Sentinel Peak - The Grampians Australia

[Josh-H]

Here is one from my home stomping ground in Victoria Australia - Sentinel Peak in the Grampians. Soft play of late afternoon light and distant rain showers made the 3.5 hour steep hike to the top worth it I feel. Although I just missed stepping on a Tiger snake on the descent in the dark!
Comments and thoughts welcome as always.

[shutterpup]

At first glance, I liked it. At second glance, the large dark formation in front really dominates. Overall, I like it.

[jule]

Here is one from my home stomping ground in Victoria Australia - Sentinel Peak in the Grampians. Soft play of late afternoon light and distant rain showers made the 3.5 hour steep hike to the top worth it I feel. Although I just missed stepping on a Tiger snake on the descent in the dark!
Comments and thoughts welcome as always.

Hi Josh,
I love the Grampian(Gariwerd) area. I has the most amazing geology. Although I like this image generally ... something was unsettling so I spent some time trying to work out what it was.

I actually found two things. The first is the halo-type effect on the horizon between the land and the haze/clouds. There is a much brighter lining above the range particularly on the left, which looks a bit weird to me.

The other thing is the different angle of the shadows from the mountain ridges on the surrounding land - noticeable on the left ridge in the mid-ground; and the angle of the sun rays through the clouds. They are at different angles.... which made me wonder whether you had done a bit of sky enhancement. Once I realised this incongruity with the rays through the clouds and the shadow angle... the image didn't work for me because it had lost it's credibility.

I am however open to the possibility that my understanding of the physics of the Universe is flawed and extremely limited, - and something could be happening in the cloud to change the angle of the sun through them and diffract downwards at a different angle, but to my understanding the angles of shadow from the one and same light source should emanate from the one point, and in this instance indicate there are 2 points from which light is emanating.


Julie

[Josh-H]

Hi Julie,

I can assure you that all I have done to the sky is to darken it slightly with the gradient tool in Lightroom, apply some clarity to the sky to enhance the sunbeams and add some saturation to the gradient tool. Mother nature did all the rest.

[wolfnowl]

Interesting... overall, I like it.

Mike.

[Justan]

Delightful and a great job of catching the atmosphere!

[EduPerez]

I like the light very much on this one; perhaps it could benefit from some curves / saturation play, but it is very fine as is.

[jule]

Hi Julie,

I can assure you that all I have done to the sky is to darken it slightly with the gradient tool in Lightroom, apply some clarity to the sky to enhance the sunbeams and add some saturation to the gradient tool. Mother nature did all the rest.

Thanks Josh for elaborating. There must be some scientific phenomenon to do with the way the sunlight goes in to the could and refracts back to earth at a different angle than it makes directly producing shadows. Once I noticed it in my mind I couldn't understand it. Mother nature is amazing.....far more than my inept brain can comprehend!

Julie

[DickKirkley]

I really like this image. I think you have caught some very dramatic lighting . The foreground is obviously a considerable distance from the background which would or could mean quite different cloud cover and would help explain Julies concern. But one often sees unusual lighting when looking out over several mountain ranges.

I would really like to see this in Black and White.

Regards
Dick K.

[popnfresh]

Overall I like the shot. The background is what really makes it for me. Not sure the foreground light works all that well. It's not falling on quite the right place IMO.