I like to post landscape images that are seasonally appropriate for North America, but it’s been a relatively warm and snow-less winter so far in Massachusetts where I live. So I’m digging into my archives for this sunrise from the seacoast of Massachusetts, when it was a balmy -10 degrees one morning in March 2015. It was so cold the ocean water near the shore had the consistency of slush, and incoming waves looked like they were half frozen. This was near low tide, and I just loved all the ice on the exposed rocks. Maybe by posting this image I can spur Mother Nature into providing some more seasonable weather here this winter.
Exposure blend of 2 images for dynamic range, using TK luminosity masks.
Beautiful light and scene. I especially love the light reflected in the foreground. I would clone out the bright spots on the bottom edge, center, but that is my only nit. I am quite enjoying this one.
Ed, you sure braved the cold for this one, but I am sure enjoying the scene. Wonderful light. All those snow/ice covered rocks lead right through the whole beautiful scene. I don’t do well in freezing cold, and so have been enjoying the unseasonable warm weather that we had here until last evening. I think from the weather reports you will be getting winter weather soon. Great shot!
Ed,
Wonderful capture of this “warm” sunrise light in the bitter cold! The foreground is the star for me and I love to see snow in this warm light. Spikes look appropriate to get to this one!
This is beautiful Ed. The warm light and cold snow provide wonderful contrasts. Agree with Harley on cloning out the bright spots on the bottom near the center.
Super nice image, Ed! The light on the FG rocks is very eye catching as are the details and textures. I also like your positioning of the rocks as they seem to point the viewer to the sunstar and that sweet beam of light skimming over the slushy ice. I think the weather is about to change to something more seasonal for you folks this weekend. My only suggestion; very minor nit; would be to clone out those two bright spots of light along the center bottom edge of the frame. Beautifully done.
This is a fantastic “HDR” blend @Ed_McGuirk. Well done and the tonal contrast looks so good. The colors are great. The light skimming across the rocks and slush are a great bonus. My only observation as a “nit” is that the sunbeam on the water appears ever so slightly malaligned with the one on the slush in the mid ground. Let me know if you agree or if I’m not looking at this right.
This is a beautifully crafted image, Ed. The mix of cool and warm tones is very appealing. Your processing and blending look great. I’ll have to learn how to use TK masks for exposure blends! I can’t think of anyway to improve other than that minor suggestion to clone out those bright spots at the frame edge.
You knocked it out of the park, Ed! The rocks and the sun beam pull your eyes into the scene so well. The colored rocks are quite magical in this light.
Thank you all for taking the time to comment on my image, I appreciate your input. This was certainly a cold morning, but I just think the seacoast can look so interesting in this kind of weather. I have done a rework and posted it back with the original. The rework reflects the comments regarding cloning away bright spots on the bottom edge, and I also burned the entire bottom edge slightly as well.
@Dave_Dillemuth I’m surprised that you don’t use TK LM’s for exposure blending. The dynamic range in your images is usually so well handled that I would have guessed that you apply these techniques in some of your images. And a lot of your Sierra images are really high dynamic range scenes too. You must be really, really good with Lightroom
@Jim_McGovern regarding the “misaligned” sunbeam, I hadn’t noticed anything initially, but after you mentioning it, does seem like the lower beam shifts a bit to the right, relative to the beam just below the sun. This is not due to the blend, I went back to the raw files, and that same “bending” of the beam is in all 3 of my exposure brackets. I think one of two possible things is going on, either waves are messing with the small beam right near the sun, or rocks in the mid-ground are creating some type of optical illusion in the appearance of the lower sunbeam. What ever is causing it is a natural phenomena, because it is present in the raw files, ie it is not a misalignment of exposure bracket layers in processing.
Wow, that’s cold. I think the foreground light is where the sun is coming through the rocks; they are causing shadows that limit where the light shows?
Thanks for the comments John. I agree, I think the mid-ground rocks are diffracting the light beam to a slightly different angle than what it is near the sun.
