Alta Ski resort is part of Albion Basin, known for wildflowers in summer, but not this year.
These were taken last week on the way back from Cecret lake. I went back yesterday for improvements but not to be, last week was better and now I must wait a year.
Lovely scene. I've taken the liberty of re-working #1 to brighten (Viveza 2) and attempt to introduce some depth via T&S blur in CS6. If you object I will happily pull the post.
For a guy from the east & southeast, I am always in awe of the beauty of the west and northwest. Enjoy your images very much,
Bob Jarman wrote:
Lovely scene. I've taken the liberty of re-working #1 to brighten (Viveza 2) and attempt to introduce some depth via T&S blur in CS6. If you object I will happily pull the post.
I think its the brightness that adds the depth the most for me, because its only at the very bottom that I actually notice the T/S depth. Definitely sharp across the frame in the original, but, it seems emphasizing the foreground a little makes it a stronger shot
Ben, as usual you have two beautiful, clean images. I like them both but prefer the composition of the second image.
You complained about the limited number of wildflowers this year. Looks like a lot to me but if you want to emphasize the flowers, then get lower and closer.
I hope you don't mind, but I am posting an example. I have greatly downsized this so I give and example without taking away from your images. Let me know if you want me to remove this.
I took this at Two Medicine Lake and had very little to work with. Thousands of tourists a day have trampled down the shoreline. There was only a very small clump of flowers about 10" tall that have survived.
Hi Jim, no problem with you including your shot. Nice shot by the way.
Both of mine were taken from a sitting position, which is about as low as I can get. 17mm FF tends to make everything look small even when close. The upslope terrain also tends to minimize the effect of the close flowers.
Yesterday I took shots at 24mm and even used a 1.4X on my 24TSE to magnify the near flowers. Mixed results on that effort, plus the flowers were past prime.
Edit, here is one from yesterday that has the flowers emphasized to the greatest extent I could muster. Taken too late in the day for good color. Also last week had a bit of cloud cover for a better sky and was done much earlier.
Nice shots of the Albion Basin there, Ben. I'm tempted to book a flight back to Utah.
I'm also going against popular opinion here but I prefer your unmodified #1 shot. To me the mountains appear more natural, the way I remember them, than in the modified version posted above.
[FWIW I have a 27" LCD monitor, not high gamut but calibrated today with Spyder 4 Pro hardware, viewing with Chrome browser]
It's a shame about the wildflowers this year. I was up there late summer last year and I think there were much more flowers in bloom back then. And the lake probably had more water as well.
HiredGoon wrote:
Nice shots of the Albion Basin there, Ben. I'm tempted to book a flight back to Utah.
I'm also going against popular opinion here but I prefer your unmodified #1 shot. To me the mountains appear more natural, the way I remember them, than in the modified version posted above.
[FWIW I have a 27" LCD monitor, not high gamut but calibrated today with Spyder 4 Pro hardware, viewing with Chrome browser]
It's a shame about the wildflowers this year. I was up there late summer last year and I think there were much more flowers in bloom back then. And the lake probably had more water as well....Show more →
Yep, I posted the lake last week. Not many flowers there either. Last week was overcast hence the darker look. I think flowers look better in that light than in bright sun.
Been really hot. Going to do the Nebo loop this week then up to Provo Falls.
It's difficult to make moving landscapes with ordinary daylight. Much easier with the light around sunrise and sunset. Broad daylight gives most otherwise promising scenes a "ho-hum" reaction.
AuntiPode wrote:
It's difficult to make moving landscapes with ordinary daylight. Much easier with the light around sunrise and sunset. Broad daylight gives most otherwise promising scenes a "ho-hum" reaction.
I guess this was supposed to be a picture of wild flowers and as such required a more abundant show. This would have been a sunrise location as I am facing west. This first morning had nice clouds but I don't recall color as I was driving in. Would alpinglow on the mountain and sunrise clouds overshadow the flowers?
In any event I got neither an abundant show of flowers or dramatic light. Perhaps next year.
AuntiPode wrote:
It's difficult to make moving landscapes with ordinary daylight. Much easier with the light around sunrise and sunset. Broad daylight gives most otherwise promising scenes a "ho-hum" reaction.
Yep. I've seen a number of photos lately taken at what appears to be close to noon. It's not the most flattering time of day.
Actually the first two I posted were taken before 9:00PM. Sunrise here is 6:30 but because of local mountains closer to 7:00. But these images were taken near the end of a return hike. I was going past this meadow just after sunrise but did not see any better light than this.
But with regard to the last image I posted, you are correct it was much later in the morning.
Still, there are many places that are best done mid day because of deep shadows at golden hour. Many southwest canyons come to mind.
Dramatic sky's always help, but they don't always need to be red. Big cumulus clouds against a clear blue sky are always impressive. Light direction is important to provide contrast. Often contrast is ruined at sunrise/sunset if it is too directly on the subject.
