In the Hooker Valley

[Octane]

Mid-afternoon trek through the Hooker Valley.

In the distance, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook, stands proud at 3754 metres (12316 feet).

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
1/30s f/16.0 at 17.0mm iso100

Slightly higher resolution here (http://users.tpg.com.au/octane2/ithv.html).

Comments, critique, etc., is very welcome.

If anyone's interested in prints of any of my work, get in touch.

H

[troypiggo]

I'm liking these B&W landscapes. Another pearler.

[Ric]

Very nice indeed H.

it looks like an ancient glacial valley.

Cheers

[leon]

Your a bloody tease H, beautiful stuff.

Leon

[Miaplacidus]

Is this your Ansel Adams phase, H?
Very pleasing photo. Well done.
(I knew you'd get fed up with that Tak sooner or later.)
Regards,
Brian.

[DavidTrap]

H,

Great composition - you've covered everything in the landscape photography book - interest in the fore-, mid- and back-ground, plus a leading line towards Mt Cook.

You've asked for criticism, so here goes - I'm not happy with the detail in the water or on the mountain - I personally think you've blown out the highlights. The highlights on the grass also seem a bit excessive.

Does it look that way on the full image? Could HDR help??

DT

[beren]

:thumbsup: Fine image again H , epic scenery

[Bassnut]

Gaud H, I come from that damb country, and have never seen it portraide so well. Dramatic rendition, but cant help thinking its slightly out of focus or something.

[lacad01]

Very nice shot, my eye is drawn to the sky and Mt Cook in the distance :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Troy,

Unfortunately, I wasn't down at this location at sunset. Sunrise, I'm sad to say, was rather less than inspiring (photographically speaking), too. I was down there during the late morning and through to afternoon. It was sunny the entire time and the light wasn't exactly flattering. Still, I think it's worked out alright in black and white.



Ric,

Cheers. You'd be right -- that whole region has been carved out by glaciers. : )



Leon,

Mate, you'll be taking the most spectacular images of our beautiful country soon, don't you worry. I salivate at the thought of what you're going to see on your trip.



Brian,

Perhaps? Except, Ansel had more talent in his pinky finger than I ever will. I've read articles that were close to him that said, Ansel would have embraced digital photography had he still been alive. Can you imagine what he'd be doing nowadays? Gosh.

As for the Tak, it's been out of its box two times. Sorry to say, I haven't got fed up of it. : )



David,

I'm very, very picky when it comes to shadow clipping and blown highlights. I can assure you that there is loads of splish splash details in the stream and it's not blown. It only looks blown due to the small size that's presented here. The histogram doesn't lie. ; )

Agreed with the lack of detail on the mountain. It's simply because there was no light falling on it. I did try to blend a 1-stop over-exposed shot over the top but it just didn't look right considering the rest of the surroundings, so abandoned that and left it as is.

The foreground grass was almost a straight black in the conversion from colour to grey scale and looked horrible. I processed parts of the image (the grass) so it would look like an infra-red photograph. This was done purely to bring the grass into prominence by raising highlights. I could possibly tone that down a notch so it's not too overbearing.

Very, very cheeky edit, by the way. :slap!:

Thank you for the constructive feedback. I will work on it. : )



Thanks, all.

H

[Octane]

Stuart,

Cheers, mate. : )



Fred,

lol! Thank you. Mate, the image is definitely not out of focus. I think it might just be the processing of the grass that's tricking the eyes. If you look carefully, you can see individual strands, so, it's definitely in focus.



Adam,

Cheers. The intent of the composition was to let the water lead your eye into the back. Pity about the lack of illumination on the mountain. Oh, well, next time. : )



Thanks, everyone.

H