Everglades Landscape

[Harold Davis]

After i left Shark Valley yesterday, I decided to go down to the Clyde Butcher Gallery. On the way, I saw this landscape on the side of Hwy 41 and couldnt resist. I worked a little bit with Capture NX. A slight crop, B/W points, and a few color control points to re-establish the sky that got washed out after establishing the B/W points. finished with a tad bit of USM. I have hesitated to convert to B&W though I may soon. Can anyone make this better?

I just noticed that the colors are washed out BIG TIME in the jpeg conversion. I have seen people talking about sRGB vs Adobe RGB. I have the camera set on Adobe RGB. Anyway to change this in Capture NX?

Thanks for looking and comments and critiques are appreciated.

D300, 28-80 at 66mm, f/18, 1/320s, ISO 250, -1.3EV

[Judd Patterson]

I have no experience with Capture NX, but you will want to convert to the sRGB profile before you post an image to the web...there are just a couple browsers out there (Safari among them) that are currently capable of reading and displaying an AdobeRGB profile. This is a nice scene! I like that you caught the Great Blue Heron in flight as well. To me, the placement of that top cloud at the very top of the frame (and slightly/nearly clipped) could have been done a bit better. Because of the big patch of empty blue sky under it, my gut feeling is that I would have focused in more tightly on the cypress dome. I'd probably have shifted my position to the right some to get a clear view of that patch/island of sawgrass in the water and use that as my lower foreground element. I love to see these everglades landscapes, and I'm so glad that you stopped to experiment. Sometimes it can be tough to pull out a great image with mid-day lighting unless you have some great clouds in the scene. Keep watching as you travel Tamiami Trail the next time!

How was Shark Valley by the way? I haven't heard from anyone that has gone there this year. Thanks!

[Harold Davis]

thanks for the words, judd. shark valley was/is dead. a few birds. it was my first trip there. one of my friends was there when i got there. also photographer, and he goes there quite often and he said it was bad. too hot down here. havent had a winter.

[Judd Patterson]

I'll agree with the "haven't had a winter" comment, Harold. I was here back in `06 and the weather was certainly cooler and more pleasant than this year. Alligators are bellowing at Anhinga Trail right now, a full 2-3 months earlier than in 2006.