Marrow of the Earth

[Dvir Barkay]

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Returned from my first real photography trip. 9 Days in Yellowstone in the fall. 1500miles inside the park (it is such a large park and all of that mileage is at an average speed of 35-40MPH), 15 hours a day of work, and I even lost 3 kilos and I an assure you all I am rather skinny ;) . I tried many different ideas and took over 7000 images, lots of wildlife, though no one single amazing sightings, a lot of nice images of most of the wildlife of Yellowstone. I tried some dusk and night photography as well. Here is one of the dusk photography attempts. (One thing I always find is a problem with long exposures of mist or smoke or steam is that the sensors do not quite record them nicely and smoothly, an example is my shot, or this shot as well http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/outdoor-scenes-week-4/ (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/outdoor-scenes-week-4/)

1DIII, Canon 70-200/2.8 L IS II with x1.4TC, 280mm, F/8, ISO 100, 15 seconds.

[dankearl]

I like what you went for but the image is too blue for me...
I think you will bet better results with mist and smoke at shorter exposures.

[Dvir Barkay]

Well, it was the blue hour, and so I left that element. I shot in the blue hour to get that effect of blueish cast. Some people do not like that hour at all for landscapes and I understand. I used a custom white balance of 6500 kelvin to correct for a way too blue effect, but in Yellowstone the dusk hour has an intense blue that shines through at even higher kelvin.

[Dvir Barkay]

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Completly reedited it to get rid of some nasty hot pixels I found and did a few minor changes so this is the new final version.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dvir - Yellowstone is a great place to spend some time and I hope we'll see some of your wildlife images in the Wildlife Forum. I've looked at this image for a while and I prefer the rp where the fg is just a bit lighter. Although had you not said this was at dusk, I would have thought it was much later in the evening. Overall the image still feels a little dark (as well as blue but understand that is what you wanted).

TFS,
Rachel

[Dvir Barkay]

Yes, I will post in the wildlife section as well for sure. Just need to get to editing the photos. It is dusk, the funny thing is that the black in the background is an illusion of sky, it is actually a mountain and the sun is setting directly behind it, making it extremely black and lightless.

[Don Railton]

Hi Dvir

It took me a while to figure out what i was looking at...The steam for me is not well connected visually to vent in the ground so the story got a bit lost or was not obvious initally. I think the Fg needs a little more detail as the image only made sense after reading your narative.

DON

[Dvir Barkay]

The steam coming from the Castle cone is not visually connected to it? Not sure I understood. I wanted it to be a bit of an abstract. I am usually a stickler for natural photos and editing, I hate over cooked photos (cough the glow effect and the like), so I tried something that while not overcooked, is more unnatural then my usual works.

[Don Railton]

Hi Dvir... What I mean is that it took me awhile to notice the cone, its barely visable and so I was wondering if I was looking at steam or water spray or smoke... Wasnt suggesting the image needed more 'cooking', just that I thought it might benefit from a little more obvious context for the white stuff.

DON

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Dvir...an interesting effect here and always fun to experiment with new ideas...I do agree with Rachel that it is perhaps a touch too dark.

[Dvir Barkay]

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Here is a version that is a touch brighter.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image especially the last one though I would be tempted to lift the darker areas a little more.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like the mood here, and the blue hour effect.
Good call on the last repost to go a tad lighter. I wish those "fences/barricades" weren't there but they are for keeping stupid people from walking up to the geysers I presume? :Whoa!: