Mount Monroe Sunset...

[w7xman]

I hung out and around the New England Alpine Zone yesterday (into last night) photographing the alpine flowers. It's an interesting year for them, as the ice earlier this week, combined with near 100mph winds has clearly impacted the quality of the blooms, but there are plenty of flowers to be found, and many yet unopened.

I took in sunset last night from atop Mount Monroe, next to a patch of flowers that was in the shadow of a big rock, which protected them from the recent weather. I was fortunate to get some wonderful soft light to showcase the scene with.

Lots of pictures to go through, very little time until school gets out in two weeks...but I had to pull this one out!


Alpine Flowers on Mount Washington... by Jim Salge, on Flickr

 

[TDawg]

Real nice!

 

[grouseking]

Jim,

So impressed with this pic....one of these days I'd like to take pics like you do. How on Earth did you get the lighting like this? Granted it was sunset, so that prob helped, but I have never been able to capture anything that this. In my photos, its almost like all of the colors kind of mesh into one, if that makes any sense. In your shot, the different colors pop out perfectly. Awesome.

Edit: Also, I like how you got a taste of all 4 seasons in this shot.

 

[w7xman]

Grouseking...

Thanks so much...It's taken a lot of work to figure out how to get these right! For this shot, I used three filters:

A polarizer
A two stop graduated neutral density filter
A three stop graduated neutral density filter

The polarizer cuts glare, intensify's colors and is a general must have for serious outdoor photography.

The graduate filters balance out the light in the scene...as the flowers were in some shadow, and the sky was bright! The two stop filter is pulled down so that the clear part is over the flowers and everything else is held back. The three stop is over the sky. This makes everything a more uniform brightness like your eye sees...and renders a natural looking shot.

Hope that helps...practice, and the right tools, makes perfect!

 

[forestgnome]

Really nice, Jim! Awesome composition...the eye just keeps going around all over the image...awesome balance of interest throughout the scene...pretty color throughout as well...you're addicted, dude

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

When they ask...

"Why do you spend all your free time up there?" show them this!

KDT