Driving into work a few years ago, I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise coming up over Boney Mountain (Santa Monica Mts.), and the Oxnard Plain where the celery harvest was in full swing.
Standard Critique Requested. This is from a single exposure. I had to do a lot of processing to bring up the shadows and darkness in the lower part, and still control the amazing colors in the top part. I tried to reduce the noise to an agreeable level. I’d love to know if it was enough, if it took out too much clarity and focus, etc. I love the colors . . . .
Canon 60D, f5.6, 1/60 sec, iso 400, 50 mm, Flash compulsory.
The foreground looks fine to me, Ed. I really like the workaday world in the foreground with those gorgeous layered mountains and the sunrise in the background. Hopefully the workers had a moment or two to enjoy it as well.
When I looked at the small image, I thought for a moment that this was a barge on a river or canal between the green and the hills.
The colors are wonderful. The foreground works for me, and noise is fine. It appears it might need a bit of counterclockwise rotation, but the power poles appear to be vertical. I really like agriculture scenes like this one. I wonder if the celery harvesters are even more automated today.
@Jim_Gavin, Jim, thank you for your comments on this post. I think there is a slight slope down toward to sea that shows up in this photo. I looked at it when you mentioned a possible rotation, but as you say the poles are pretty strait in this.
Celery harvesting is still done almost exclusively by hand in the field. Some is harvested directly into crates and boxes and then loaded onto the truck to the coolers, and some is cut, placed on a wide belt on a tractor where the packers trim and place it into crates or boxes as the tractor moves down the field. Celery for powdering and soups is also hand cut into bins that go to the manufacturers. Still back breaking, hard hand work.
