Sunset Rocks

[Morkel Erasmus]

I have not found time in recent weeks to either go out to shoot some landscapes or dig some from the archives - so this past weekend's break to the South African Highveld Escarpment was a welcome one. Even though the main goal was R&R with old friends and the weather was shoddy, I managed to sneak in some photography.

This area contains all 3 major types of rock formations.

This is a brief moment of breakthrough sunshine in otherwise dreary conditions at sunset. I was shooting in an entirely different direction when I felt the warmth of the sun on my cheek...I turned around and quickly tried to strike a few compositions before it sank behind the clouds again.

All critique welcome...

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 @ 14mm
f22 @ ISO-200
Manual blend of 4 exposures using luminosity masks

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Morkel, beautiful sunburst in this one. Love the rugged terrain here...my kinda place. My only nit is the orange lichens on the rocks look a little too saturated. Nice capture!

[Don Railton]

I too like the sunburst here Morkel. Am I right in thinking this is a result of the F22 or did you have a filter to achieve this effect. The rock to the right provides a nice 'draw' into the image/towards the sun....

TFS
DON

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for your comments Andrew and Don.

The sunburst is due to the diaphragm design of the 14-24mm lens. Each lens' burst is unique, but this lens has a special one indeed. :w3
And yes - it was due to the aperture of f22. I tend to get sunbursts at f16 too, but they look best at f22 on all wide angle lenses I've owned.

[Mark Itol]

Beautiful image with rich colors, Morkel. I love how the rocks lead the view to the sun.

[Jay Gould]

Mate, the only thing I would do to take it from a GREAT image to a FANTASTIC image is crop the sky by 50% The lighter portion of the sky at the top takes away the dramatic presentation. The lower rocks create a wonderful path to the sun burst. I like the dotted yellow flowers like a wee one tip toeing up the glade. Perhaps, only perhaps, you should burn just a drop the lower RH yellow lichen to tone the dot down as it does grab the eye. Having type all this I just went back and did that to. WDYT?

[Gary Hamilton]

Sweet composition and sunburst. Agree with Jay about cropping out some of the sky. Very nice work in a small window of time.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. :tinysmile_shy_t:

Jay - I quite like the hues in the sky...plus the way the OP is framed it places the ridge line on the top ROT horizontal which is a strong point for me when shooting vertical landscape compositions. I might investigate taking off about 1/3 to 1/2 of what you cropped off...:bg3:

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - the sunburst is great and I like the comp. Maybe a crop to just below your watermark in the OP?

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Rachel...I think that might be the best crop...:tinysmile_shy_t: