 I want to begin today's entry with a quote: 'I say the sun is a most glorious sight, The quote is from Byron's epic poem Don Juan (the poem is long - I've read it in its entirety in my Romanticism course in 2006 - so for reference, the quote above may be found in Canto the Second of Don Juan). (By the way, I really love poems whose titles I can italicize). So how does the quote relate to the image in today's entry? Well, to get to this spot of the world, I (and those in my group) woke up at four in the morning. We started climbing in darkness - except for the few distant lights on the other side of the Dead Sea. Initial exposures on a tripod at 800 ISO and f/8 were between six and eight seconds (maybe a future photoblog entry). So we're climbing, climbing, climbing. I have to take frequent breaks as I am carrying two liters of water, a heavy backpack with my Canon 5D, all my lenses, my tripod, and some other minor things. I am the last one to reach to the top. As we're climbing, most of us are not really aware of what's at the top and what lies ahead of us. So imagine when we get to the top and behold this sight! It's breathtaking! As the sun was slowly rising, I started looking around, gathering the scene in front of me. After collecting my thoughts, I set up my tripod and decided to take some images. The image in today's entry is a high dynamic range image composed from three exposures. Dare I say that it's impossible to capture the entire dynamic range of the scene with only a single exposure? My only regret was forgetting my neutral density filter on the bus - it would have been even more spectacular if I could do a long exposure HDR here. Still, I am pleased with how this final image turned out. If you think the image appears oversatured (on your monitor), let me know (I actually did post-process the final result in such a way as to reduce the overall saturation; in any event, my histogram tells me that there are no clipped channels in the final tone-mapped HDR image). Still, I spent a great deal of time deliberating whether to post the colour version or the B&W version...I see the world in colour - and this is how I remember this scene - but for those curious, I've decided to upload the B&W version (link here). Finally, how would you like to own a print of this image? You can always buy a print via the 'purchase a print' option below, or - for a limited time only - you could enter the contest I am holding to win a free 10 inch by 15 inch print...All the rules and details are here (link). |
||
| < | main | comments | archives & galleries | prints | RSS | coolphotoblogs • listed • VOTE | Doors of Prague | hire me | > |
| facebook page | flickr | reading | about | share this! | Tweet | ||
| Copyright © 2006-2011 Erudite Expressions | contact me | ||
| ||
