Horseshoe Bend, AZ

riddim_maker

This is my first post in the Landscape forum.
I usually hangout at the Wildlife forum but once in a while love to get out and shoot some landscapes,
which is what I did this last winter throughout the US southwest and came home with some images I really liked.
I'll post them here, one per post, so you can be the judge, C&C welcome :whip

This image of HORSESHOE BEND, AZ is an HDR/panorama

Tango

welcome Russ, just as you are awesome in the wildlife section you have proven to be here as well.

beautiful star, love this image. infact i love this location.... kinda big aint it....

kscott

classic.....and done very well...thanks for sharing.

Darren Troy C

Awesome twist to a classic site!

anwmn1

Nice job and welcome to the landscape side of things.

Tee Why

I like it. Some HDR's have a very fake look to them but this looks very nicely done with wide view and lots of details.

agunther

Wonderful. Fantastic. Outstanding.
Its hard to find words for your lens (stitched?) and for your awesomeness.
If you print it really large and let people stand in front of this picture for too long they may start to feel dizzy.

EDIT: Just noticed you asked for whippings. How dare you not putting any clouds in your awesome picture

kdog

Hey Russ, long time, man.

The landscape forum is a great place to hang out once you get tired of chasing little birdies around.

This image rocks. The sun star in the image is very original and adds a lot to the shot. The detail and resolution of the shot are super. You asked for critiques, so I'll try to oblige and dig up a few nits.

1) Is that a small patch of snow on the left edge of the picture? I'm trying to decide if it should be cloned out. I realize there are a few other specs of snow in the shot as well. But that larger patch is a bit distracting being right on the edge like that.

2) That rock sticking out from the bottom out into the water. You could have moved over a few feet and then it wouldn't have occluded the river. Although most shots of Horseshoe have that rock sticking out, so maybe it's a personal preference thing.

3) I believe it's distorted in that the river is stretched toward the viewer in the lower half of the shot. The horseshoe is actually quite round, but your shot makes it look oblong. That might be an artifact of using such a wide-angle lens in a pano.

Just for reference, here's a link to a similar shot I took, sans the sun-star (which I'm very jealous of!) http://www.jacara.com/cpg144/displayimage.php?pos=-1506

4) AGunther was right. Where are the clouds?

5) You must have gone right through Kingman and didn't say hi. :cry

But those small nits aside, it really is a stunning image. Looking forward to seeing more shots from your trip!!

Cheers,
-joel

riddim_maker

AaronNelson wrote:

welcome Russ, just as you are awesome in the wildlife section you have proven to be here as well.

beautiful star, love this image. infact i love this location.... kinda big aint it....

This is indeed an awe inspiring area.
Thanks for your compliment Aaron.

riddim_maker

Idlewild wrote:

Awesome twist to a classic site!

kscott wrote:

classic.....and done very well...thanks for sharing.

anwmn1 wrote:

Nice job and welcome to the landscape side of things.

I really appreciate all of your comments and compliments.
Now that I've caught the Landscape bug (again) I'll be posting here more often.

riddim_maker

Tee Why wrote:

I like it. Some HDR's have a very fake look to them but this looks very nicely done with wide view and lots of details.

That's a great compliment, much appreciated.

Marc Muench

riddim_maker wrote:

I'll post them here, one per post, so you can be the judge, C&C welcome

Great shotthumb

My nit would be about the sky. The clear sky does not bother me but that it is too dark does Just a tadd brighter would help a bunch

BTW, composing with the rock jetting out into the river is WONDERFUL

riddim_maker

agunther wrote:

Wonderful. Fantastic. Outstanding.
Its hard to find words for your lens (stitched?) and for your awesomeness.

Thank you very much for this compliment, I'm honored!

agunther wrote:

you print it really large and let people stand in front of this picture for too long they may start to feel dizzy.

I think I'll try that, although I might get arrested for mass intoxication

agunther wrote:

Just noticed you asked for whippings. How dare you not putting any clouds in your awesome picture

:cry I did look for some but couldn't find any, I might have to borrow from some of the awesome images in this forum

riddim_maker

kdog wrote:

Hey Russ, long time, man.

The landscape forum is a great place to hang out once you get tired of chasing little birdies around.

This image rocks. The sun star in the image is very original and adds a lot to the shot. The detail and resolution of the shot are super. You asked for critiques, so I'll try to oblige and dig up a few nits.

1) Is that a small patch of snow on the left edge of the picture? I'm trying to decide if it should be cloned out. I realize there are a few other specs of snow in the shot as well. But that larger patch is a bit distracting being right on the edge like that.

2) That rock sticking out from the bottom out into the water. You could have moved over a few feet and then it wouldn't have occluded the river. Although most shots of Horseshoe have that rock sticking out, so maybe it's a personal preference thing.

3) I believe it's distorted in that the river is stretched toward the viewer in the lower half of the shot. The horseshoe is actually quite round, but your shot makes it look oblong. That might be an artifact of using such a wide-angle lens in a pano.

Just for reference, here's a link to a similar shot I took, sans the sun-star (which I'm very jealous of!) http://www.jacara.com/cpg144/displayimage.php?pos=-1506

4) AGunther was right. Where are the clouds?

5) You must have gone right through Kingman and didn't say hi. :cry

But those small nits aside, it really is a stunning image. Looking forward to seeing more shots from your trip!!

