Janicephotog

DSC06105

SONY SLT-A33

settings

Aperture f/16 ISO 100 Shutter 1/60 Focal Length 500/10

upload_date

Aug, 2015

Views

107

Likes

Awards

Winner in Connecting to Nature Photo Challenge

Superb Composition

Top Ranks

Top 30 rank

Top 10 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at our campsite near Lake Dillon, Colorado. I bring my camera with me EVERYWHERE (even the grocery store) and am always looking for ways to make good photos great by adding a human element.

Time

Early morning in the mountains at high altitudes provides some interesting lighting and shadows. The shadows always seem to creep down the mountains, revealing myriad shades of greens, purples, browns, grays, and even whites. It's a moment that just shouldn't be missed!

Lighting

Summer days at high altitude generally have very harsh light. You need to rise early and stay up late to get the softer glows we all love. That being said, deep shadows can capitalized on from time to time, such as the shadows across the mountains in the background and on the tent. In this case, the give the scenery and the foreground some depth.

Equipment

I used a Sony A33 with a 35mm lens. That's it.

Inspiration

I had been staring at the landscape behind our campsite for a day and a half, taken a dozen pictures of it, and was about to give up when I noticed that the colors of the tent worked well with some of the accent colors of the background, most notably the rust of the dead pines and the grays of the bare rock on the mountain tops. I love adding human elements to landscape photos, so I snapped about 3 frames with the tent in the foreground and was finally satisfied with the results.

Editing

I usually do very little in post-processing. In this photo, I bumped up the contrast, vibrance and saturation just a touch.

In my camera bag

May bag always contains my camera (of course!), my 50mm portrait lens, a 35mm lens, and a 75-300 lens. Other than that I always have lens cleaning cloths, some business cards and gum. I like to keep it simple and light while still being prepared.

Feedback

Landscape photos can be spectacular on their own, but I feel that they are truly great if there is something to connect the viewer to what the photographer was actually seeing. As photographers it can be a real challenge to cram a 360 degree, 3 dimensional view into a small, 2 dimensional square. One of the easiest ways to do this is to include something of interest to draw the viewers eye in and then keep it there. In this case it was our tent, but it can be something as simple as a pop of color, a person, an animal, or even a car. Look for ways to find that element that seems to tie the whole scene together and tell a story.

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Janicephotog

Janicephotog

DSC06105

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Janicephotog

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