Orange Melt

[Canyon Hiker]

I shot these last week on the way home from S&R training high in the Sierras. These were shot at about 4k feet at the snow line. I am just getting around to processing them. The only thing I did with these was a slight contrast increase, and I de-saturated 5%. The colors up here can be unbelievable before and after a storm.
The shot with my dog I worked heavily with burning and layers to try and save it, It was heavily over exposed..(shooting directly at the sun) I tried to block the sun with a tree to try and capture what me...and from the looks of it, my dog saw. The sun rays were some of the best I had seen in a long time.
The B&W was unintentional. I started to take the shot with a 2 second timer. I had a call on the radio and set my camera down on the hood of my jeep, and that's what it shot. I thought the reflection off the hood was..different.











Darin

[Lava Lamp]

#1 is outstanding. Maybe - just maybe - you could deepen the blue sky a little.

#2 is really a wonderful moment with the rays and the dog. It’s too bad the exposure si off and the clarity isn’t quite there.

I like #3 a lot, but I keep looking at the stuff inside your jeep. I’d think about using the dodge and blue tool in PS, or something similar to just darken up the right side of the windshield some more.

#4 is quite beautiful, as well. A. Adams would be proud. I would never know the reflection was of your Jeep if you hadn't told us. Maybe clone out that piece of Jeep showing at far right.

#5 doesn’t work nearly so well as the others. I started wondering why and the big difference is that it the geometry is flat. It doesn’t have the multi-leveled three-dimensional quality of the others. (At least that’s my take.)

Thanks for posting. I just posted a set of my own under “Dive Series,” should you like to comment.

[Jay C]

I love the color in the sky in the 1st one, the second one doesn't seem sharp enough, but i like the light rays coming through, the 3rd one could be a Jeep ad, but after lavas comment i started looking at that round thing behind the glass too. Great shots.

[OldClicker]

Nice series. Love the colors on the first and last. The BW reflections were very confusing until I reread your explanation. – TF

[hminx]

Great series Darin #4 grabbed my attention the most because of the weird reflection, should have read the text first, but its still my favourite. As a series the first four look related but different but # 5, altough a cool shot, is too similar to #1. BTW a reflection shot off my 4x4 would not have nearly the same clarity.....

[Shebang]

Ya know, this is really making me mad. I try and try and try -- and you throw your camera on the hood and walk off and this is what YOU get.

Yep, Lava ruined the Jeep one - not really, though. It's got enough going for it that the stuff inside doesn't really bother me.

Great series!!

[daq7]

Damn, they are all nice. I really like the light rays in number 2

[BlueRob]

Awesome shots! The only thing that bother me is on No. 2...the dog silhouette...the light rays look awesome on their own.

[Nicci]

Very nice. Number 2 caught my attention because I love pictures of sunrays. For me it looks slightly washed out but I am the one who likes overly coloured or no colour .

Wonder how it would look in B&W? (big fan of B&W)

The reflection one...WOW!

[Dubbs5050]

I like these all alot, especially the first one, but I am most impressed with #3, because I always have a problem capturing the color of the foreground and the sky at the same time..

[Canyon Hiker]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I'm glad I hit the brakes and fired some shots off as the sun started to set.