1045 - Misty Mountains



As promised, here are two more images for today, like the birds of the last post taken with the Sigma 150/2.8 Macro.

The first shows a wasp struggling to get out of a spider’s net. Cruel things happen around us all the time, most of them going unnoticed. And even if, a wasp is dangerous, just look at the colors. Our compassion is only for the furry, cuddly animals with big eyes.

In case you’re interested: this ended 1:0 for the wasp. It finally got free.

The other image is more like what I was looking for in this early morning after a rainy evening. I set out so early, because I hoped to get scenes just like this: mountains shrouded by wind-torn mist.

Just like yesterday’s image (which actually also was from today), this is a rather brutal re-mapping of tones, certainly much more dramatic than it was in reality. While yesterday’s challenge was to isolate the birds, today I wanted a certain balance between the cliff in the foreground and the bright spot in the sky.

The Song of the Day is “Misty Mountain Hop”, originally from the 1971 album “Led Zeppelin IV”. I have it on the 4 CD collection “Led Zeppelin Remasters”. Hear it on YouTube.


There are 10 comments

Ted   (2009-08-24)

Okay... what did you do with all the color? You didn't just toss it in the garbage? Oh no! Didn't your mother ever tell you about the color starved children in.. poor places? How could you do that just to produce this... this... well, okay it is magnificent. Majestic... like that.

But still, I wonder about those poor orphaned colors and how their pining away somewhere. Feeling unloved by their creator. It's... so... so... colorless. πŸ™‚

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Cody Redmon   (2009-08-24)

I, on the other hand, quite prefer this image in B+W. Not to take away from Ted's personal preference, but with color would make this image 'pretty' and well, normal. THIS...this is art, genuine tonal brilliance, fantastic play of light and shadow, texture and form. I say it's among your best landscapes that I've seen...and you know how I am about landscapes. Bravo my friend, a true keeper.

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J. L. T.   (2009-08-25)

I love the forthcoming battle, itΒ΄s great! Sunny greetings

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Ove   (2009-08-25)

Quite agree, this was great.

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Andreas   (2009-08-25)

Black and white is unnatural. Sometimes this is a big plus. Had I made this image in color, I probably would have used a Snap Art painting filter to add drama and at the same time to create distance from reality.

In b+w I could stretch contrasts to the extreme. Had I done the same in color, it would have looked much less ... I don't know ... real?

Use an unnatural representation to make it look more real? Yes, I think sometimes it works just that way. It's probably not more than 150 years of conditioning by photographic history.

Anyway. This image went b+w and at any other day I would probably have used color. There is much randomness in my process. That keeps it interesting for me πŸ™‚

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Ove   (2009-08-25)

This make infrared a very interesting technique for capturing nature in b+w, it turns it completely unnatural, something you have not seen.

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Andreas   (2009-08-25)

Hmm ... infrared ... well, I really would like to experiment with infrared at some time, but I'd only like to do it with an adapted camera. Fake infrared is not my thing, but probably only because I have no idea how it should look like πŸ™‚

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Ove   (2009-08-25)

No, I think adapted cameras too. Have never heard of faked ir, so I have no idea either how that looks like. πŸ™‚

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Andreas   (2009-08-25)

It's a Photoshop thing. Basically you use some over the top color filters while selectively converting to B&W. Google "Photoshop infrared tutorial" and you find plenty of advice. It can look real good, but I'd prefer to get it right out of the camera, and maybe then do whatever I want to do in Photoshop.

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Anita Jesse   (2009-08-26)

I love the black and white version of this image, but got a great chuckle from Ted's mournful cry for all that poor abandoned color. Unloved and tossed away, indeed.

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