Winters Blanket

Three years I’ve waited, an event affixed firmly in my mind. The sun rising behind a set of snow covered Appalachian mountains. Light playing softly over the peaks, as the shadows just begin to lift. The skeletal trees topped in white, giving you a glimpse of what yet my be in the coming months. The sky beginning to burn just behind the clouds, giving just the hint of light. The scene I describe is one i glimpsed three years ago, unable to stop and capture the image then, I held on, hoping for another day where I may yet get to shoot those mountains, and at last, I found my shot. Three years of waiting for the right conditions, and finally something to show for it. As winter draws on, perhaps I will find another few shots such as this, as rare as the snow is down in the south.

The harsh reality to this image is it’s a facsimile of a memory. The clouds didn’t clear until late into the day, after I had spent the morning in the high peaks looking for grand landscapes in the fresh snow. Once I arrived here, the clouds had just begun parting, and giving me a hint of what could of been. Originally I was going to leave this image off my editing table, but for one reason or another, I took it was a challenge, could I recreate one of my great missed shots, or perhaps resign myself to never getting the image that haunts me from my mind…. Well lets see then.

The edit of this image was long, and arduous, I don’t often like to spend huge amounts of time on a image, over processing is a real problem after all. The first thing I did was set the base color temperature, then adjusted my histogram curve. A few tweaks of highlights and shadows, and I exported to another program to continue my work. First, I wanted to leave the sky alone and show the truth of the matter, but eventually I caved when I realized I just didn’t like the sky at all. The only choices then were, throw it out, or replace the sky entirely. I opted for a full sky replacement, for a second time trying this procedure it went remarkably smoothly, taking my time to define masks and blending the original photo with the new sky worked fairly well. From there I used a radial filter to bring light to the mountains and a hint of vignette alone the edges to help guide the viewers eyes in. All in all, this image was 23 layers deep, and a learning experience all the same.

Until Next Time!

Aperture: f9
ISO: 125
SS: 1/640th
Focal: 72mm

Fujinon 50-140mm