Taken on a hiking trip with RianBotes to the Drakensberg in October.
Got up on a chily morning to get the sunrise, clambered along the escarpment for a few minutes to reach a nice vantage point and fired away. Rian offered to go and stand on an outcrop of rock and it certainly added to the shot (thanks Rian).
Editing was mostly manual blending of 4 images with luminosity masks and gradients. Some colour correction, cloning and spot removal, increase contrast, resize, sharpen (with prperold's amazing action and SFW.
I really like this shot. I know it can be improved upon so I will head back to this spot this year and get a better one!
Anticipated crits are:
- that the river / mountains bottom left are a bit cramped / chopped off (it was so hard to see thru the viewfinder on top of the mountain)
- the sun is not on the thirds intersection line (I need to head back to improve)
- sky is a bit uninteresting (no clouds that we were desperately hoping for)
All I can say is that I am simply amazed as to how well this is doing. Not stated above but I said to RianBotes that I guessed this would get about a 6.2 - so I am nearly a whole point higher than that at this stage. I'm stoked!
Post challenge:
Thanks to everyone for the great comments and fave's. Can't believe I came 2nd! What an honour amongst all these great shots accumulated over a whole year!
Interesting to see that the top 3 shots are all landscapes with a human element in it.
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 410 Avg (all users): 7.2653 Avg (commenters): 8.6944 Avg (participants): 7.2178 Avg (non-participants): 7.4884 Views since voting: 5788 Views during voting: 512 Votes: 245 Comments: 69 Favorites: 13 (view)
Hi Steve, saw the www.getaway.co.za today and was truly thrilled. The picture printed far better than on the monitor. Once again congratulations on a magnificent shot.
WOW! great picture. I wouldn't change a thing. Your "Anticipated crits": If there where any clouds in the sky it would have been too busy.IMO. I think the picture has more then enough things to look at. Congrats on the ribbon!
Oh yeah... and RianBotes makes this photo perfect. (Of course, it could be anyone that made it perfect, so don't get all excited that I'm in love with you Rian. *grin* )
I wasn't far off on predicting this as the winner! I had this sneaking feeling that the figure in the upper right may be Rianbotes and it turned out to be true! Big congratulations on this achievement!
Well done Stephen on your 1st red and indeed a whopping result to ribbon in the best of the best of DPC. (and "model/tutor/location scout" Rian take a bow). I look forward to more.
To comment on this feels like Im commenting on countless trips to the mountains, experiences, adventures, nerve wrecking moments, storms and memories...just to find myself without words... How do you describe it? Maybe the best way is to capture it in a image like you have done here. The silence and calmness portrayed here prompts enough emotions to relive everything at once. You have done a superb job of capturing the essence of what makes it all worth it. Photography has always been just an extension of going to the mountains but in this image maybe it's more than that. It WAS the hike and Im so glad you have a figure in it as well. It turns this into the ultimate tourist shot making everybody whish that they were part of the experience.
Thanks Steve
Specatular image....the man makes the image come alive. I don't think this would have been as powerful without that guy. I have voted about half of the enteries so far, and have given out two tens. You are the third ten. I really like this alot! (voted earlier, but stopping by to comment)
Ah ha, King of the mountains, at his ultimate best. What a scene and what a photograph, pp perfect not too much. I believe this is RianBotes's work or maybe it is him standing on top of the world? The Devil's Tooth gave it away. Of course a favourite and a 10. Good luck for Blue.
Spectacular. I'll be REALLY impressed if you set the timer and ran over there... :-) Seriously, though, love the inclusion of a human, and you gotta love the way the light falls.
OMW that's nice, a trip to the berg with a buddy? :)
Lovely exposure control, hill gradations and light. Mooi man.
Naturally the figure in silhouette adds a dimension and scale to the image.
Grandeur
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