I went hiking in the mountains several weeks ago. All of the photos are here. Note that these do not have funny captions and are in a VERY different style than what I normally do. Apparently I think of landscapes differently than I do animals.
Reason 1: It was dark, rainy and cloudy. The desert wasn't colourful that day, and when I tried to boost the colours, it looked awful.
Reason 2: I really like to isolate elements in photography. With animals, it's easy. You just find a clean background and angle the shot so that the animal stands out. With landscapes, it's much more difficult. The technique that works for me is to pop the contrast up and drop the saturation WAY down. That way, distracting elements blend in and the stuff I want stands out. The crow and the silhouetted mountain/tree are extreme examples.
Wonderful set! The first picture is magnificent, reminiscent of Ansel Adams. The tree is striking, I really love that. I also love the bird perched on the single branch; the black and white and completely focusless background just leave atmosphere and shape to make the picture work, which they do in spades.
The bird is a hummingbird. All the other birds wouldn't sit still and kept flying away (a real problem in the dim light). The hummingbird, however, just sat and let me take photos.
Very nice. I think maybe the tree on the silhouette of the hill might be my favorite. And I don't think I've seen misty desert photos before, so that's nice.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-02-21 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 05:35 pm (UTC)Reason 2: I really like to isolate elements in photography. With animals, it's easy. You just find a clean background and angle the shot so that the animal stands out. With landscapes, it's much more difficult. The technique that works for me is to pop the contrast up and drop the saturation WAY down. That way, distracting elements blend in and the stuff I want stands out. The crow and the silhouetted mountain/tree are extreme examples.
Reason 3: I was an an Ansel Adamsy mood.
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Date: 2009-02-21 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:13 pm (UTC)Las Vegas is weird.
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Date: 2009-02-21 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:14 pm (UTC)I'm not quite sure what I think of these, as the style is SO different from my normal. I may have to play with this technique more often.
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Date: 2009-02-22 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 01:27 am (UTC)