The Weekly Landscape Thread

This weekly thread, starting on a Friday, allows us to showcase our Landscape photos and get some feedback.
Opening up discussions, not only on content, style, composition & techniques, but also on the emotion in the image, and of course about the place itself.

It’s easy to participate

Post an image or short essay with a title and description. To make it easier to view in the forum, all comments should include the original title and at least one of the original images as a quote.

Thread Guidelines:

1. This thread is for sharing and developing our Landscape photography skills.
2. Entries can be a single image or a short photo essay (2 to 10 connected images that tell a story).
3. Give your entry a clear title and perhaps also explain why you took it, or the story it tells.
4. Provide constructive feedback on others’ images/essays.
   Try to go beyond simple praise or dismissal and explain why you like it, or what caught your eye.
   ”Likes” are encouraged too.
5. Negative feedback and suggestions are also OK (be polite, honest, and constructive).

Giving feedback is just as important as receiving feedback, both help to improve our artistic and technical skills.

What is a Landscape photo?

This means different things for different people. For me, it includes a wide range of photos taken outside, … from wide sweeping vistas to smaller details found along the route. Seascapes, landscapes, cityscapes, woodland shots, landscapes at night with some stars, and lots more are all OK. They could also include man-made objects and people or animals outside, but they are not usually the main subject. Show us, with your photos, what Landscape Photography means to you.

Motivation

I love to go hiking in the natural world and capture photos along the way. It keeps me fit (physically and mentally) and provides some beautiful memories. Processing those images when I return is fun too, it often helps to enhance what I saw.

Downloading and re-posting

It’s often challenging to verbalise comments about images. Instead, it’s sometimes easier to “show.” Unless the original poster specifically states otherwise (in each original post), participants are free to download, alter, and re-post images in replies to express their analysis and critique. Downloaded and altered images shall not be used for any other purposes or uploaded elsewhere.

Enough said,… Go out, enjoy the open air, take some photos. Bring back the memories and post them here in the Weekly Landscape Thread 😊

...looking forward to seeing your images,

"Do you want to fly? Leave behind what pulls you down!"

This is the advice on the metal plate attached to a tree in the first photo 😊 (if you zoom in you can find it at the back, in German)
The route up to the Pronebenalm mountain hut has a whole set of such motivating phrases along the way.
I like the way these trees are entwined like lovers.

The mountain hut is still closed for winter, but, when you get to the top, the view is still pretty good.
Here's looking down to the town of Mühlbach am Hochkönig

A view from slightly higher up and looking more to the right.
With the evening light on Mühlbach

Always a pleasure to see the mountains...snow's gone pretty much

Some (more) from my recent Peru trip

140426i arequipa mountains snow by softmarmotte, on Flickr

140426f maras salt mine by softmarmotte, on Flickr

140426i arequipa misti by softmarmotte, on Flickr

Sunrise at Arches

As you drive down the Western slope of the Rockies and enter South Eastern Utah, you enter a wonderland of dramatic arid beauty known as the Utah badlands. The unique landscape formed by layers of volcanic ash and multicolored sandstone and bentonite clay eroded away by water and wind over millions of years to form an other worldly landscape. In this region, there are now fewer than four US National Parks, Arches, Canyon Land, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon along with millions more acres of national recreation areas and conservation areas.

Set your camera on ISO 100, f11, set it on the tripod and enjoy the stark beauty.

Great shots and excellent (very excellent) IQ all around. Which lens did you use for #2 & #3?

That is good advice! For some odd reason, as a deep DOF person, I tend to default to "f/11" when I am walking around.

Wonderful IQ (and views) as usual. #2 is very interesting.

A business meeting wrapped-up early, so I had about an hour to spare on a sunny afternoon last week. My photo brain tends toward the "documentary" side of things -- rather than the creative side (I am limited in that regard). So, here is a documentary shot (pano) taken from the Hamilton Viewpoint. As I recall, 7 frames (overlapped quite a bit) in landscape orientation. Resized to about 50% of original pixels and JPEG compressed to 15% of the original MB's. A technical exercise!

Lovely clear shots of the mountains,
The salt mine shot looks really interesting. How does it work? ... is it rock salt that is somehow dissolved in the ponds then left to dry and crystalize in the sun?

Thanks.
All 3 shots were taken with my "walkabout lens", the Z 24-120 /F4 on the Nikon Z7.
It is very sharp lens and has practically no colour fringing, (compared to the Z 24-200) and for Landscape uses its F4 aperture is very adequate !

The salt mine was fascinating regards colours and patterns. Very difficult to capture a decent image of it though. An underground river emerges out of the mountain and is diverted into the 'fields' where evaporation occurs. The river must be washing around a salt deposit somewhere deep in the mountain...

Nice use of light and shadow

There's so much detail to look at here!
The shot, printed big and long, would make a great picture for a long corridor.

Yes, maybe at the local "chamber of commerce" offices! LOL. Thanks for the encouragement.

Why not,... you could ask them, maybe even donate it for free, if you're feeling generous.
...Many years ago I donated one fairly big canvas print to our community swimming pool/sauna for their relax room. It was quite popular.
About 6 months later I asked if they wanted to add a few more similar pictures, and they bought another 5. A few years after that they bought some more for the second relax room :-)

Really like the layers in the first two. The first one reminds me very much of the Eastern Sierra's in California. I almost thought the second images was roof tops or houses on a hillside at first.

Some more star trails. Various exposure times to experiment with the star trail length.

IMO, In the first, the trail length is too short. The star trails don't have that typical arc shape, they seem more like snow flakes blowing a bit in the wind.
In the second the trails have that nice arc shape, but even longer would be better.
In the second the trails are, however, not very visible, I tried pumping up the contrast in the sky and they do become somewhat clearer.

I agree the second one needs some more work. First time in a very long time trying star photography. One of the longest night exposures I've ever taken.

The light was really something else. I assume caused by the altitude.The first one is taken at over 4500m and the last one at over 3500, so it gives you m idea of the height of the mountains