Crown of Thorns

[Alun]

With winter returning to the Welsh hills, I took the chance to capture a picture of a site I scoped over 12 months ago.

Isolated on a rocky outcrop, Bryn Cader Faner is considered to be one of the wonders of prehistoric Britain. It is a small cairn 8.5m wide with fifteen thin slabs leaning out of monument like a crown of thorns. Carefully placed in its dramatic setting so as to achieve maximum impact on travellers approaching from the south, this visually superb monument is well worth the long walk in.

I'd been taking pictures there all afternoon and was waiting for the sun to be just on the mountain horizon when this huge snow storm passed through obliterating the sun (and everything else!). I banked on it being a cold front which means extreme weather but for a short time and just before the sunset the clouds cleared but with the added bonus now of snow on the ground - makes up for all the crappy sunsets I've had over the past month.




Please feel free to click through for a full resolution version

alun.smugmug.com

[sdwilsonsct]

Nice one, Alun. Great light.
A niggle: the blue cast in the sky and background seems quite strong compared to the foreground.
Scott

[Alun]

Thanks for taking the time to comment Scott and "yes" I agree with you! I realised that I didnt upload my final version so have updated the one above. Its a subtle change but removes the worst of the blueness in the sky and distant hills.

I also have a similar shot which I am happier with but not sure it tells the story of the circle in the way the first one does?





Again, theres a full res version if the click this one.

Thanks again
Alun


alun.smugmug.com

[francois]

Very nice images but I have to agree with Scott, the blue cast is a bit too much - at least in the first one.

Well done!

[sdwilsonsct]

Hi Alun,
#2 is better not just because the sky is "turned down", but also because there seems to be a bit of blue in the snow which, for me, helps to tie everything together. Nice detail, too.
I prefer the composition, however, in #1.
Scott

[shaunw]

Nice shots Alun

yer bit powered up in the blues in the first easily fixed and i wonder if the second would benifit from cropping some sky out?....... Nice shots well done.

[Alun]

Shaun/Scott/Francois,

Thank you so much for your constructive comments which I've taken on board. I used the new curves channel adjustment in LR4 to dampen down the blues (is this something I need to pay more attention to when setting the white balance in RAW?) and I think its now much improved in the full res version which Ive updated at the top of this post.

Shaun, I take on board your point about the crop and its something that I tried myself but for me it lost something of the feeling of space in the sky accentuated by the streak of cloud hitting the top left hand corner

[sdwilsonsct]

setting the white balance in RAW?

That's one of the first things I look at here in snowy Saskatchewan.
S