#26: Which one?

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

Here are some photos from my weekend trip to Eastern Washingon/The Palouse. Some of them need a few more tweaks in post-processing but they should give you the general idea.

As for the relevance to the theme, all shots were taken with a polarizer, and #1-#5 had either a 3-stop hard or 3-stop reverse GND filter. #2 and #3 are blends of three exposures (rest of the shots are single exposures).

Incidentally, #2-#4 were taken within about 5 minutes of each other (lucked out with a great sunrise).

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5: Sunset at Palouse Falls

#6: Rainbow at the base of Palouse Falls

Benjer · May 29, 2009

Okay, first of all Ron, your artistry is both inspiring and infuriating! All of your shots are astonishingly good and any one you entered could take it. Seriously, just throw a dart and pick the one it lands closest to!

If you put a gun to my head the best I could do is pick two:

#1 is just delicious - I can almost taste the landscape and the dappled watercolor quality of the light is simply gorgeous.

#5 just makes me want to cry.

How do you find these places? I mean, really?

bf2015 · May 29, 2009

Wow! It's always a treat seeing what you bring to the table. For me it's between 1, 4, and 5. The incredible wow factor definitely goes to #5. Absolutely stunning photo. However, the sunset over the hills in #4 is captivating to look at.

I have never experimented with filters, but it's amazing what they can do. If I had to choose (glad I don't!) I think I would definitely go with #5!

Outstanding once again Ron!

Katmitchell · May 29, 2009

Ohhhhh My....What Talent
I like #1, 5, and 6

Difficult to pick one from these.... they are all so awesome..:ivar

# 1 was instantly my favorite...out of all of them..

I love the colors and the way you caught the haze.. It would be interesting to see what your digital darkroom skills can pull off with the waterfall too.. The waterfall is especially interesting because the light is further modified with the water..they are all gorgeous...

I am just gaga for #1.... looks like you had to hike for these?

Super Work

Kat

MarkR · May 29, 2009

Benjer wrote:

Okay, first of all Ron, your artistry is both inspiring and infuriating! All of your shots are astonishingly good and any one you entered could take it. Seriously, just throw a dart and pick the one it lands closest to!

If you put a gun to my head the best I could do is pick two:

#1 is just delicious - I can almost taste the landscape and the dappled watercolor quality of the light is simply gorgeous.

#5 just makes me want to cry.

How do you find these places? I mean, really?

#1 or #5 are winners.

All of these should be printed large and hung on your walls.

manbou · May 29, 2009

Enter #6! It's the only one that gives the rest of us a fighting chance!

The Curious Camel · May 29, 2009

wow, wow, wow, do you fly a helicopter or what?
those shots are amazing. I love one but I would go with 2 because of the sun.

g

richtersl · May 29, 2009

I guess I'm the odd one out because I really like #2 and #4. The sky is perfectly exposed in #2 and the subtle light of the setting sun is nicely captured. Also like the starburst effect.

Love the layers or color and light in #4.

Tango · May 29, 2009

#4 really impresses me...

nightpixels · May 29, 2009

#5 is super, that would be my pick!

quark · May 29, 2009

#4. Awesome stuff.

jeffgroves · May 29, 2009

Wow!
I choose #5,

then I bow humbly.

Incredible work!

KevXman · May 29, 2009

Hmmm, I would go with #1 or #2. No, wait a minute, #3 or #4. Nope, #5 or #6. Yes, definitely #2 or #5. Well, now that I think of it, #1 or #6. Ok, I'm sure this time, #3 or #5. Seriously, any of them could be winners, but #3 and #6 made me stop and look deeper. I like the textures of both. The sun rays in #3 are wonderful and the colors of the landscape are great. #6 is a great abstract, feathery, misty, cottony, etc. So absolutely #6, er, #3, no. . .well you get the idea.
Good luck!
— Kevin

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

Benjer wrote:

Okay, first of all Ron, your artistry is both inspiring and infuriating! All of your shots are astonishingly good and any one you entered could take it. Seriously, just throw a dart and pick the one it lands closest to!

If you put a gun to my head the best I could do is pick two:

#1 is just delicious - I can almost taste the landscape and the dappled watercolor quality of the light is simply gorgeous.

#5 just makes me want to cry.

How do you find these places? I mean, really?

Thank Ben! I'm extremely fortunate to live in close proximity to a huge variety and diversity of landscapes up here in the Pacific Northwest. The hills of the Palouse are fairly well known and photographed around here, perhaps not nationally so much. Palouse Falls is less known (but I have a feeling that will change). This was my first visit to both places even though they're less than 6 hours away driving. I definitely plan on hitting them again!

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

bf2015 wrote:

Wow! It's always a treat seeing what you bring to the table. For me it's between 1, 4, and 5. The incredible wow factor definitely goes to #5. Absolutely stunning photo. However, the sunset over the hills in #4 is captivating to look at.

I have never experimented with filters, but it's amazing what they can do. If I had to choose (glad I don't!) I think I would definitely go with #5!

