Western North Carolina in Late October

karlabbottkarlabbott Registered Users Posts: 401 Major grins
edited November 6, 2011 in Landscapes
I wanted to take a few moments to share a few images from the western part of North Carolina that I recently took. C&C is always appreciated:

#1: Elk in Cataloochee Valley in the Late Afternoon:

IMG2332-Edit-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

#2: Cataloochee Overlook:

IMG2362HDR-Edit-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

#3: Cataloochee Valley Elk at Sunrise:

IMG2463-Edit-Edit-2-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

#4: Sunset over Looking Glass Rock near Brevard, NC:

IMG2553-Edit-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

Comments

  • jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited November 4, 2011
    One of my favorite places in the world! Never lived there, but spent a lot of time there.

    I'm not a landscape photographer, so take this for what it's worth: Somehow the hypersaturated colors work better in the first shot than the latter three. To my eye at least, the colors are too saturated and seem unnatural in their hue as well. But maybe that is just my eye...
  • karlabbottkarlabbott Registered Users Posts: 401 Major grins
    edited November 4, 2011
    jhefti, Thank you for your feedback. I'll definitely consider that -- especially as others opine. Your comment about the hue is quite interesting. There was a lot more red this fall than in the past, especially for so late in the month. In #2, the sun comes in and lights the foliage just behind the fence very brightly -- so much so that most of the left of #2 is overexposed and that required some recovery work. In #3, the color at the top was hard to control as the glow of the sun was quite strong at that point. #4 is right there at the very end of the day for that brief moment where the pinks in the eastern sky are quite vibrant and cause a cast on the whole scene. Would be curious to know what your thoughts (and others) are on this as I continue down this learning path of photography...
  • kdogkdog Administrators Posts: 11,681 moderator
    edited November 5, 2011
    Number 1 is my favorite of the series. The painterly processing (or whatever you call it) works really great here. This is a wall hanger.
    Number 2, I appreciate the surreal processing here, although possibly a bit too saturated. Maybe not though. It's a stylistic element that not everybody will like. I don't care for the sky in the upper left though. It looks like it was blown out and recovered in post turning it a flat gray.
    The heavy color casts in 3 and 4 aren't really working for me.

    Regards,
    -joel
  • black mambablack mamba Registered Users Posts: 8,323 Major grins
    edited November 5, 2011
    Hi Karl,

    You have certainly recorded some great scenes. The processing, however, diminishes their appeal considerably.....way over-saturated. As Joel said, the first shot seems to bear that approach much better than the rest. Your composition and balance to the photos is fine. Back off that exaggerated saturation and you'll have a much more natural look to your work.

    Tom
    I always wanted to lie naked on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Cracker Barrel didn't take kindly to it.
  • bradpowellphotobradpowellphoto Registered Users Posts: 378 Major grins
    edited November 5, 2011
    I just love the first image, the composition and the colours! And I really like how you caught the motion in the leaves of the second image!
    “Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures.” Helmut Newton

    My Vancouver Island Photography Website http://bradpowellphoto.com
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  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,373 moderator
    edited November 5, 2011
    I love the first image. As others have said, the rest look overprocessed to me. But then again, I'm usually more attracted to SOOC images, so...

    --- Denise
  • byoshibyoshi Registered Users Posts: 353 Major grins
    edited November 5, 2011
    Love the light in the last 2 shots.
    Landscape and Nature photography
    site - http://www.bay-photography.com/
    blog - http://bayphotos.blogspot.com/
  • karlabbottkarlabbott Registered Users Posts: 401 Major grins
    edited November 5, 2011
    Thank you for all of your feeeback. I've dialed back the saturation and color casts in #3 and #4 and present the new ones here:

    #5:

    IMG2463-Edit-Edit-2-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

    #6:

    IMG2553-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg

    C&C always appreciated and very happy to have gotten all that I have so far!
  • jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited November 5, 2011
    Certainly better to my eye...in number 5 I might suggest getting rid of the flat blue cast that fills the recesses of the small valley on the upper left of the shot. Perhaps bump up the black point and/or reduce saturation in this area. I think more contrast in the forested mountain section that is in shadow would make the shot more vivid and natural. I might also play with the WB in the open section with the animals, so that the frost looks white.

    As I said, I am not a landscape photographer, so this is just what comes to mind when I look at these lovely shots!
  • Sexy6ChickSexy6Chick Registered Users Posts: 948 Major grins
    edited November 6, 2011
    Oh how I miss NC at this time of year. Thanks for bringing some NC fall scenes to me when I can't be there to see them. They are all just beautifully captured, great shots!
    ~*Natalie*~

    A lover of all things photography.

    Olympus E-500

    My Smugmug Gallery
  • karlabbottkarlabbott Registered Users Posts: 401 Major grins
    edited November 6, 2011
    Sexy6Chick wrote: »
    Oh how I miss NC at this time of year. Thanks for bringing some NC fall scenes to me when I can't be there to see them. They are all just beautifully captured, great shots!

    No problem! Glad you enjoyed my images!

    And a reprocess of #5, let's call this:

    #7:

    IMG2463-Edit-2-Edit-Edit-XL.jpg
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