This was the last shot of the evening (the same one as my purple entry). The hardest thing of the shot was pulling all my gear back out, finding shots to erase on my full card, and shooting. I was already walking back to my car when the fire caught my eye and the stars, my goodness, the stars...
The 5D had a bit to do with this as 800 ISO is easy to shoot with for noise. I have found the secret of shooting fire at night is to have the fire itself actually blocked so you can merely have reflection. The fire itself is too bright and blows out.
POST: I can't believe it. I thought 3rd at the best. Anyway, I promise the ride is over for now. I don't even have an entry for an upcoming challenge at the moment. Thanks to all who voted. Is heida's 5 ribbons in a row in sight? I highly doubt it! Is 3 blues in a row some sort of record? I have no idea, but I'll take it...
Processing:
Convert from RAW twice. Once for the purple sky, once for a more normal looking beach. Combined the two in PS. The smoothing of the night sky was done by a gaussian blur of the red and blue channel. Normal adjustment layers were used for some tweaking, USM was used to bring the stars out. Resize, border, bam.
Cloned out a volleyball net on the left in the background.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 615 Avg (all users): 7.3016 Avg (commenters): 8.3704 Avg (participants): 7.2414 Avg (non-participants): 7.5000 Views since voting: 22102 Views during voting: 322 Votes: 189 Comments: 80 Favorites: 68 (view)
Great photo Jason! Congrats on keeping Oregon's beauty before the eyes of the globe! Our Oregon State travel bureau should be offering you a job! Blessings to you on your blue!
Absolutely AMAZING shot! The way that you managed to capture the light from the fire, the blanket of stars, AND the glow from the horizon is spectacular. :D You have an understanding of light like few others... [note to self] Move to Cannon Beach [/note to self] ;)
Wow... this visit produced some stunning work... congrats on your ribbon(s)...
I pulled off a similar double entry with my shots for the Purple and XIII challenges....(both from the same location in Monterey) I didn't quite achieve your level of success... 4th and 22nd.. but I'm happy enough with that :-)
Jason, you truly are a star here at DPC. You are so creative and your work is so technically perfect as your ribbons indicate. But, in addition to this, you are so willing to share your techniques and to help others. I remember that not too long ago I asked a question about how something was done on one of your submittals, and I received your answer almost immediately. Congrats on this blue ribbon!
I am addressing this free study Blue Ribbon image with the also Blue Ribbon image in purple two. What a monumental achievement to score the coveted prizes with such flair. My deepest felt congratulations on the expertise you are displaying. It is nothing short of stunning. Added to this is the sheer beauty of your captures. You are raising the bar higher and higher.
Yes, Jason, you are a rising star gushing upwards like hot larva to find your rightful place amongst the top photographers at DPC. Talent like yours is always admired.
In the purple challenge you bring us your magic of outstanding tonal and color beauty and in the free study you outdo yourself with a most interesting and captivating image with campers being showered by scintillating stars. Again: a monumental achievement.
Nice going dude, really dig this shot, would have given it a 10 if I had voted in this challenge and the best shot I have seen from you so far, went straight to my faves. Keep it up!
Congratulations once again, Jason... you've had a great run of artistic inspiration lately. You understand well how to connect with viewers, particularly through your use of color and attention to detail. What will you do for an encore?
The stars are breath taking, well worth all the trouble!
Don't you feel a bit bad about winning week after week after week...If we didnt love your work soo much, you wouldn't be winning.
Just do me a favour and stop raising the damn bar so high would ya!!??
What a beautiful sky with all those stars. I would like to see more of the horizon on the right, as the pink colors of the sunset must have been spectacular. The rock formation might be better off-center to the left, IMO.
Cannon Beach...that leaves only a select few photographers that could have taken this image. Wonderful image by the way, great exposure. I tried to get this shot just this past weekend, but had a hard time getting the exposure correct (probably because I wasn't thinking clearly). Great border...it is thin enought not to distract the viewer, but also adds enough finishing touch to make this really professional. Great Job.
This is simply gorgeous. The colors in the sky are fantastic and I love the little group on the beach...really adds to the overall atmosphere of the photo.
Great capture. I'd really like to know the tech details of the image, as well as how much processing was done. The amount of stars captured and lack of significant star trailing is fantastic.
Nicely done!! Perfect lighting on the people, surroundings, and sky. Great composition - the people with their campfire make this shot more interesting - they also give a greater sense of how expansive the sky is - perfect for how you chose to title the image. I love the colors of the sky, too. Wonderful photo all around - 10
A thing of beauty. Gorgeous color and of course the campfire circle (as well as the wonderful colors) really sets this apart from other landscape shots so far. I might have cloned out the headlights (or maybe it's another fire) on the beach to the left of the rocks. A wee bit distracting (but only the teensiest wee! :) 8.
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Back to bump to 9 - one of my top two picks. Good luck (as if you'll need it! :)
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