Lake Takhlakh and Mt. Adams

[RxForB3]

Yay for no sleep! I stayed up last night just so that I could drive out at 2 a.m. for an attempt at some astrophotography. It was a beautiful, clear night, until I got about a mile away from my destination and reached the other side of the mountain. Completely overcast!! I dozed in the car for a few hours hoping the sky would clear, but it didn't. I decided I wasn't going to waste the trip and decided to drive another two hours to a lake I'd heard of. Talk about remote! I was the only person around for miles and miles. The lake was overcast and foggy at first (see other post), which added to the feeling of isolation. About 30 minutes after I arrived, the air started to clear and oh what an amazing sight! These photos really don't do it justice. In person, it seemed like I could reach out and touch the mountain! If only I'd had a canoe!

Sorry for the number of shots. I'd really like thoughts/suggestions so that I can do better the next time I visit. Particularly, I'm curious which style/composition you all prefer.

1. This first shot is actually an HDR. I think it turned out better as far as properly exposing the trees and mountain, but unfortunately I didn't have much of a reflection at the time.


IMG_9442_3_4 by RxForB3, on Flickr

2. This one I decided to try with some framing. I played with adding some fill light in Lightroom. It definitely brought out the foreground without making the rest of the photo washed out, but I thought it distracted from the mountain so I left it turned down.


IMG_9405 by RxForB3, on Flickr

3.


Mt. Adams by RxForB3, on Flickr

4.


Takhlakh Lake by RxForB3, on Flickr

5.


Guardian by RxForB3, on Flickr

Which of the last two do you prefer? With the reflection, I like the symmetry of #4 and the fact that it takes up more of the photo, but I think I prefer #5.

Thanks in advance for your time!

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

Amazing! I just wished you used a slow shutter speed! to Increase reflection!

 

[Jaemie]

I prefer #5. But then, perfect symmetry isn't really my thing. Hehe.. Very nice work.

 

[yerlem]

I prefer #5, #4 isn't symmetric enough. I prefer #3 as a symmetric shot
Beautiful place!

 

[RxForB3]

Yes, I suppose that's true, so now that you mention it, I like #5 better, as well! Thanks for all the comments so far.

 

[Joel_W]

picture #1 the sky is just too bright compared to the rest of your set. You also have the ground sky transition line almost dead center in every picture. In some the water/mountain should be the 2/3 of the thirds rule. In others the opposite seems to work.

 

[RxForB3]

I see what you mean about number 1. I may have to reprocess it. I'm sure there will be some way to fix it with my HDR processing.

As for the positioning, I chose the positioning in order to include the reflection. Are you thinking I should include more sky at the expense of the reflection, or more lake, or am I focusing too much on aspect ratio and should just lop of some sky? I seem to have this mental block against anything other than 2:3...

 

[Joel_W]

I see what you mean about number 1. I may have to reprocess it. I'm sure there will be some way to fix it with my HDR processing.

As for the positioning, I chose the positioning in order to include the reflection. Are you thinking I should include more sky at the expense of the reflection, or more lake, or am I focusing too much on aspect ratio and should just lop of some sky? I seem to have this mental block against anything other than 2:3...

In picture #1 there isn't much of a reflection as the water has a slight chop to it from the wind. The sky has some great cloud formations, so I would got with 2/3 sky with a lot less water. Here's a quick re-edit. I also softened up the blue sky tones, and tried to bring back some of the earth tones in the mountain as the ground not covered in snow is blue, but still look way too dark to me. At least you'll get the idea of what I'm talking about.