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Morkel Erasmus
01-03-2010, 03:51 PM
Hey everyone!

I am back from a refreshing trip to the lovely Cape province of South Africa. If you've ever been there, you'll know what I'm talking about. Seeing as it was a family holiday it would have been inconsiderate of me to plan the entire holiday around photography but I did manage to get some shooting done.

A while after our country was first colonised by Van Riebeeck and the Dutch, there came a contingent of French Settlers fleeing the French Revolution. They settled in the Cape and started doing what Frenchmen do best - woo our women and cultivate fine wine ;).

They were called the French Huguenots, and the town of Franschhoek was founded for them (it means "French Corner" in Dutch). Settled in a fertile valley between the Hottentots-Holland and Overberg mountain ranges, the viticulture here is in a class of its own. The little town boasts no more than 3 of the country's top 10 restaurants and numerous wine farms dot the landscape as far as the eye can see.

This view was captured from a mountain pass as you leave Franschhoek to travel further inland. It is a 3-image HDR processed in Photomatix to cut through the haze and handle the dynamic range.

Your comments are highly appreciated...

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 18-55mm IS lens @ 18mm
f16 @ ISO-100
3 exposures (-1,0,1)
tripod-mounted

John Ippolito
01-03-2010, 04:41 PM
Thanks for the tour, Morkel. Yes there is some wonderful viticulture in this area. I like the elements and arrangement of the composition. I think a bit of contrast tweak would make it even better. Hope you don't mind that I made a quick and dirty adjustment with it. I may have destroyed the look you were trying to achieve.

David Thomasson
01-03-2010, 07:34 PM
Mork, your image plus the historical sketch makes me want to visit! This is a great "post card" shot. All I would recommend is selective brightening
of the middle ground to pull the eye more strongly down into the town spread across the floor of the valley. Something like this ...

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1122/valley.jpg

Morkel Erasmus
01-04-2010, 02:55 AM
thanks for commenting and taking time to suggest some changes David & John!

I like the lightening of the foreground and the slight boost in contrast.

Stu Bowie
01-04-2010, 04:16 AM
Hey Mork, we took a day trip there last week. I like your view, but we came in from the back of Stellenbosch. Did you take any pics of the church in the town, and the memorial?

Dave Mills
01-04-2010, 08:37 AM
Hi Morkel, I like your basic comp which is well handled. The reposts by Dave and John help the image by removing an overall caste.Dave's repost also brightens the image which also adds contrast and further sections the image.

Robert Amoruso
01-04-2010, 10:02 AM
I agree that Dave's repost works well.

Roman Kurywczak
01-04-2010, 04:11 PM
Hey Morkel,
Late to the party again!!! Glad you had a great holiday and the history is pretty cool too! One last thing I will add to the above ......try lightening the FG bush/flower tops just a bit.....to make them stand out even more....this will add just one more element to David's fine re-post!

Morkel Erasmus
01-05-2010, 01:58 AM
thanks for the constructive comments Roman, Dave, Robert & Stu.

Stu - we didn't spend much time in the town itself except for a quick luncheon.

Here is a reworked version with middle ground lightened and foreground bushes lightened...

Nick Palmieri
01-05-2010, 08:09 AM
Morkel, thanks for the history lesson. Like the final re-post.

Vida van der Walt
01-05-2010, 08:18 AM
A great shot that captures the beauty of the area so well. Also prefer the final repost.:)

Morkel Erasmus
01-05-2010, 08:23 AM
thanks for viewing Nick & Vida!