Firstly thanks to RianBotes for taking me on another great hike to the Drakensberg Mountains (South Africa)! Same mountain range as my shot that came 2nd in the Best of 2011 challenge except this time we hiked a bit further South in an area known as Mnweni. This time we went with another photographer (Carl Jason) so we spoke pretty much 100% photography for nearly 4 days :-)
We hiked up the Mnweni pass over 2 days and stayed in a cave near the Rockeries pass. Before sunrise we ran around like little kids in a candy store trying to get a good comp guessing exactly where the sun would rise whilst trying to keep warm on a "pretty cold" morning with a strong breeze picking up.
As the sun rose we all fired off bracketed shots from our chosen spots, moved around a bit, more shots, look around to see what's happening in other directions and so on and so forth. After a while we saw some Vultures gliding around a nearby peak and Rian got out his 70-200 and got a shot he has been trying to get for ages (also entered in the FS). Well done Rian for getting the sentimental AND chosing to submit that rather than a gorgeous sunrise shot he also captured that morning.
This image is a manual blend of 4 photos. 2 for the sky (a main one and one to recover some of the highlights) and 2 for the land (a main one for about 90% of the land and another to darken the mountain range just below the horizon). Luminosity masks and gradients were mainly used for the blending. A little bit of dodging and burning. Clone out some lens flare, Tony Kuiper's Triple Play, resize with prperold's sharpening and resizing action with some added difuse glow.
I was hoping for a nice 6+ score but with it currently at 7.1 I am truly amazed!... I guess Rian is right- he keeps saying you can't take a bad picture in the mountains :-)
Thanks to Rian for getting this shot of me to show cold it was that morning. 2 jackets and a beanie with long pants... Not sure if he wants me to let everyone know but he only had shots and one windreaker on! Madness I tell you!
Post challenge:
Thanks to everyone for the nice score and great comments.
I don't often show the originals but for those of you that are interested - these were the two main shots used. Converted from RAW, resized with a small amount of sharpening:
Statistics
Place: 4 out of 279 Avg (all users): 6.9926 Avg (commenters): 8.9000 Avg (participants): 6.9457 Avg (non-participants): 7.0909 Views since voting: 3476 Views during voting: 231 Votes: 136 Comments: 22 Favorites: 9 (view)
Holy Lord of the Rings, Batman! (Yeah I know half a world away, but still)...amazingly gorgeous shot, small wonder it got an HM. Amazing light, composition, dof, pov, incredible otherworldly landscape AND sunrise...how the h?@! am I supposed to pick that to pieces?! Love the flow from the right fg to the mid-ground and back to that lovely sunset...
edit to add: You didn't appear to have any problems with haze and the associated lack of contrast in the mid to distant hills as I did in my recent trip to New Zealand. Was there any haze or did you overcome it in post processing? It would be interesting to see one of the original images.
What an Image. Love this and going through the voting and then with this suddenly popping up it really grabs your attention. Yes I am biased towads landscapes but there is no beating perspectives like this. Great work
Now where in the world is this? Reminds me of the Valley of Desolation but I don't think it is there though. Could be the Drakensberg then this is either Rian or Silent Shooter. Any case, lovely picture.
Absolutely amazing colors! LOVE the sky/clouds in this shot. Great capture of the landscape as well. This is one of my favorite landscape shots to date! 10
For some reason I don't hear angles singing in chorus. Sound card must be busted. A rather glorious and heavenly image. Wonderful detail, nice use of foreground, stunning scenery. All exposed and presented perfectly. Well done.
Just quickly glancing at the entries and moving on, however, I had to back up to take a better look at this. Magnificent dof, detail and scene. (voting later)
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