Here we are at edition 10! Thanks for sticking with me if you’ve followed from the beginning. Otherwise, I’m very glad to have you here as a reader. If you’re new, I would love to have you as a subscriber. You will receive a welcome email and then every post to Field Notes will be emailed to you (I’m not going to spam you). This way you don’t have to remember to check for updates.
I’ve made a lot of moves behind the scenes. Primarily, I’m trying out a different site for my photography portfolio. It will allow me to show my work in galleries, but also gives you the option to purchase prints, metal prints, canvas wraps, or digital downloads directly from the gallery. Check it out here-
Mountain Laurel at Dawn
This image was taken on the morning of June 7, 2023. I was camped at the top of Cold Mountain in the Shining Rock Wilderness of Western North Carolina. Cold Mountain is not a bald, but has rock outcroppings that provide panoramic views to the south. The field of view was not wide enough to allow me to see either the sunset or the sunrise, but I was able to frame these mountain laurel blooms with some early morning color in the sky.
My preference for a shot like this would be to focus stack. I would take a shot focused on the flowers, maybe one on the big rock, and another on the mountains in the background. Then, I could combine all of these in Photoshop for an image with perfectly sharp focus from the extreme foreground to the distance. But, this is wilderness photography so I had to work around the elements.
A slight breeze was steadily blowing that morning. Even slight movement in the leaves makes focus stacking in Photoshop nearly impossible, as the images do not perfectly match up. So, I chose aperture f11 which gives me the best lens sharpness and acceptable front to back focus. The blooms were the primary subject, so that had to be the focus point. I kept ISO at 100 to keep the image free of noise, but this also meant a longer shutter speed. This was at 1 second due to the low light. A lull in the wind gave me the best chance for a shot without motion blur in the leaves. I think the image turned out alright, with the exception of the more exposed tree at the top left.
This image was just one shot, which I exposed to the right. By this I mean that I exposed it as bright as I could without blowing out detail in the light of the sky. Doing so, I was still able to capture detail in the dark shadows on the bottom without clipping the blacks. Therefore, one shot was sufficient.
To edit the image file I dual processed it. There is a dramatic difference between the lightness of the sky and the shadows in the foreground. So, I made a virtual copy of the image. This allowed me to process one image to bring out the best qualities of the sky and the other to bring up the exposure and lift shadows in the foreground. I then combined the 2 versions of the same photo in Photoshop for the final image that you see.
This next part is an experiment. I would like to give everyone who reads this publication a free full resolution digital download of Mountain Laurel at Dawn. Following this link will take you to the gallery with this image. Click the download button below the photo. It will ask for your email address. The file should download directly to your computer or phone and you may also get an email with the file. The only caveat is that the image will have my watermark logo on the bottom right. Any purchased prints or downloads from this site do not have this on the final product. Here’s the link-
I hope this works as intended. Please let me know in the comments below how easy this is and whether you like and use these digital downloads of my photos!
I’m planning on a short trip to the Cohutta Wilderness this coming week. Stay tuned to read about it in upcoming editions of Field Notes!
Till then, keep your boots muddy!