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,

The two Langbathsee lakes

I still had no chance to get out hiking this week, my back is getting better but it’s not quite there yet.

The two Langbathsee lakes are not so far away from us, about a 1 hour drive, and it’s about time I visited them again!
But in the meantime, here are some archive shots from June 2019.

The bigger lake here is called the "Vorderer Langbathsee", the reflected mountain range is the "Höllengebirge" (which translates to Hell Mountains 😊)

A little further back there’s a second smaller lake, 600 long, a natural jewel called the "Hinterer Langbathsee".
Both lakes are in a protected nature reserve and at the moment there’s a strict smoking and campfire ban.

And, of course,along the way there are some little natural gems too.

Really like the reflections in the 1st and 3rd. I can sense the grandeur of the location(s) for sure.

A couple of oldies. Small, but certainly worthy of photographing. Trillium Falls.

Mountains at dusk:

East Waterway: I forgot my remote release, so I had to press the shutter button (and release it) very, very, very gently. Deep breathing required! From this past Monday (27-July-2026).

Very interesting and a refreshing "feel" (I can relate). What is the purpose of the "berms" (I see them on both sides of the road)?

Nice one. I have never taken a picture like this -- although I do have a ND filter (so I probably should try). Did you use a filter or a very small aperture?

This is really good. Well seen!

Nice reflections and star bursts. 8s of shutter and you've captured heaps of detail - really nice pic from a 2014 camera...

Fantastic scene and super exposure.
Well done, those reflections and star bursts look great, The multiple colours of containers are a real highlight, and so much detail visible all round !!

As a technical note:
On the D810, the remote shutter release could be replaced by just setting the custom d4 (Exposure delay mode).
If you can set, say 3s, and press the shutter, after 3 seconds when the shake from the button press has subsided the exposure begins.

Thanks for the technical note!!! I will get it "dialed in" to the camera. I am just a basic shooter.. only scratching the surface of the camera's capabilities. I shoot... in manual mode 100% of the time. Single point focusing and spot metering. Press to lock focus and exposure... then recompose as necessary. I don't really use any of the advanced features. I'm just an old dog who shoots the same way I did in 1977 with my Canon AE-1. LOL.

If you allow me to ramble on a bit,…
It seems you have developed a style with your post processing that is similar but also a bit different to mine.
Of course we all have our personal styles and all are valid😊
Mine seems to have modified itself somewhat over the years. I guess I like to maintain a fairly natural look while giving the image a bit of a kick for more POP, whatever that is 😉
Generally, after correcting the white balance, I like to brighten the shadows a bit and recover the highlights, perhaps I’ll add some overall contrast and apply some local tone changes to taste. However, keeping the shadows still relatively dark seems to preserve the “impression of light”. We expect the shadows behind an object to be darker, and so that darkness sort of emphasises the 3D shape of the object that is in front of the shadows. And so it’s the shadows then working for us to help create, dare I say, “3D POP” or the “impression of light”, a term coined by a another forum member (“JustTim”) years ago.
When adding more contrast, the colours often seem to saturate more too. So I might even reduce the overall saturation a bit
I see you do a lot of those things too.

I made an edit of the first shot to reduce the saturation of the greens and also reduce it somewhat for the oranges.
I'm guessing it was quite overcast and in the forest, with soft light that wasn't coming from any particular direction, but even so, we have some shadows to play with. I made those shadows just a bit darker. and increased the contrast of the greens. Some of the details in the small green leaves have now become more obvious and the stones look a bit “crisper”, but I guess it also depends on how a monitor is adjusted and what the personal preferences are.
If the shadows are too bright it can begin to look a bit like an HDR image.
In the end, of course all the pp decisions remain with the original author of the image 😊

The falls was taken at f/16 and 3.7 sec. Likely just a polarizer since it's pretty deep in the forest- don't remember exactly.

I appreciate the feedback. I actually had slightly reduced the greens already, and your version helps more. This is an older image and I should probably try starting again from scratch. I definitely don't go for such a saturated look as much as I think I do- if that makes sense. The polarizer would not have necessarily helped with saturation either. I do prefer the oranges a bit more saturated, and they were closer to that color (well both the greens and oranges were) in real life. Bright/diffuse/overcast light in a water soaked location with polarizer. Just typing that out makes me say to myself to watch the saturation a bit more. 🙂

I really like that description of impression of light. I used to really dislike blocked up shadows- too many black blobs on an image kinda thing (to overly simplify it). Having followed some of Kevin Mullins work (prior Fuji ambassador and has some fantastic Fuji film sims for that world), I'm trying to lean into shadows a bit more. I definitely lean towards the natural look as well, although the more I experiment with Fuji simulations, the more interesting some images can look. This image was before I had a fuller understanding of how in camera JPG settings worked- or the nuances on a Fuji anyway. And yup- unabashed JPEG shooter for this scene (have since graduated to .heif/.hif for most stuff with sprinkling of raw).

I'll have to revisit this image someday for sure.

They're terraced rice fields (the photo was taken in winter, so that's why they're barren).

Smoke and Clouds at Oxbow Bend

Given discussions about fire and what I thought I'd include a recent image of Oxbow Bend. It was sunrise. As the morning fog rose on Mt. Moran, it
intermingled with the heavy smoke form the active fire season in the Pacific Northwest producing a somewhat eerie image.

It:s a good image and, as you say, a bit eerie with the combination of white mist and black smoke.
The composition is good with the water on the left leading up to the mountain reflection. Framed on both side by the forests and brush.

p.s. The discussion about the fires, and how they are different in different parts of the world, was interesting.