Lake Hodges Images

[markjwyatt]

On the way back from a trip to North San Diego County last week, I stopped by Lake Hodges. The lake moves in and out a lot, so there are interesting features. I did something similar decades ago, so was curious to see what things look like now. I got some interesting shots. I am posting a couple here, but there are more here. Let m know what you think.



Luminous Scene by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr



Egrets in Dead Tree by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

 

[Fujidave]

Hi Mark, you got some nice shots there. My pick is #1 as I just like it more than #2 which looks like you got a bit of banding in the sky. The ones on Flickr look ok, maybe if you have it in your editing software use the Dehaze, hope this helps.

 

[markjwyatt]

Thanks, FujiDave. Not sure I am seeing banding? My monitor is not calibrated. I will look into dehazing (I am shooting jpegs now, and used Gimp to crop a little and tweak contrast; that's most of it).

 

[markjwyatt]

Interesting- I do see some lines in the image in the bottom quarter of the image. I suspect the sky is way overexposed. Is this what you mean by banding?

 

[terri]

My observations have more to do with composition. I like both of these shots, but it looks like the tops of the distant hills are cut out of the frame in the first one. You mentioned cropping; do you have a version that shows the hills completely?

I like the second shot a lot - just wondering what it would look like as a vertical, or even square crop.

Both images seem cropped tightly, and may be stronger with more details in the frame. Just my two cents.

 

[markjwyatt]

My observations have more to do with composition. I like both of these shots, but it looks like the tops of the distant hills are cut out of the frame in the first one. You mentioned cropping; do you have a version that shows the hills completely?

I like the second shot a lot - just wondering what it would look like as a vertical, or even square crop.

Both images seem cropped tightly, and may be stronger with more details in the frame. Just my two cents.

Thanks, terri. Good points on cropping. I do not have another version of the first one with full hills. Maybe I should just crop the sky out, like this one. It grabs more attention with the house, and a lack of sky gives a sense of comfort. I am considering removing the telephone lines, but they are part of the scene. I will take a look at the second shot cropped more vertically.

Luminous Scene with House by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

 

[markjwyatt]

My observations have more to do with composition. I like both of these shots, but it looks like the tops of the distant hills are cut out of the frame in the first one. You mentioned cropping; do you have a version that shows the hills completely?

I like the second shot a lot - just wondering what it would look like as a vertical, or even square crop.

Both images seem cropped tightly, and may be stronger with more details in the frame. Just my two cents.

Spoke too soon. I do have a very similar shot, at I believe one stop less exposure, and the hills are visible. Do you think this is an improvement? I debated which one to go with. I thought the one I picked had a little better high key tonality in the distant part of the scene. But this one is close (with a bit of tweaking the tone curve).

 

[markjwyatt]

Here is the second- closer to square.

 

[terri]

I personally like the square crop better here. What do you think?

The shot with the hilltops showing seems stronger than the one showing the house. I like it!

 

[Fujidave]

Interesting- I do see some lines in the image in the bottom quarter of the image. I suspect the sky is way overexposed. Is this what you mean by banding?

View attachment 157520

I only said banding because I shared a photo, and someone said banding in the sky. It looked just like your one, but not sure what the correct wording is though.

 

[Pomo]

Second photo more interesting. I would turn camera to the left a bit.

 

[markjwyatt]

Second photo more interesting. I would turn camera to the left a bit.

Agreed. The bird is flying out of the photo. He took off as I was framing, so I quickly snapped the shot. I have some more images of them flying low to the ground that I need to crop, and I will upload to my photostream later.

 

[razashaikh]

Great shot.