Alpine Moss Field

[Laurence]

In the high Olympic Mountains, even the long days of summer sunshine don't make much of a dent in the residual snowfields that collect in the higher cirques. In turn, these snowfields melt off at a constant rate, giving the mosses down lower the water they must have.

In places, there are many acres of pure ecotones with moss as the predominant species. Here is a "looking straight down" shot with a Pentax 645. I liked the composition that the moss-rocks combination gave me, so I thought it was worth a shot.

 

[Sarah23]

I like the shot....but the green seems very BRIGHT...did you do anything to the color pp? I love the way moss looks

 

[Laurence]

I like the shot....but the green seems very BRIGHT...did you do anything to the color pp? I love the way moss looks

Sarah, I've gotten the same reaction to the BRIGHT greens from others who have looked at a print I made. So then, I show them the transparency that is nearly spot-on with the print, except even MORE dense in color. The moss in these areas is tremendous for their bright color. You can spot them from opposite ridgelines from literally miles away.

In fact...truth here...I backed off on the saturation about 8 points in Photoshop. The Velvia certainly captured the true greens beautifully, but it was almost garish on the transparency.

These moss fields are a photographer's delight, and I will be going back as soon as the snow melts again.

 

[LaFoto]

"Alpine Moss Field" ... now doesn't such a title suggest there will be a very green photo for me to look at and enjoy!?!?

(Laurence, you still don't know me well enough, but others may confirm that I am the forum's inbuilt green lover - green as it appears in nature is the colour that I love WITH A PASSION!)

And indeed: I did not get disappointed AT ALL with this photo. Not at all!!! Lovely. Wonderful. Very nicely composed, too, with the grey of the rocks inbetween, and very sharp. And moss being moss, this is definitely not too green, I mean: is there anything like "too green" in nature???

 

[Kazoo]

Great comp, the rocks and shadows give it such interest. I love how much green you have here, I've seen moss like that before but only in tiny patches. So neat to see the effect when it's really thriving.

 

[Sarah23]

Sarah, I've gotten the same reaction to the BRIGHT greens from others who have looked at a print I made. So then, I show them the transparency that is nearly spot-on with the print, except even MORE dense in color. The moss in these areas is tremendous for their bright color. You can spot them from opposite ridgelines from literally miles away.

In fact...truth here...I backed off on the saturation about 8 points in Photoshop. The Velvia certainly captured the true greens beautifully, but it was almost garish on the transparency.

These moss fields are a photographer's delight, and I will be going back as soon as the snow melts again.

wow! I would love to see that in person! I hope what I said didnt imply that I didnt like the photo! I just had never seen moss THAT bright before! I LOVE LOVE LOVE green too....its by far my favorite color! I really like the rocks mingled in there....makes for great contrast!

 

[Laurence]

Sarah wrote: wow! I would love to see that in person! I hope what I said didnt imply that I didnt like the photo! I just had never seen moss THAT bright before! I LOVE LOVE LOVE green too....its by far my favorite color! I really like the rocks mingled in there....makes for great contrast!

No problem Sarah, I never took it wrong. Your statements are appropriate and timely! This is, after all, a VERY green piece of our planet! I am going to dig up some more, because the green moss has some great characteristics that are really showing the virtues of Velvia in these types of applications. Velvia is certainly NOT for every image, but in this case it captures the greens almost TOO well, but that's okay as one can "back off" on saturation easier than trying to "add" to saturation.