Sunrise on the Skagit River

coscorrosa

I went there to shoot photos of the eagles (saw over 100+, most on a 12 mile float down the river), but since I arrived just after sunrise there was still some decent light for landscapes. I only had a wide angle (16-35) and my wildlife lens (100-400), I have a friend borrowing my 24-105, and I really wished I had it for these.

#1: Which I've titled "Stupid @!#$!@%!$%! Branches". This was the composition I first saw with the S-curve of the river and the mountain in the background, but there wasn't a spot I could get to to eliminate the branches from the sides without getting wet, or spending hours in photoshop, as I have trouble removing anything that's not a dust spot):



#1.5: The above photo kind of bugged me, so I reworked a similar composition (that had some easier branch removal), this is only a single exposure:



#2 (Make the branches your friend, obvious GND effect here, oh well):



#3 (Get away from the branches entirely):



I might go back soon with an extra change of clothes and my 24-105 and actually do these properly The good news is that this location is pretty accessible even in winter.

Tylwydd

Really like the mood and composition of #1. Too bad about the trees indeed... Didn't think about a chainsaw rather than photoshop ?

jeffmeyers

These are nice. The boundary of the purple clouds right above the left slope of the mt on #1 seems to have some processing artifacts. Is it a bit of haloing or something else.

Someday we landscape photographers will have a handheld laser powerful enough to lop off branches without moving from behind the camera.

hawkeye978

I think I like #1 the best because of the mood. If you are willing to try, I don't think it would be that bad to clone out the branches. The nice random cloud patterns give a lot of good material to eliminate the branches without being obvious.

coscorrosa

jeffmeyers wrote:

These are nice. The boundary of the purple clouds right above the left slope of the mt on #1 seems to have some processing artifacts. Is it a bit of haloing or something else.

Among other things, yes. I kind of gave up on the photo after seeing the branches, I probably shouldn't have posted it, but I needed to share my "see how I screwed up a great opportunity" story It's a merge of three exposures, there is some haloing as you said, usually I pay attention to that stuff, this was the first time I used PS (CS4) to do the HDR merge rather than Photomatix, mostly for experimentation.

jeffmeyers wrote:

Someday we landscape photographers will have a handheld laser powerful enough to lop off branches without moving from behind the camera.

Either that or a small, noiseless, solar-powered stabilized hovercraft.

Actually I can envision situations when both would be useful...

coscorrosa

hawkeye978 wrote:

I think I like #1 the best because of the mood. If you are willing to try, I don't think it would be that bad to clone out the branches. The nice random cloud patterns give a lot of good material to eliminate the branches without being obvious.

Yeah, I agree I can probably do it without it being blatantly obvious (it would take me awhile though). I have too may eagle photos to go through before I go back to these landscapes though

shniks

#1 is awesome Ron. Love it!


Cheers,

coscorrosa

shniks wrote:

#1 is awesome Ron. Love it!


Cheers,

Thanks, I just added "#1.5" which is #1 without branches (a different photo actually, but a similar composition, and only a single exposure instead of multiple - sometimes I just need to step back and not make things so damn complicated... )

ront

Well Ron, I guess I don't always go by all of the rules and sometimes like pictures that others do not (although that is not the case here), but I really think that #1 is a great picture!! I have just been crusin through Digital Grin this evening while relaxing for my B-Day and saw your post here. I really like the photos.

Thanks for sharing them, Ron

I am also looking forward to your Eagles pictures.

coscorrosa

ront wrote:

Well Ron, I guess I don't always go by all of the rules and sometimes like pictures that others do not (although that is not the case here), but I really think that #1 is a great picture!! I have just been crusin through Digital Grin this evening while relaxing for my B-Day and saw your post here. I really like the photos.

Thanks for sharing them, Ron

I am also looking forward to your Eagles pictures.

Thanks, and happy birthday! I added another shot similar to #1 (labeled "1.5") that I think is better.

For the eagles, I just posted the thread in the wildlife forum, which also links to the full gallery:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=116229

Abiciriderback

Even with the branches still very nice images great color with the lighting. Was this the Float trip that meets at Rockport and takes off from Marblemount?

Ray Still

coscorrosa

Abiciriderback wrote:

Even with the branches still very nice images great color with the lighting. Was this the Float trip that meets at Rockport and takes off from Marblemount?

Ray Still

It meets at a B&B located a few hundred feet from the river in Marblemount and then goes downstream about 12 miles to Rockport.

Here's the website with more info:

http://www.blueskyoutfitters.com/skagit-eagle.php

Definitely recommended for eagle watching. I would recommend you bring some extra shoes and socks to change in to, and use rubber boots rather than hiking boots (they can provide you with the boots).