Frozen swamp

[dwaugh]

I went out today when it was sunny to take some photos and finally got to this shot that I've been wanting to get. The obstacle in the past was blackberry bushes, but today I wanted the shot, and they were frozen, so I walked over them. I think the first may be my favorite and the last one not as good as the others. This is across the street from my house. Any thoughts on this set? Happy new year to all!

[EverlastingImpressions]

I agree with the first being my favorite, as well. It has a more "full" look to it, including the sky, and showing the trees in their entirety.
Looks cold!

[racedraper]

nice. but what would make the pic is maybe wait until dusk and get lower to the ground and take the pic as the sun sets to get more color in it,

[dwaugh]

I couldn't wait any longer. That was the best time of day for the shots. You can see how long the shadows are. As I was there, it darkened as the sun went down behind the taller trees behind me. That was about 2:30. I also can't get lower without taking out some small bushes that would be in the way.

[Grandpaw]

I like the first one but think the contrast needs to be bumped up. I tried it in PS and bumped the contrast up about 14 or 15 and liked it much better, Jeff

[Ron Kruger]

I agree with Race. I think waiting just a few minutes would make this shot much more dramatic, with better color and contrast.
The exposure for these shots are always tough, because the metering system is going to expose for the general brightness of the scene, so trees and reeds and other things come out over-exposed or flat. Whenever I'm faced with such situations, I always bracket to under-expose the shot a click or two. And I hang around to repeat the process for the full time of what I call the Twilight Zone, taking shots with each change in light, or about every 10 minutes or so.
A long time ago a pro told me that if a scene was worth a shot, it was worth a rool, and I've followed that advice ever since. Digital is even less limiting, so fire away until it is too dark to fire without flash, experimenting with various exposure and shutter speeds, then edit at the computer.

[dwaugh]

Like I said, I'm unable to ever wait any later to take this shot in this position because the sun goes down behind some taller trees well before sunset. I didn't bracket or anything since I didn't have my tripod out, but I shot for at least 10 minutes until the sunlight was gone. The twilight zone idea is good and I may need to try that sometime.

More contrast does help it a bit. I don't usually go beyond my normal amount of adding contrast, since at the time of editing, my normal amounts already make huge improvements over the original image, and doing it all at once sometimes feels like overdoing it.
I should also say that I took these as RAW and did the HDR processing in Photomatix. The light wasn't bad to begin with, but I just really like the colors and details that it can bring out in some of the areas.

[EOSThree]

This looks like the forest preserves I visited as a kid in Illinois. The first is definitely the best IMO. I also agree that later, maybe even after the sun had gone down may have been better. I feel your pain with the sun going behind some object causing long shadows. That why waiting even longer until the sun had gone completely down and the light flattened out some and hopefully lit the bases of the clouds may have been better. This is pretty good though, reminds me of home(even though it was probably taken in Washington it still looks like Illinois.

[GiGi]

I like the 2nd the best out of the bunch. I'm not a fan of the first though, I think the dull, flat looking trees in the background kind of ruin it for me... The rest are nice, but I like #2 the most!

[dwaugh]

Thanks. There is always someone who sees things differently. My second favorite is a toss up between the second and third.