Post by davesenesac on Dec 27, 2016 22:20:54 GMT -8
The day after Christmas, Monday, a cold clear dry air sunny day with light breezes, drove east up to my season pass resort on state route 88. At 3pm my body had enough skiing so left with a plan to work a couple snowy areas roadside for photos as I often do. Most days the weather, light, and time of day leave me just looking while occasionally I have reason to stop and set up for distant sunsets. Only a small percentage of days will I manage to capture strong images but in order to do so one must pay dues of being ready just in case on all the mediocre ones. And on fresh snow days near sunset may put my Tubbs snow shoes on and walk about aspen trunks for close-up images. My first set of images was an aspen trunk and snow that was ho hum.
The texture of fresh snow tends to capture well with subtle shading near sunset making for a wonderful background to small objects. The above is the dried cellulose stalk of one of our carrot family species that probably bloomed end of July. There were several of these stalks poking up above the snow while the above had tipped over laying down against the snow, right where I wanted it. This is a 6000 by 4000 pixel focus stack blend of 12 shots using my Sigma 60mm DN lens. The below link is to a 50% downsized enlarged vertical slice that shows beauty of the finer detail.
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/QC00373-84e.jpg
Back in my car drove down to one of only 3 pullouts along the snowy highway at 6k to 7k elevation where one might stop and photograph the distant western horizon with receding evergreen ridges below. In the far distance across the Central Valley is the Coast Range at about 140 miles. This day thin clouds in the distance had moved in that offered possibility of some interesting post sunset light. Usually the areas of bright dramatically colored light are small and near where the sun sets thus requiring a telephoto lens. I reached the second pull out and set up capturing these images with my Sony 55 to 210mm zoom lens. To make sure focus was on the silhouetted conifers, used manual focus that is well engineered on the A6000 with magnification. A single 6000 by 4000 pixel shot at F7.1. Enlarged:
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/QC00393e.jpg
Next set my tripod head for a vertical orientation in order to fit between a couple blocking trees in the view and captured the above wonderful purple colors. Many photographers in this era of course play with hues and saturation in Photoshop but to get real color like the above is uncommon. A single 4000 by 6000 pixel shot at F7.1. Enlarged:
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/QC00396e.jpg
Sky and cloud dusk colors tend to change rapidly and soon after the purples changed to a nice slightly purple red hue. Enlarged:
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/QC00397e.jpg
David