Went out yesterday to shoot sunrise on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I didn’t force it and just kept driving past places I’ve shot before. The sun is rising later, so I was a bit early. I almost turned around before Peaks of Otter, but I kept going, and am I glad I did!
I drove past the lake just as twilight was starting. I saw the reflection in the lake, and the decision was made. I shot from 3 places along the sidewalk on the west side. I shot 1 other really nice comp in early twilight, but once I walked further, I knew this comp was it. I waited for the light show and shot when it looked awesome, then waited some more, and it got better… I love getting orange and pink in the same image.
This is 10 minutes before sunrise. I mostly had this to myself except for a few people walking the path around the lake. One other DLSR shooter, who was a guest at the lodge, showed up at sunrise, but he missed this. We had a nice conversation.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I have officially fallen in love with me Sony a7riii. The dynamic range is ridiculous.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I composed with the golden mean and cropped the image size to the golden mean as well.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single Raw image. LR. 17mm, f-11, 1 Sec, ISO 50, tripod, no filters. Manual focus. Mainly dodging and burning to get shadow detail, etc.
Beautiful sky and reflection and you have composed it very well. I might burn down the buildings a little bit to minimize their impact in the scene, but no other suggestions. What a fine show!!
Gotta love the dynamic range here, as you say. Bright orange in sunrise/sunset shots often looks distractedly flat but here you still have a richness of tones despite their high value. I feel that that is critical in these type of images because the eye is drawn to this area. The vast majority single shot images have that orange flatness. The shadows have been handled very skillfully.
Don’t know what to suggest. The small bush next to the larger bush on the bottom left? It’s not adding much.
The sky is beautiful with rich color. Overall I like the composition, but one minor nit is that the grasses in the lower left hand corner tend to pull my eye a bit.
I shot a version without the grass. I saw it when shooting and took it both ways. Without the grass, the image lacks depth. It’s a pretty big difference, So I compromised by keeping it, but leaving it pretty dark. It keeps the illusion of depth without, hopefully, drawing lots of attention. It has to be visible to add depth… I also wanted enough of it so it didn’t look like a few stray blades of grass.
I was also composing with the golden mean/ratio. Altering the composition to avoid the grass resulted in a much less powerful composition (and lacked depth). Those are my reasons for keeping the grass in the LLC.
Burning down the lodge is a dilemma for me. While this isn’t as iconic a location as Tunnel View in Yosemite, Peaks of Otter is pretty iconic in the eastern US. I guess burning them down a little is ok. I’ll give it a try.
Pretty darn spectacular! Great job getting the sky and reflection appropriately balanced, processed. That is one gorgeous sky!
I’m good with the “resort.” Sometimes the presence of man, well, it is part of our “nature.”
The tuft of grass? I can see the dilemma. I understand the depth concern - my approach is usually, include enough of something that the viewer knows it’s on purpose - or exclude it completely. I think it’s right on border of wanting just a bit more for context (and depth…) OR not included at all. Tough call. But not an image killer as presented.
