My First Foliage Shots of the Season (and first ever with a dSLR)

eoren1

Took a drive up to Exeter, New Hampshire from Boston yesterday evening. Got there at about 5pm and had an hour and a half of light to shoot with. Dynamic range ended up being pretty large even at that hour and shooting away from the setting sun. Greatly appreciate your comments about the artistic and technical qualities of the photos (recently discovered contrast, saturation and gamut warnings in C1 pro - don't ask why it took so damn long for me to find these...)











Not my car...


Had to sacrifice a bit of shadow detail due to the brightness of the sky.
Thanks for looking,
E

NHBubba

Exeter.. my backyard.. almost litterally! Very cool.

I think I like the 4th one, of the waterfall best. Although I'd like to see some back-drop too. If I know Exeter correctly, this is the dam down-town, which means the back-drop is not all that attractive (condos, no?). That makes it tough..

The leaves haven't really fully changed yet, so another trip up this way is probably called for in another week or so.

eoren1

Hey NHBubba,
Thanks for the comments.
Decided on the tighter crop because I wasn't crazy about the background (see below).
Also, I drove to Exeter but then took 108N and shot this in Newmarket (couldn't remember the name of the town at the time and just checked on Google Maps). I think that this was the dam that overflowed last year - am I right?
Here's the background of that waterfall shot:



E

NHBubba wrote:

Exeter.. my backyard.. almost litterally! Very cool.

I think I like the 4th one, of the waterfall best. Although I'd like to see some back-drop too. If I know Exeter correctly, this is the dam down-town, which means the back-drop is not all that attractive (condos, no?). That makes it tough..

The leaves haven't really fully changed yet, so another trip up this way is probably called for in another week or so.

erich6

Well, it definitely looks like you were trying to cover all the right angles. The geometry is interesting in your shots but the lighting is off. Tough to get the shadows and bright light to work well together here. The only options you have is to wait for better lighting, get on a tripod and shoot bracketed exposures and then mix in post, or use split-density/graduated filters. Given the unique perspective of your shots I think the tripod and bracketed exposures would be the most effective approach.

I also liked the waterfall the best. Nice even flow. You can see a tire at the bottom which could enhance your message if you had another context (background) to work with.

Just my $0.02 so take it for what it's worth. I'm still learning too and these are challenging conditions.

Erich

NHBubba

eoren1 wrote:

E

Up until last year my father lived in a waterfront condo that is just barely out of sight behind this bridge. I've been to this spot in a kayak so many times I've lost count!

Yes, this is one of the many dams that were tested earlier this year. Fortunately it held.. but it was pretty hairy I gather. I was in Florida on vacation at the time, but I certianly remember seeing National Guardsmen fortifying that dam on the Weather Channel! It is shocking when your home town makes national news this way.

If you took Rt 108 up from Exeter to that spot you traveled some of the worst effected portions. (For the eastern part of the state anyhow, folks out west North of Keene had it far worse!) There is a stretch on your way into Newmarket where you pass over some rail-road tracks and drop into a low-part in town.. then go up a moderately steep hill into the real down-town area. That entire low area was flooded w/ overturned cars, floating debris, and the lot. Absoloutely insane! I am glad I missed it..

Pull the crop in just a hair to loose the section of brick building in the upper right and I think this will be best. Personally I like backdrop w/ the bridge and stuff.

eoren1

Thanks a lot for the comments. I only started shooting at about 5pm and away from the setting sun with the thought that the light would be softer and allow me to shoot these without need for bracketing or a graduated filter. For the past few days, I've been looking at those filters more and more.
As far as the waterfall, I didn't even see the tire until I had the image up on my screen at home. I think the only way to get that much of the waterfall in the shot and have decent background would have been with a 10-22 lens (shot this with the 18-55 kit lens at f/8).
Thanks again,
E

erich6 wrote:

Well, it definitely looks like you were trying to cover all the right angles. The geometry is interesting in your shots but the lighting is off. Tough to get the shadows and bright light to work well together here. The only options you have is to wait for better lighting, get on a tripod and shoot bracketed exposures and then mix in post, or use split-density/graduated filters. Given the unique perspective of your shots I think the tripod and bracketed exposures would be the most effective approach.

I also liked the waterfall the best. Nice even flow. You can see a tire at the bottom which could enhance your message if you had another context (background) to work with.

Just my $0.02 so take it for what it's worth. I'm still learning too and these are challenging conditions.

Erich

thdizzy

I saw a lot of potential so I...
...did a little color (maybe too much) and crop (i missed the structure in the upper right corner) with the waterfall image. I think you can go back there with the right light and capture several nice images with different angles.

You can see the original image next to the images below here - http://harrisonimages.phanfare.com/album/130472

NHBubba

I didn't even see the tire until you pointed it out! It blends into the water very well.. but yeah, I would crop that out too.