Cheers,
-joel

Hey Joel, it has been too long indeed.
I was planning to visit you during my winter trip to Bosque del Apache,
but my plans changed along the way: made a stop in the Petrified forest on my way home from Bosque;
made a detour to the Grand Cyn. from Flagstaff, got snowed in for three days up there;
got a phone call from fellow photographer Seetharam to meet in Bryce cyn.;
made a quick stop at Horseshoe Bend and barely made the sunset,
I actually ran the 1 1/2 mile from the parking lot, what an awesome sight;
photographed Bryce for two days; then made a quick stop in Zion;
then boogied all the way home :whew
As you can tell, not much planning went into this trip, but I had a great time.
OK, now to follow up on your much appreciated constructive critiques :uhoh

1. I faced the same dilemma while editing this image because the patch of snow seems to want to
compete with the main subject for your attention. the reason why I didn't clone or crop it out is the main
subject outweighed it significantly to not make it too much of an issue for me. But very good observation.

2. Another good point.
As I explained above, I didn't have much time to scout the area since I got there as the sun was setting.
This image was actually the last of three sets before the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
I actually felt somewhat rewarded for the time I spent indoors at the Grand Canyon with this small window of an opportunity.

3. You're right again, it is distorted due the wide angle lens I used (in portrait mode)
and lack of the correct pano-panning tools for the job (i.e. nodal slide)
I'll be posting panoramas in the near future where I did take the time for this setup.

4. Clouds???
Well if you let me borrow the clouds from your spectacular rendition of this site
I'll let you use my starburst

Thanks Joel
BTW, you've got some awesome images on your website, much respect!

riddim_maker

Marc Muench wrote:

Great shotthumb

My nit would be about the sky. The clear sky does not bother me but that it is too dark does Just a tadd brighter would help a bunch

BTW, composing with the rock jetting out into the river is WONDERFUL

Marc, I'm truly honored to have you comment on my image, much appreciated.
You are correct in your observation about the darkness of the sky in relations to the foreground.

I've made some adjustment, it feels much more ballanced. What do you think?

squirl033

excellent HDR, and i really like the sun-star... adds a lot to the image. ! i got a similar shot last year, and though mine doesn't have quite as much distortion, i wasn't able to get the sky or the full canyon walls - 17mm on a 40D just wasn't enough! :cry gives me an excuse to go back with the 5D and a proper pano mount, i guess!

Awais Yaqub

Wow man 1 ball and Six ! clap

riddim_maker

squirl033 wrote:

excellent HDR, and i really like the sun-star... adds a lot to the image. ! i got a similar shot last year, and though mine doesn't have quite as much distortion, i wasn't able to get the sky or the full canyon walls - 17mm on a 40D just wasn't enough! :cry gives me an excuse to go back with the 5D and a proper pano mount, i guess!

I also tried the 17mm on my 1.3 crop body and even that wasn't wide enough
that's why I opted for the panorama with the camera in portrait orientation.
And like you, I'll be going back armed with my 'nodal slide' to redeem myself

riddim_maker

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Wow man 1 ball and Six ! clap

I'll take that as a compliment. Thanks Awais

kdog

Wide angle lenses distort near the edges, which is where they stitch together. I don't think you're going to get around it unless you crop and use just the centers of image. You're much better off using a longer lens for a pano. You'll need more shots but will have a much higher resolution image in the end.

That shot I linked above was a single shot with a crop-body (40D), and a 10-22 lens at 10mm. A 16mm on a full-frame will work as well (something I'll be trying next time. )

Your 1DIII being a 1.4X crop poses a bit of a problem there, Russ. I think Tamron, Tokina and Sigma all make 10mm zooms that will work on your camera. Or maybe you still have your 40D and 10-22.

Cheers,
-joel

dlplumer

Great capture.

Marc Muench

riddim_maker wrote:

I've made some adjustment, it feels much more ballanced. What do you think?

Much better

The Mack

Link is broken.

riddim_maker

The Mack wrote:

Link is broken.

OOPS! I absentmindedly deleted the original file.
Thanks for the heads-up.

WolfOnDigital

Wow!
I will have to chedk this out in AZ!

Jeff

This image of HORSESHOE BEND, AZ is an HDR/panorama
[/quote]

grimace

Beautiful job!!

riddim_maker

kdog wrote:

Wide angle lenses distort near the edges, which is where they stitch together. I don't think you're going to get around it unless you crop and use just the centers of image. You're much better off using a longer lens for a pano. You'll need more shots but will have a much higher resolution image in the end.

That shot I linked above was a single shot with a crop-body (40D), and a 10-22 lens at 10mm. A 16mm on a full-frame will work as well (something I'll be trying next time. )

Your 1DIII being a 1.4X crop poses a bit of a problem there, Russ. I think Tamron, Tokina and Sigma all make 10mm zooms that will work on your camera. Or maybe you still have your 40D and 10-22.

Cheers,
-joel

Hey Joel, you're right about the inherent distortion for WA lenses, although you can get very usable
results when used with the correct tools (i.e. a nodal slide). I'll post an image I took in Yosemite
using this combo where distortion is barely noticeable.
Incidentally, I did have my 20D + 10-22 with me on the trip but left it in the car :cry

riddim_maker

dlplumer wrote:

Great capture.

Thanks Dan

riddim_maker

Marc Muench wrote:

Much better

Thanks for your invaluable input Marc

annnna8888

Beautiful. I like everything about it. clap

Ana