[img]C:\Users\Rian\Pictures\ test final[/img][The Drakensberg
Taken in Drakensburg, South Africa. It often get’s referred to as a dragon…(hence Dragons Wrath title) the whole range in Natal province section stretching about 250 km. The range actually stretches through almost all of South Africa but with the highest and most prominent peaks being in Natal.
We were really blessed with good weather. This picture was taken right at the edge of the escarpment +- 12000ft at this point with a drop of about 3000 feet down. It is also situated close to the Tugela falls – (some 900meters high falls)
The storm initially moved towards us and I packed up to take cover in the tent. Surprisingly it turned away from us after gale force winds turned and the weather turned North. Anybody who knows the Berg can relate to the serious thunderstorms and its no joke to be caught in them.
With the weather now turning away I went back with camera and lens. Taking pictures I realised I did not have my ND set with me which for this shot was important as the sky gets blown away and all possible visible bolts with it if I wanted more detail in the valleys below. Ran back to the tent and got it and now thankful I did make the effort. (Had a long day getting to top with my sons as well and being patient with them, but they were stars)
From there it was playing lady luck. The really difficult part was to get filter, F stop combination right with the lightning always changing in intensity. I had to sacrifice dept with my aperture for to close down even more, together with the filters on meant that lightning became to faint to even be of bother. Some bolts have really helped as they would strike and strike again for up to a second long.
Although I had other shots with more bolts in them I preferred this one
Post processing was short and simple. I’m still learning the ropes in this and am a complete cluts when it comes to this part of the Photography and whish I had the skills of some people on this site.
Levels, Contrast, Levelling of horizon which I thought was straight but was not. Little saturation and noise reduction and sharpening. (in downsizing I did sharpen it to much which was kindly pointed out by Paul… a bad habit I have and I slipped up on that again.)
I also did some selective levels on lower half of the scene to get more detail in the landscape. No HDR.
When my wife said check the place…it took some time to register. I am really very thankful for this.
Thanks to all who voted and commented.
With people asking what the original looked like, I have posted not the same one but one with more strikes but have not edited it. basically this is what it looked like before PP. Hope it helps for those who asked.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 334 Avg (all users): 7.6339 Avg (commenters): 9.0345 Avg (participants): 7.5750 Avg (non-participants): 7.7460 Views since voting: 11895 Views during voting: 383 Votes: 183 Comments: 92 Favorites: 106 (view)
I know I already posted a comment, so I should just edit that... but you won't get a notice if I do, so you probably won't see the edit. Could you post the original so we can see the effect of the post processing? I'm not doubting the quality of the original or assuming you exaggerated with post processing, I'm just curious as I'm not too good with Photoshop either.
Congrats on you PB and blue ribbon... We had a roadtrip from Umhlanga to Bloemfontein on Friday and it took us more than 12 hours due to all the photo opportunities. Fantastic work!
Thank you all for the very kind comments. I really appreciate and all credit goes to my patient wife who allows me to go on hikes. Soon she would have to join me however once my youngest of 4 are able to join in and carry his own backpack. Not long to go. Untill then my 7 and 10 year olds are doing an amazing job at rugging it out in nature and loving it as much as dad. My own dad at 69 I have new respect for since he did make this trip with us..as he has done so on countless of other occasions. He always puts up with my bad cooking and makes the food disappear somewhere over a cliff...(yes I know dad) Eating does not feature to highly on the priority list.
Thanks once again to all. Best whishes for a great 2010. Soccer world cup in SA...what a year we are looking forward to.
Botes family.
Oh, YES! A fabulous choice for 1st place. Congratulations on so many levels. There just are no superlatives that express how wonderful this photo is! It should be a National Geographic feature!
I think what draws me so much to this image is not the lighting, but the clarity of stone along with the colour of the dramatic landscape with the hovering clouds far above.
This is the very first picture in the challenge cue. This would be a terrific shot even without the lightning bolt. Looks like an HDR image. I look forward to reading how you put this shot together. Good luck, 10 from me. I don't see how it can get better than this.
They don't get much better than this... Absolutely amazing photo. The depth, breadth, and overwhelming emotion this scene evokes are all incredible. Can't wait to find out what your shutter speed was (and all of the processing & other technical data). Stunning shot.
This looks spectacular, it almost looks too good to be true are you sure your PhotoShop skills have not been working overtime :-) i'm sure they haven't and this is a solid 10
Dragon's Wrath
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