Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. This was taken on the same morning with Ed McGuirk and Ed Lowe when we had the great lenticular clouds. I noticed some fog forming across the valley and put on my 80-200. I didn’t notice the sunrays untill I got home and started processing. I posted this before I think but wasn’t satisfied with the processing so I decided to try again. I converted to B&W because the overhead sun really made the colors all wack.
I really enjoy this one. I think B&W works really well as out allows the luminosity of the sun rays to shine through.
While I think the composition works nicely as presented, I wonder if an even tighter crop would allow one to really view the rays—as I see it, the star of the show—and trees as they interact. Of course this would be in super telephoto territory to really capture without cropping (a focal length I really wish I had access to myself).
I hope it’s okay that I did a quick rework. This crop was done as a screenshot on my phone to illustrate what I mean. I imagine another aspect ratio would work, not just the 16:9 of my iPhone.
I remember this very well Mike, I have a few like this myself. And you are right, in color it is very hard to process, no question that B&W is the best way to go. The processing looks right on the money to me. I like the density of the blacks in the spruce trees, and I like the tonality of the mist and mountains above. For the benefit of others, that is the side of a mountain above, and not the sky.
Like many strong images, I think you have the luxury of choice in various crops, and many of them will work pretty well. In the original presentation I like that you picked up the swirling mist in the top third. But i wish the deciduous tree on the right edge had a little more breathing room to the right. So I would suggest a crop from the right to remove the tree (similar to @Adam_Bolyard), but unlike his crop I would leave in the swirling clouds. If you had another bracket where you had more room to the right, I think leaving the tree in would work too.
One odd thing that I noticed upon viewing it large, is in the area of the dark mountainside in the center top. There are a lot of tiny bright dots floating around. There is nothing on that hillside, so the only thing that makes sense is that something like pollen must have been in the air. They are a minor distraction, but there are so many of them that it would be a royal pain to clone them away. This is a true nitpick, overall I love the image.
It was a great morning wasn’t it, Mike. Unfortunately I somehow missed this wonderful scene altogether; which I was pretty bummed out about when you originally showed me this image. The B&W processing looks spot on to me and I love those rays shooting through the trees along with those swirling clouds as they add so much mood to this scene. My only suggestion would be a small crop from the right to get rid of those deciduous trees much like the one you have on your website. Here is a repost with what I was thinking.
Great conditions and well captured. I like Ed’s rendition, but I would either clone out or crop out the half tree on the left. In a big print, those bright dots might become problematic unless you take the time to clone. Not lucky, just in the right place at the right time.
I think there is a great mixture of luck combined with skill here. This is a very dynamic scene with a lot of interest throughout. I really like the cloud waves and the sunrays add a lot of interest piercing through the trees. The black and white presentation works great with this image.
