It’s interesting shooting a scene along side another photographer whose work you respect. It provides an opportunity to see through another’s eyes — through their vision and their interpretations.
It also provides a interesting perspective of my own work — what I saw, focused upon and interpreted in that same situation.
This was a sunrise, but the sun never made a direct appearance, it only slowly became lighter.
Standing in the near dark on a mountain overlook, I was enthralled by those first moments of twilight. Those moments when slight definition of ridge lines and the blue/purple landscape, fog and clouds became apparent below — the moment of awareness of the vastness and grander laid out before me. Consciously, or sub-conciously, that moment, that impression and “feeling” was what I was targeting in these photographs and would later be post-processing for.
That was my story. Yet, I was caught a little unprepared to tell this story. I was shooting handheld with my Olympus E-M5 . I will travel with my tripod next time.
My story, my personal filters — yet this same scene can be viewed differently. It’s pretty amazing how much of ourselves, our viewpoints and voice, we bring to our photos — I say…”Vive la différence.”
It was my pleasure to share this early morning stealthy sunrise shoot at the Pounding Mill Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway with Tom Dills — click on the link above and you might notice some shared scenes as seen through his eyes. :-)
Earl, you made the mountains float in a sea of blue. Outstanding!
Steve, much obliged for those kind words!
I agree with Steve, but outstanding is putting it mildly.
Just another quick observation – your photos are a bit darker in tone from Tom’s and maybe a bit more dramatic because of the tone. Another example of how our photos reflect our perspective.
Ken, thanks and you’re exactly right about the darker tones.
I underexposed a little when I took the photos and then pushed them a little more in that direction post-processing. Accurate or not, the twilight darkness is what I remember “seeing” — my perspective. Camera’s can almost be too good in low light sometimes.
I probably go for a little darker tones then Tom in general…i’ve often admired the delicate lightness of many of his photos. :-)
Hey Earl, thanks! At first I thought you were talking about that guy in the pickup truck we saw! :)
Interesting to read the comments about the relative brightness and resulting contrasts between our photos. I tend to overexpose a bit and darken them down in processing, although they do still come out a bit lighter. I also desaturated the blues a bit in my photos and actually warmed them a tad.
I wonder if the difference is style or maybe my eye is attuned to what will look good in a print. An interesting topic for further analysis!
Hi Tom,
It is interesting how we diverged from the same scene to our own individual results. After a couple of shots I started to underexpose my photos a bit to fit the artistic impression I was going for and to help with a faster exposure time since I was shooting handheld.
You may be right about the printing…I’m not certain how these images would turn out but I’m thinking of printing them to find out. It would be nice to crank up the Epson again — it’s been a while.
Blue is one of my favorite colors so I like all of these images. I’m with you on the waiting part. and seeing objects becoming clearer as light reflects off them. Glad you guys were able to enjoy the time up there. Thanks for sharing!
Monte, thanks! That’s the one thing Tom and I agree on…the scene was some shade of “blue.” :-)
I really like the moodiness to all of these Earl. These types of mornings are full of anticipation aren’t they? You never know if the sun is going to light the sky on fire, or if it is going to stay hidden.
Mark, For sure mornings like this are unpredictable. We kept waiting for the sun or at least some warm colors from the sunrise to punch through…but it didn’t, which turned out alright in this case. :-) Thanks!
What a beautiful and tranquil series – I like how you’ve captured the mystical and enchanting atmosphere of that early morning scene. The mist, the clouds and the wonderful different shades of blue and purple are absolutely stunning. Many compliments, Earl.
Hi Martina, Good to see you again and thank-you. It was a good morning, even if the sum failed to make an appearance.