[Octane (Humayun)]

Hi Mike,

There's nothing like being cold and alone out in the middle nowhere. I set off well before twilight; the slightest sound of rustling in the bushes scares the crap out of you!

As for the clouds, I waited for two days for a decent sunrise. This was on my last morning at Mount Cook. I wanted to stay another day, but, I had a booking at Lake Tekapo that I had to make.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by iceman

Love the serenity. A few more clouds in the sky would've been nice - couldn't you conjure some up?

Looking forward to seeing more.

Chris,

Thanks, mate.

There must be something about alpine regions and strange hues. Although, I got the same hues down at Milford Sound (I'm saving that picture for last). The thing was, that, not two minutes later, as soon as the first rays of sunlight started to strike the tip of Mount Cook, the magenta was gone. It became really boring all of a sudden.

The reason why I shot at 28mm instead of the wide end of the 17-40mm f/4L USM was because there was nothing of great interest to the left -- it was just moraine sans snow and ice. It skewed the composition. The other problem was that I was on the left hand side of the mouth of the Tasman River. There was no way for me to cross it. I didn't take my rubber, waist-length fishing attire with me, and, besides, there was no way I was going to wade into a fast flowing river at that time of morning with expensive equipment. I'd have frozen to death if I fell in.

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Gorgeous colour Humayun. You don't see much natural photography of this hue. Serene? The very definition of it.

What aspect of the composition prompted you to shoot at 24mm and not open up to 17? A Maccas sign off to the left?

Deeno,

Absolutely. All of New Zealand is delicious. Hence, why I keep going back.

Originally Posted by Deeno

Wow! What a stunning location.
A photographers paradise

Liz,

Thanks, you.

Originally Posted by Liz

Beautiful!!

Dennis,

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I'm glad you've picked up on features that I try very hard to showcase in my images -- not-blown highlights and non-plugged shadows. Using a 3-stop soft-step graduated neutral density filter really helped that morning; it helped to present a low-contrast image (which is something that I prefer), but, there's still enough contrast throughout the scene in the moraine and dirty glacial icebergs to give some balance.

I tried shooting with a circular polariser to assist in removing the glare off the lake, but, beceause I was pretty much pointing due north, 90-degrees from the sun, I was ending up with big round blobs of darkness in the sky, and/or water. Wasn't worth it.

The water where I was standing along the shoreline was a frozen ice sheet which gradually gave way to flowing water. So, in essence, the effect was a result of bits of ice sheets mixed with flowing water.

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Humayun

What a beautiful alpine scene. I like the natural colours and tones in this photo, the snow and ice have that natural whitish/blue tone and haven’t been polluted by over zealous saturation of the purple/pink hues. I also love that the highlights and shadows haven’t blown out/blocked up and there is texture in the snow, ice, darker rocks and moraine.

Was the water frozen or is that from the 2 second exposure?

Cheers

Dennis

Cheers, all!

H