American baseball great Yogi Berra once said (when giving directions to his house, See JSA2593's comments below), "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." So when I saw this view, I did! No HDR. And I did not touch the saturation slider. Minimal post-processing.
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
The 1200 pixel version is definitely worth a look!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/343123335...
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mk II
Canon 17-40L @23
0.6-second exposure @F14
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.75
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
ISO 200
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
This is the view on the hill behind my house. I am always on the lookout for a spectacular sunrise that you rarely see on vacation because you are only there for a few days. I have pre-scouted these hills for good locations where I can get to them quickly. On Monday evening, I noticed on the satellite photos that there was a storm front moving in from the west by sunrise, leaving the eastern sky clear for the sun to come in under the advancing clouds. So I got up early, noticed that the clouds were arriving just as the sky became light. By sunrise, the open sky was reduced to a sliver on the horizon, which is the best situation.
I went to my spot, saw this, and was done in about 10 minutes. I do have some from a few minutes earlier with a sky so red that the photos are unuseable. Here the sky is better lit and so is the land. This looks like a reflected sunrise over the ocean and hills in the distance, but the light is reflecting off of the river deltas in California's Central Valley. It is the most productive agricultural valley on the planet because of the snow melt from the Sierra Nevada and 300 sunny days per year.
The map shows EXACTLY where this is.
Here is a link to the US National Weather Service satellite images that I use.
www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/satl.php
See my thoughts on the new Canon 5D mk II here:
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3202786812/
See
my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
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