Monday, July 11, 2011

Black and white conversions of snowy landscapes

I was rummaging through old material in Lightroom recently and I noticed some shots from an awesome multihut ski trip I did a few years ago (2008) with some friends. I wrote then about it on my blog and my friend Teresa actually made a writeup of that trip at that time here, where you can see some of the very few photographs that ever got made of me (elusive guy). I am in the red wind shell most of the time in the pictures from Teresa.

Anyway, I noticed that I never got around stitching several multi-image shots I made back then. For weight I was carrying my old Nikon D50 with the kit lens and I did not bring a tripod (more booze could be packed this way). In some cases I was doing handheld multishot panoramas to create higher resolution landscapes. If you do this right, they can still be stitched well even though you might have to do a little touch up afterwards. I worked up a few of these lost landscapes and below I'll post some. I am most focusing here on the aspect of black and white conversion as I noticed that this really works well with some of these. For example, this shot from the front of the Goodwin/Greene hut was captured around sunset. The sun was coming through a thin cloud of snow crystals and generated this absolutely gorgeous light. I cannot believe I never stitched this image.

Goodwin/Greene evening
5 shots using a Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lense at 18mm, ISO 200, f/10, 1/320s. Assembled in hugin. Pretty much as shot - no nasty HDR. Buy a print

This image really has to be seen large, which you can if you click on the link. To get back here use your browser's back button.

I converted this to black and white in Lightroom simulating a light red filter which again has to be seen large.
Goodwin/Greene sunset
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Another new image that I really like is this panorama of our group coming up on a pass, rising out of a foggy valley.
Out of the mist
5 images from a Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lens at 30 mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/500s. Buy a print

In the same place, but looking in the other direction, I took this image:
Cloudy pass
6 images from Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lens at 24mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/500s. Buy a print.
At the moment, my blog's banner has another version of this image that was taken a few minutes later after the clouds on Castle and Cathedral peaks cleared up a little. This cloudy view is also quite nice and will print really nice large for on your wall ;-)

I have several more images waiting to be born in my library from this trip. We'll see when I get to them. I still have a gigantic backlog to deal with with some very nice images in them too that I haven't spoken about yet. I have a little picasa gallery of new snowy black and white conversions here.

8 comments:

  1. Nice job - I will follow your photo blog.
    I'm going to start a photoblog soon, actually I am working in a professional photography and videography production studio in Singapore. We have several professional photographer specialize in products shoot, fashion, corporate shoot, and architecture etc....

    I will ask some professional photography tips from them and post them on my photography blog and share with the photography learner........

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  2. the middle one reminds me of Finland ... although without the mountain.

    I miss the snow :-)

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  3. " (more booze could be packed this way)"

    I always recommend brandy for the trip. Lighter than beer and won't freeze :-)

    Why not take a camera like a micro4/3 camera and save a bit more weight?

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  4. Haha, yeah we packed mostly hard liquor. Beer is too bulky indeed. If I had owned a 4/3 camera I would probably have packed that. As is the choice was between the D50 and a compact. The D50 is very light and small compared to the D300 I use most.

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  5. Jao, my family are also Finnish, so "hard" booze means > 80% ... the people of the nth American continent are often regarded as "wuzzies" in that department (calling 40% "hard")

    just wondering ... was the snow ok for glide or was it too cold and like sand?

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  6. In Holland people always called the 80+ proof liquor "windowwashing liquid". We probably had mostly whiskey, brandy and vodka. I do remember a flask of wine the first night.

    The snow was mostly really good. It was dumping like crazy every night. Saw several slides set off. One really close by. My friend Teresa wrote a good writeup about the trip here

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  7. thanks for the link, looks like a real nice spot. Are those cabins expensive?

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  8. These huts are in the Braun part of what's called the 10th mountain division hut system. The Braun huts are in major avalanche terrain and we saw quite a few paths and even a few go off. These huts are not that expensive to book, but they fill up a year in advance so it is hard to get in. Luckily there is a market of people selling their spots when they discover that they cannot go on the date they booked long in advance. Some of the 10th mountain huts have a lot of amenities like even saunas and such but others are just yurts.

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