After shooting for the Nature Abstract challenge, I kept walking on the trail and found this scene. I had to wait for the sun to get into position, and then the clouds were extremely cooperative! After another minute or two, the clouds had moved on. This elevation is around 12,000 feet above sea level and the clouds do not stay stable for long around these high mountains. I used a flash to fill in light for the tree, that's how I was able to get so much detail on the trunk.
Leica M9
Leica 21mm f/1.4 Summilux-M lens
Metz 58 AF-2 flash
LR4.1 and CS5 along with SEP2 for B&W conversion and CEP4 to add detail and contrast. Most of the detail work was in LR4.1.
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Place: 11 out of 243 Avg (all users): 6.7477 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 6.6479 Avg (non-participants): 6.9250 Views since voting: 1191 Views during voting: 208 Votes: 111 Comments: 14 Favorites: 2 (view)
Only looked through the thumbnails so far and this one caught my eye - I like landscapes so its not surprising but there is something special about this shot.
The composition is really nice and the blending of shots to increase the dynamic range has been expertly done. I doubt Photomatix was used - hope I'm not wrong, it looks more "natural" although it obviously is not. I can see a small halo along the top of the horison where land meets sky but its really insignificant compared to the beauty you have captured here.
Overall a superb job and I hope to see it on the front page!
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