Crestone Needle, Colorado

[Paul Marcellini]

An old shot I found. This is the at 12,000 ft, the night before we were to attempt a sunrise summit of Crestone Needle, at just over 14,000 ft. We called it off, as we only had a tarp and didn't sleep at all when a front came through and dropped the temps to the 30's with 40mph wind and rain. But I got a few good shots off and as always on trips like this, great memories with friends.

20d, 10-22@10 f4.5 5 mins iso400 flashlight and campfire light sources.

Thanks for looking,
Paul

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
Only the 30's????.....you must be from S. florida as tomorrow the high will be 18 back here in NJ! good thing I got the 3&1/2 weeks down there.

I really like the clouds off the peak with the trails.....very cool combination. I see the illumination was campfire and flashlight......and while I like it in the middle ground.....not thrilled with of the some of the brighter areas on the right. As you are well aware of the toughest thing to control during night photography is the painting........so I burned a few areas and cropped a bit off the right. For me this evened out the light some and eliminated the few protrusions that didn't add much to the overall image for my tastes. Still...pretty cool that you have such fond memories of this time and I feel the clouds/star trails and comp of the mountain range....combine to form a very nice night time image.
I could have been a bit neater with the burning in the re-post....but hey!...it's late and you get the idea. Let's see what others chime in.

[Ed Cordes]

I like the re post better as the contrast isn't so great between the dark BG and lighter R FG. I might have also worked a bit on perspective control in PS and straightened the trees on the R a bit. The resulting need for a bottom crop should not detract from the overall excellent mood created by the sky color and star trails.

[Rich Ikerd]

Another interesting star trail image Paul. I agree with Roman that the right side needs to be a bit darker. The streaking clouds add a nice dimension of the image as well.

[Robert Amoruso]

Paul,

Well done and I think Roman's tweaks are good. Love the clouds.

[Paul Marcellini]

Thanks guys, I like the crop but the burning is a little too much, I'll probably go halfway. i have no desire to cprrect perspective, as I was going for a tunnel view and liked all the curves going on.