Tumultiuous sunset

From yesterday evening - a very windy day out here in Wellington. Had to lean on the tripod to ensure the camera (and myself) don't topple over.

Any C&C is welcome!

The gusts of wind were throwing grass and bush around, making it look like stormy seawater.

Once the light started really fading, I decided to goof around with a Lensbaby.

While hiking home through the dark forest, I figured it would be fun to do some light-painting with the moon in the background.

Thanks for looking!

AlexeyM wrote:

From yesterday evening - a very windy day out here in Wellington. Had to lean on the tripod to ensure the camera (and myself) don't topple over.

Any C&C is welcome!

Alexey. I was surprised by how many Wellingtons there are in the world. Which one is yours?

I am impressed with this collection. It seems a bit unusual in that you have included wind-blown foregrounds in shots where someone might expect mere bokeh; so it is good that you explained that.

My favorite is your last shot. It seems the most compelling and interesting -- a little startling after the others. It is obviously a night-shot so it is interesting to see the foreground lit -- and especially the golden colors, but I can't tell if the gray area behind the gold is a bush background or some of your painting that didn't come out right.

Lawrence

The gusts of wind were throwing grass and bush around, making it look like stormy seawater.

Once the light started really fading, I decided to goof around with a Lensbaby.

While hiking home through the dark forest, I figured it would be fun to do some light-painting with the moon in the background.

Thanks for looking!

Very nice indeed, the first 4 are very my style with mountains and the sun in the frame but just watch you don't blow out the highlights as much. Perhaps use a lower exposure again to preserve all highlights except the sun disc itself and ramp up the shadows in post to your liking... You have a KP at your disposal so raising the shadows without lots of noise is much more possible, unlike older DSLRs.

You have HDR DNG mode in your camera, it takes 3x bracketed RAWs and merges them into a single RAW image giving a trulh truly massive dynamic dynamic range for highly demanding landscape scenes where mountains are shadowed by the setting sun. You obviously need a tripod but it is a truly powerful tool for the landscape photographer as it saves you using graduated filters on front of the lens.

Plus the HDR DNG mode saves you merging separate bracketed frames in post, the camera does it for you and you save space and clutter by only having 1 image instead of 3. 😉

That DA* 50-135 looks great for landscapes and I can't see any flare to speak of, it behaves just like a DA*  60-250 in these backlit scenes with the sun in the frame.

Thank you for your input!

You have HDR DNG mode in your camera, it takes 3x bracketed RAWs and merges them into a single RAW image giving a trulh truly massive dynamic dynamic range for highly demanding landscape scenes where mountains are shadowed by the setting sun.

Very cool, I had no idea you could HDR with raw files directly. I'll be sure to play with that feature!

Alexey. I was surprised by how many Wellingtons there are in the world. Which one is yours?

Wellington, New Zealand. I should've specified!

but I can't tell if the gray area behind the gold is a bush background or some of your painting that didn't come out right.

They gray is a cloud. They were moving quite quickly from the wind.

Lawrence

Thanks, Lawrence!

Wow, that is some fantatic work Particularly the first three. Thank you for sharing