suit me. And the reflection was the real draw. I have a couple of other images taken just before sunrise with some nice soft pink that I will post later. Glad you liked it.
Earl
Monte, a real stunner here…very nice work indeed! 🙂
It doesn’t look HDR…which is a good thing.
Monte Stevens
I’m glad it looks good to you. Reality is what I strive to attain. The use of HDR is much easier for me than dealing with filters and offers so much more. I’m not sure what a print would look like or if this is real. Thanks Earl!!
Mark
Very nice Monte. I agree with the others, very natural looking. Very nice reflection and the scene overall looks very balanced. If there is anything I might be tempted to fiddle with it might be lightening the dark “half circles” areas on either side of the center foreground rock. But things like this I often start tinkering with and just go back to what I originally had anyway. 🙂
Monte Stevens
One interesting and wonderful part of commenting is the information we receive. I really never saw the dark areas but you are right. I will go back and see if I can do anything with them. I’m also curious to see if it was something HDR Efex created or the original files are that way. Thanks, Mark!
Dave Showalter
Well done, Monte. I like where you placed the rocks in the foreground and love the feel of cottonball clouds reflected.
Monte Stevens
Thanks, Dave. I only wish I had a wider lens for this image. Again, thanks for stopping by.
Paul
Well, this came out quite nicely, Monte! I assume that you had a tripod with you or some other sturdy surface given your 9 exposures! Or, maybe you are just rock solid! 😀
Monte Stevens
Most of my landscapes are done with a tripod. I’ve a custom setup and bank setup for tripod mode for these type of images. No way I could hold it rock solid. I’m really not pleased with this image. I may have to go back and work on it some more, even try working on just one of the images.