Agawa Bay on Lake Superior

[Andrew McLachlan]

Another from my Lake Superior trip. As I was driving out of Lake Superior Provincial Park, on my way home, I decided to take in the view from the lookout over Agawa Bay one more time. I liked the way the bank of clouds was somewhat following the curvature of the trees along the shoreline. Hoped for a little bit of sun to light things up, but very large bank of clouds was not going to let that happen.

Nikon D200
Nikon 18-70mm lens @ 48mm
ISO 100
f16 @ 1/4 seconds
Nikon Polarizing filter
Mirror-lock

Look forward to comments.

[John Chardine]

Hi Andrew- Stunning clouds and I like the very subtle cloud reflection in the water. I'd be interested to know your processing technique because the image has a little of a "paint" feel to it. To my taste, the saturation is a little too strong but I know this is a very common technique in landscape work. One other thing- a lower vantage point would have given you a less water and would have allowed you to bring the horizon down in the image some.

I worked on gulls in this area in the 1970s! It's one of the most beautiful areas of Ontario IMO.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi John, thanks for your comments. I couldn't agree more Lake Superior Provincial Park and the north shore is some of the most beautiful scenery in the province. I love the ruggedness of the landscape up there. I did very little to optimize this one. The 1/4 second probably help to create the 'painterly' feel you describe. I did apply a little bit of Nik's 'tonal contrast' to the clouds, water and foreground trees. Shooting at a lower angle here was not possible from the elevated lookout, just below the bottom edge of the frame is the guardrail on the highway. When I posted this one I thought the sky looks a little over-saturated, but in the TIFF file it looks okay.

[Robert Amoruso]

The 1/4 second speed gave the image a nice look. I too like how the clouds follow the shape of the tree line. I would suggest a crop on top to just above the left cloud but still leave a nice strip of blue at top - just lessen it somewhat.

[Rachel Hollander]

Andrew - I like the layered feel of this and agree it's nice how the clouds seem to mimic the line of the trees. Robert's crop suggestion is a good one. I've enjoyed your images from this area.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Chardine]

The 1/4 second speed gave the image a nice look. I too like how the clouds follow the shape of the tree line. I would suggest a crop on top to just above the left cloud but still leave a nice strip of blue at top - just lessen it somewhat.

Both Robert here and Andrew earlier mentioned the long exposure giving a certain look to the image. I am unfamiliar with this aspect of long exposures. Could someone explain please. Cheers.

[Rene Quenneville]

John, I am not sure I understand. In this case long exposure would blur the water movement and potentialy some of the clouds.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi John, Rene pretty much summed it up. The 1/4 second exposure would have created some blur to the lake surface. It had little effect on the clouds and the trees. The clouds above the main bank of clouds looked like that yet they do have a bit of a wind blown look to them. Hope this helps.

[Jay Gould]

Am I the only one that thinks it needs CW; otherwise, I like it very much!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks Jay, much appreciated. Might be an optical illusion, but I'll take another look. Should be bang on, I always use a bubble level in the hot shoe.