Flowers and Fog and a revision

Revision with the brightest part of the sky toned down:

I don’t get to shoot in the fog very often living in the desert southwest, but when it is cloudy and misty up on the mountain, I try my hand at it.

Yesterday was a lovely day up there with a soft mist for a few hours. The flowers in the field were striking to me with the more distant trees and fog.

Specific Feedback Requested

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Olympus EM-1 Mark III
7-14mm f/2.8 @ 12mm
1/80, f/8, ISO 200

keithcbauer
6 Likes

Keith this is wonderful. It reminds me of scenes from Mount Rainier here in the Pacific NW. I can’t think of anything to change on this. It’s a great scene and you captured and processed it nicely.

1 Like

Hey Keith, I really enjoy this scene. I love the way it invites you deeper, even the little hint of a trail where the grass meets the trees. Great shot! Not sure if my eyes are deceiving me…by you may have even snagged a humming bird just next to the “r” in your logo at the bottom! :laughing:

I’m not sure if you were just being funny, but the hummer is part of my logo! :crazy_face:

Hahaha, I’m done. I quit. I had no clue lol

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This is an excellent image Keith, I just love the dreamy, ethereal look of this scene. And a nice small touch is how the faint path leads the viewers eye off into the foggy forest. Your processing looks right on the money to me, it has a wonderful soft glow look that is very appropriate for these conditions. The yellows and greens here look great.

I think the image as presented works very well. My only nitpick though is the very top of the image, I think it has enough visual weight that it pulls me away from the bottom 3/4’s of the image where the best goodness is. Some of that is the brightness of the sky, i might try to recover highlights locally in just the sky. The other part of it is the two dead trees pull my eyes up and out of the frame. That presents a bit of a dilemma, I think the dead trees are a minor issue, but a crop would cut off the tops of the live spruce trees, and I like seeing the tops of them. So maybe just pull down the sky highlights.

I would have sworn this was Mt. Rainer. If you don’t mind me asking, where in the southwest is this located? A general location is fine, it’s just curiosity more than wanting to go there myself.

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@Ed_McGuirk Thank you for that insight. You have a LOT more experience with fog than I do and I’m grateful for your input. I’ll add a second version of the image that just touches the brightest parts of the foggy sky. The dead trees… Guess I could clone them out, but just want to leave them alone as they are a part of this scene that I visit on a regular basis in all kinds of weather. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if the forest service came in and cut them down though!

Location: This is in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque, NM.

I like your rework Keith. Yes, a very ethereal and pleasing scene.

This is a beautiful meadow scene, and it really is appealing with the fog. I like your re-work with toned down sky.

I saw your OP and thought “holy cow” this is good! Then, the revision appeared. Brilliant.

The pretty yellow flowers and the soft greens of the grass lure me onto that pathway that curves from the foreground right into the background trees.

The fog has been captured very well.

Real nice capture of this lush forest scene. The rework nicely improves the image for me, too. I am quite enjoying the foggy mood.

The rework looks perfect Keith. The dead trees are not worth cloning way, it would be very hard to do well. Really great image, it has a wonderful feel to it.

Beautiful, magical looking meadow in the forest scene, Keith! The yellow flowers give the fog and overall image a very soft and cheery look at the same time. Really great composition.

This is a great image Keith, I like it very much! My vote is for the rework.

  • I just a little bit dislike the small empty area in the FG (see red circle below)
  • I like very much the yellow bow (see green line below), and would like it to reach all the way into the empty area in the FG
    So I made a quick clone and stamp to show what I mean (it could of course be made much better if putting in the time needed)

    20210814-_M344444-Edit-copy copy

This is a quiet beautiful scene you brought us. Nice job with the soft light; exposure is just fine, especially in rework. Good sharpness. Very nice feeling of depth provided by the falloff of color, contrast, warmth, and clarity.
My eye is drawn to the large yellow clump near bottom right. Initially bouncing from there to the bright sky of the original. Then appeared the curve of yellow flowers on the left, and finally I saw the trail ahead. The crop below intends to show off the S-curve and draw the viewer deeply into the scene.

Nice observation. Thanks for your insight!