The hard way up the Cinder Cone at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Taken in 2018, but reprocessed for today. I’m not sure it’s an Icon in the same way the Grand Canyon is, but it probably gets photographed a lot. And yeah, I’m aware that the light was crap, but you take what nature gives and I did my best to work with it instead of against it.
Specific Feedback Requested
I have some likes and dislikes here, but it’s the best of what I could do with this composition. There are others in the catalog, so maybe I can play with it a little, but I’m interested in general feedback and thoughts. What about the trees on the hill?
Technical Details
Handheld
Lr for an initial crop and the usual adjustments for highlight and shadow recovery. Sky mask to lower some saturation and hit it with a little clarity and dehaze. Sent to Topaz Sharpen for some detail recovery then to Photoshop to use luminosity, color and zone masks to bring up some contour on the cone and the trees. Also to make that wonderful trail more prominent.
There’s something very captivating about this image, Kristen ! For one, I was intrigued by the title. The presence of the lone tree, shifting to a quiet path in the middle of nothingness. Very nice!
I don’t mind the time of day at all. If anything, it adds to the starkness of contrasts between the green tree and the barren hillside. I also really like that line path heading up the hill.
Lastly, I like the way angle of the bright clouds runs contrary to the dark hillside.
Thanks for posting this daytime image!
Ditto Mark’s comments all. As for the trees on the hillside, in the small view I found them distracting but as soon as I enlarged it I felt they added to both the image and the story it tells. I love what you were able to do with the path.
I really like this, Kristen. I feel like it’s very different from a lot of your images. I personally think the light looks great. I love the starkness of the landscape and feel that the light compliments it. Love all the little trees scattered around everywhere and the main tree taking center stage with that nice curving trail that makes me want to explore and see what’s around the other side of the hill. I’ll bet it’s more little trees! . Really great composition!
Kris, as others have said, this is a fantastic image. The comp is terrific, almost graphic. Normally I don’t care for contrails in the sky, but they seem to help this image. Well done!
Kristen, I agree with @David_Bostock about the graphic look of the image, very striking. The trees on the hill don’t bother me. I really like the way you’ve placed the main tree in relation to the path. It’s a really lovely interplay and focus for the image. In that regard, have you tried a crop that leaves out the right most trees? I also think this might make a stunning b/w conversion. Just a couple thoughts. I’d really love to visit Lassen one day.
It’s an icon around here! I’ve made this very same shot. I’m leaning towards Jack’s idea of cropping to eliminate that right-most tree. It would make this even more graphic by bringing in the lower slope right to the edge of the frame. Hopefully it wasn’t too hot for the climb that day!
Thanks @Mark_Muller, @Vanessa_Hill, @JohnSnell, @David_Bostock, @Bonnie_Lampley & @Jack_Krohn - glad a daylight shot didn’t scare you all away. Lassen is a special place and worth the trip if you can get there. I have a friend in Redding where Bonnie lives and she kindly played host in town and recommended her friend’s AirBNB place for us. It’s a haul from there to the park, but the drive is really nice. At the time the main trail around the steam and mud beds was being worked on so it forced us to the outer reaches of the park and the Cinder Cone was one of them. Much more fun to come down than go up - like the cone at Mono Lake you can sort of half run down in the soft pumice.
The other side certainly is more trees and a staircase I believe although I didn’t see it. There are more trails going around and around and inside the cone when you get up there and you can see clear across to Lassen peak (still an active volcano that last erupted about 110 years ago) and down to the painted sand valley floor which is mesmerizing.
I’ve put a second 4:5 crop in the OP. Am working on a vertical shot of just that big tree, too.
Oh and the title came from a bit of lyrics from a song by one of my favorite metal bands, Candlemass.
I’ve been meaning to get to this to let you know that this is an outstanding image from this area - one of the best I’ve seen. I HAVE to visit there one day, it’s a mere 3-4 hours from me I think. Got to go!
I love the original as presented. I don’t know how to describe this, and I mean this as a positive comment, but this almost has a CGI creation look to it. You know how many modern movies including the animated ones complete computer generated… Anyway this has that certain look. And again, I don’t mean is a bad way, I think this is really, really cool.
For starters, the composition is wonderful. The trail/path curving thru the scene and disappearing on mountain is striking. The lone tree and it’s shadow - I even like the tension created as it nearly breaches the ridge. Even the clouds (former contrails I believe) work beautifully “tailing off” the ridge adding yet another dynamic element to the scene.
Trees on the hill? And all the little tykes… all good. All of it. No nits or suggestions.
Oh but I don’t find the light crap at all. On the contrary! It powerfully and beautifully enhances the stark landscape. Vividly brings it to life. The sense of silence in your image is palpable and the title totally fitting. Indeed, it has the quality of a still life in the way that surrealist painters loved to do, in order to let the mind wander off into its own realms. Yet, it’s a photograph! I find it a perfect work of art, bravo! (the crop is “even more silent”, excellent as well, totally a matter of choice/ tough to decide! For me, though, the smaller tree on the right is interesting because it doesn’t seem to be so much more distant and yet it’s so much smaller, further removing my sense of certainty about the image and thereby enhancing the surreal/ more than is captured aspect which is, imo, the hallmark of artistic photography).
Thanks @David_Bostock, @Jack_Krohn, @andronik, @Lon_Overacker & @LauraEmerson - wow, I had no idea this one would appeal to so many people. Often my idea of coping with the less than traditionally perfect light meets with apathy. Oh and I’m glad you like the small trees. They are tough little guys.
I hadn’t thought of it as having a CGI sort of feel, but I think it does and some of it is atmospheric disturbance in the air since it was so hot. Nothing is perfectly sharp, but it is enough so you can tell what everything is. Knowing what the light was, I went for big, bold shapes and tension. Nothing terribly soothing or subtle because the light won’t let you do it. I should dig up the view of Lassen Peak I took from just about where the trail disappears over the hill. That one is basically a series of interconnected triangles and is again, not subtle.
Still working on the portrait version. Did some sharpening and it gave me weird artifacts so I have to start over. Bah.
. Really great composition!