Horseshoe Lake at Daybreak

[Andrew McLachlan]

Here is one from my week long stay at the family cottage on Horseshoe Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario. I often head out long before sunrise in the canoe and see what develops, however, it always seems as though the best vantage point is while floating in 20-30 feet of water. As a result, this one was handheld from the canoe as the sun just began to rise above the surrounding forest.

Nikon D200
Nikon 80-400 VR lens @ 150mm with VR on
f10 @ 1/500 sec.
ISO 200

Look forward to comments.

99185

[Brendan Dozier]

Awesome light on this, Andrew! Beautiful scene and composition. Love the mist and good balance of light & dark. Nice work from canoe.

[dankearl]

Great light, color and mood, Andrew.
The mist is very nice, I would just soften it a tad, make it sort of dreamlike.
Very nice as is, though, well done.

[Rachel Hollander]

Andrew - really like the layers of color here and the mood that the mist creates. Well composed with the rocks on the left and the land on the right. Maybe a little ccw rotation?

TFS,
Rachel

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Andrew, this is wonderful! Light and mist are great and I like the diagonals created by the low light falling trough the trees. I'll second the rotation suggestion, the shorelines and rocks seem a little tilted.

[jack williamson]

Very dramatic and well captured light Andrew! Judging by the rock outcrop in the llc it looks pretty level to me.

Jack

[John Blumenkamp]

Beautiful image Andrew... I really like your composition and variations from mist to darker trees and rocks. I also agree about a slight rotation.

[Judy Howle]

Beautiful scene Andrew! I like the mist and the light coming across the trees at an angle. Well captured.

[Jay Gould]

I have a "bug" about straight images; in this case I think it is straight. If you look at the far shore line you do get the feeling that it needs CCW; however, if your look at the LHS foreground rocks, the water line is almost spot on. Any CCW would have the effect of lean the trees too much.

The image: wonderful!!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks folks for the comments very much appreciated! Yes it is level. The far shoreline Jay mentions is actually leading away from us and the foreground rocks are pretty much parallel to us. I used the grid lines in the viewfinder to line up the foreground rocks and made sure the tallest white pines were parallel to the frame edges as white pines have a tendency to grow very straight. However, when working from the canoe, I usually shoot several frames just to make sure I get one that is spot on. Thanks again for the comments.

[Robert Amoruso]

Andrew,

Good use of the atmospheric affects to add depth and drama to the image. Well composed and pleasing to the eye.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Andrew, Been away for 2 days... I agree with the comments above and feel this image is well handled overall. My only suggestion is a small bit of water added to the base. Nicely done!

[Hilary Hann]

You've captured the beautiful drifts of golden light floating across the image. Love it.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hilary, Robert and Dave,

Thanks for the additional comments, much appreciated!