I'm with Adrian on this one as there is no first choice for me as well. Love the scale Sierasong adds to the
first and the 2nd if one of the best abstracts I have seen from this iconic location. The 3rd shot is just so
sweet in how the black bg emphasizes the structure.
Thanks to each of you. I was very fortunate here in many ways. We had a good long day, starting about 4 am with the travel, and stayed until the last light (just behind a pack of 6 coyotes heading over the sand hill before us). We also had good light in the morning and evening; and even though the forecast was for all sun, no clouds; a few clouds slipped in during the day and provided some diffuse light in the mid day shooting.
Of course, I was also in great company; eager to search for new ideas here, and we all took the time to do that; and we hand Robyn scouting the other high and low areas for more possibilities.
So really, it was just pure fun all the way.
For the last shot, my plan was to catch the darkest background I could. I knew from a previous post I think by Jim Fox, that this effect could be obtained, but I wanted to make it as natural as possible. So we waited for the light on the back hills to go into shadow. It still left some areas partially lit, and I did take those down in CS4, so I think Ray, that's where the funky stuff got in; maybe aggravated by the jpeg reduction.
Ben: I did shoot the first two with my 70-200 on the 1Ds3. The last one was with the 5D2.
