Spent couple of days in Eastern Sierra to view and photograph some fall colors. Here is an image of cloudless sunrise image at Lake Convict. This was in middle of October and it was right after a storm, but no luck with the clouds. Fall Colors were at almost peak. It was cold and there were lots of fellow photographers. Here is an image of first light at Lake Convict.
Cloudless to me implies cold...and that is what I get looking at your image. Well done and love the processing keeping the foreground darker as it should be.
Thanks Rajan, witnessing that first kiss of light was truly special. Rajan Parrikar wrote:
Beautiful image; the splash of light is delicious. Forget the clouds - the crispness in the scene has its own merits.
Thanks Harry, you absolutely correct about about being cold. I did play around with foreground darkness by opening up the shadows but at the end decided to leave it a bit darker as that is how I saw it. Glad you liked it.
chez wrote:
Cloudless to me implies cold...and that is what I get looking at your image. Well done and love the processing keeping the foreground darker as it should be.
Even without the clouds it's still a great shot! Very crisp reflection and nice somber colors.
I was trying to hit the mountain lakes here over the summer for sunrise, and it seemed like getting pretty clouds to catch the morning light was even rarer than the wind being calm enough for a good reflection. Total chance, felt like playing the lottery much of the time.
Thanks a lot! I played around with the colors and shadows a bit but at the end I decided to keep it a bit dark as that is how it was. Trip was planned right after a storm with good chance of clouds but Mother Nature had different plans. Thanks
The Rat wrote:
Even without the clouds it's still a great shot! Very crisp reflection and nice somber colors.
I was trying to hit the mountain lakes here over the summer for sunrise, and it seemed like getting pretty clouds to catch the morning light was even rarer than the wind being calm enough for a good reflection. Total chance, felt like playing the lottery much of the time.
My first impression was that it reads a bit too dark for me. However, I've looked at it several times since and I think that your processing is spot on, beautiful image.
Thanks Bob, I played around with the dark areas for few days and then decided to leave it as is. It’s quite close to how I had witnessed it. Thanks 🙏
fotofoow wrote:
My first impression was that it reads a bit too dark for me. However, I've looked at it several times since and I think that your processing is spot on, beautiful image.
Thanks Gordon, you are correct about a cold morning! The first kiss of light was definitely special to witness. There might have been at least 25 photographers that morning!😳
gordon l wrote:
looks and feels very cold. Bitter cold. The moment of first light on the peak is great and beckons a new day to a cold lake. Very atmospheric photo.
sunrise image at Lake Convict. This was in middle of October and it was right after a storm, but no luck with the clouds. Fall Colors were at almost peak. It was cold and there were lots of fellow photographers. Here is an image of first light at Lake Convict. 