Outstanding once again Ron!

Thanks Brian! Palouse Falls really is stunning, unfortunately I did not get it in the best light (no clouds!), I'm going to check out the forecast and hopefully get there under better conditions. It's sort of reminiscent of Horseshoe Bend except with a gorgeous waterfall inside.

If you're into shooting landscapes, filters are extremely useful. Start with a polarizer, and then eventually some graduated ND filters. And after that, you might want to get a regular ND filter too.

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

Katmitchell wrote:

I like #1, 5, and 6

Difficult to pick one from these.... they are all so awesome..:ivar

# 1 was instantly my favorite...out of all of them.. I love the colors and the way you caught the haze.. It would be interesting to see what your digital darkroom skills can pull off with the waterfall too.. The waterfall is especially interesting because the light is further modified with the water..they are all gorgeous...

I am just gaga for #1.... looks like you had to hike for these?

Super Work

Kat

Thanks Kat! Actually I didn't have to hike at all, the hills are shot from Steptoe Butte which has a road that winds around to the top (about 1,000 feet higher than the hills below). That viewpoint from the top of Palouse Falls is only 1/4 mile from the parking lot (though there's no fence, and it's a little perilous having the tripod 6" from a 250 foot sheer drop).

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

The Curious Camel wrote:

wow, wow, wow, do you fly a helicopter or what?
those shots are amazing. I love one but I would go with 2 because of the sun.

g

Ha - I would love a helicopter. Or maybe just a perfectly stationary hover craft that I could set a tripod on

Like I mentioned in a previous reply, those hill shots were taken from Steptoe Butte which is about 1,000 feet above the surrounding hills, they were also taken with a 100-400 which sort of compresses the shots.

coscorrosa · May 29, 2009

Thanks for everyone who left their comments and feedback!

I think I'm going to enter #1 as it shows the more unique landscape than number 4 (the rolling hills of the Palouse), and is a more obvious fit for the theme than number 5 (although both shots used the same approaches wrt filters, etc., the light is more of a subject in #1 than #5). Also, I plan on re-doing #5 when the forecast has some clouds and I get some color in the sky.

Again - thanks for the positive words and feedback, much appreciated.

ghinson · May 30, 2009

Ron, your photos are amazing!

I've been hovering on your gear page this morning trying to learn some tricks.

I have a couple of questions for you about the filters you use. I have a wide angle lens (11-16mm on a D90) that I like to use for my landscapes. Thinking about getting a couple of the GND filters, I am a little concerned about vignetting. Even the circular polarizer I got for that lens does this to some degree. Sounds like handholding their larger size filters would remedy this, but they're significantly more expensive. I see that Cokin makes a P-size filter holder that is for wide angle lens. Any thoughts on the subject.

Secondly, looking at the singh-ray website, I was also intrigued by the Color Intensifier and the ColorCombo filters (warming polarizer plus color intensifier). Have you used these?

Thanks! I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Greg

coscorrosa · May 30, 2009

ghinson wrote:

Ron, your photos are amazing!

I've been hovering on your gear page this morning trying to learn some tricks.

I have a couple of questions for you about the filters you use. I have a wide angle lens (11-16mm on a D90) that I like to use for my landscapes. Thinking about getting a couple of the GND filters, I am a little concerned about vignetting. Even the circular polarizer I got for that lens does this to some degree. Sounds like handholding their larger size filters would remedy this, but they're significantly more expensive. I see that Cokin makes a P-size filter holder that is for wide angle lens. Any thoughts on the subject.

Secondly, looking at the singh-ray website, I was also intrigued by the Color Intensifier and the ColorCombo filters (warming polarizer plus color intensifier). Have you used these?

Thanks! I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Greg

Thanks Greg. The vignetting from the polarizer will dwarf any vignetting from the GND filter. The Cokin filter holder is OK for lenses 24mm or longer (on a FF body), but anything much wider than that and the holder itself will show up in the frame - much worse than any vignetting that could occur (at least the last time I tried it, if Cokin has a holder specifically for wide angle lenses that may not be a problem, I would try it out in store before purchasing). The P-size is large enough for my 16-35, and gives me enough room to use it 10% sky/90% foreground compositions for example. Hand holding is a lot more flexible when you're switching lenses too (I often switch between a 16-35 and 24-105). If you start having exposures longer than 30 seconds, than having a filter holder would be useful. Also I used a GND and polarizer combo a lot of the time, and not all polarizer filters have screw in threads to allow the attachment of the Cokin filter holder ring (my 82mm B+W polarizer for my 16-35 won't allow the attachment of another filter, for example).

The only Singh-Ray filters I own are GND filters, and the only filters I use besides GND filters are polarizers and rarely, a normal ND filter (though I might be using this more in the future). Most "color" filters can be emulated in post-processing.

pyroPrints.com · May 31, 2009

They're all great but #2 and #4 are awesome

#26: Which one?

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