One of my favorite things to do is to be the very first person to a popular sunrise location. Even an hour before sunrise, the light can be magical. In this 2-minute single exposure captured at f/16 and ISO 100, there are faint, faint star trails visible when viewed at 100%. This photo was captured a good 10-20 minutes before any other photographers arrived at this location, and it is one of my favorites of the bunch.
Critique the Community
Landscape Photography
With Elia Locardi
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You must have had a good calm morning as the flowers seem pretty sharp
Indeed it was, thankfully! I time-lapsed the entire sunrise, as a horizontal frame of this exact foreground and background, and the flowers held perfectly still the whole time. It was freezing cold for late July, though! I didn't sleep at all in the back of my rental car with nothing but a thin blanket and a couple jackets. I went back to my car and passed out in the warm sun just after sunrise.
Love the composition, colors, and leading lines. Two things I wish were different/improved. I wish there was some clouds in the sky. Not that I don't mind the blue, wish there was some colored clouds. Secondly, and something that's less taste related is I wish the background was sharper, focus stacked I guess considering the foreground is the focal point.
Agreed, this shot was a 2-minute exposure at f/16; I should have done two 1-minute exposures at f/11 for the foreground and the background.
I shot it at f/16 because I was testing the DOF for the timelapse that I was about to start, which would have been impossible to focus stack. After capturing this image with a 2-minute shutter speed, I bumped up my ISO four or five stops, and then started my timelapse with 4-8 second exposures, since that was roughly the interval I wanted to timelapse the sunrise at...
Thanks for your input!
Excellent shot. Stands out amongst all the others posted in the last few days but is only rated a 2.98 'solid' - the rating system is broken. I would have preferred it slightly warmer in tone but thats my only critique :)
Thanks for the honest comment, Liam!
I appreciate the feedback regarding the temperature of the image as a whole; I'll remember it. I edited the image this way at first because, to me, this particular time of day, literally called "blue hour", has a stunning blue quality to it that is not replicated any other time of day. It can be truly magical when captured correctly. However, of course it's entirely possible (and probably more common than not) to simply not do it correctly, too.
I've spent plenty of years seeking critique, and also plenty of years thinking, "I don't need feedback, I do what I do because that's exactly the way I want it to look." However, this is not one of those years, haha, if anything I am more eager than ever to understand exactly how others view my photos, in any and every context.
This brings back good memories to my Grand Teton visit 3 years ago. Well done!