I was itching to get back out in nature, and most nights I would come home from my job I didn’t like. Flop onto my bed and pull up google maps or earth and start zooming in on any patch of green near me. This was how I found several places I couldn’t get to, and a few I could. Often during this summer I would get off of work and just start driving. Typically traffic wouldn’t be too bad by the time I got off work. (I worked a later day, on purpose for that reason)
That’s how I came across a mountain about a half hour away. I also had already been up near there at the forest I’ve mentioned before.
Turns out the mountain was a popular spot. It’s got a few miles of walking trails going up and around the mountain.
I did manage to see a deer while I was out there.
Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/20 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/25 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200
Now in this deep of forest cover the light wasn’t great, hence why it auto suggested such a low shutter speed. Considering I was handholding and not on the tripod I’m lucky any of these came out. I took about 10 in all and those two aren’t too bad.
Also fuzzy antlers are cute.
That was the only wildlife I saw on this trip at all. Like I said, it was pretty busy human wise unfortunately.
Eventually I made my way to the top of the mountain and there was a very pretty view up there. And even more people holy cow. But I did some landscape shots.
I can’t exactly give the metadata for the above shots because they aren’t single shots. If you were to go to a gorgeous sunset like this, take out your camera and take a single picture with one exposure you would only get what you exposed for. Be it the sky, or ground. Etc.
This whole thing is explained by better much better than I can do, I would look for bracketing and HDR. Those search terms should get you going.
Briefly, your camera has focus points. And I highly suggest turning on the ability to select which focus point you want to be active at one time. Instead of letting the camera choose for you. The more control you have over something the more you will learn and it gives you more options for creativity. So for the above shots I would have set up the camera on the tripod. And put the focus point in the sky, adjusted my exposure for that. Then without moving the actual camera body, moved my focus point down and exposed for there as well.
Then using the software of your choice, as I mentioned before I had now made the switch to Lightroom. (it has this feature built in) You’ll merge the photos together to create an HDR, High Dynamic Range, photo. Even the best camera in the world can’t match what your eye can do. Which is be able to look at a sunset like this and see clouds in the sky, and details on the ground at the same time. So we do the best we can with the multiple shots and bracketing of exposure to try and match that.
Now the first image is far more like reality with the blue sky. I overdid it a bit on the touching up process but this was my first attempt.
The second image is just to see if I could merge the photos and make the sunset yellow. With the mountains it made it look very Lion King to me.
And this last one another bracketed shot, with a bit of sun flare. I think the last one is the most realistic to what my eye saw that day.
However, you’ll also notice some objects in the sky. The dark spots. This and a few more shoots like it with the wide angle lens and I would discover that it was dirt on the inside of my lens. I had tried cleaning the outside, and soon I would look up videos on how to clean my DSLR sensor. Eventually I would actually take apart the wide angle lens and clean it completely. I can’t say I recommend this as I screwed mine up the first time putting it back together. But I got it in the end and it works better than ever. If you’re going to do it, follow instructions exactly.
So, to sum up. Pretty walk, pretty overlook on the mountain. Fun but not enjoyable with how crowded it was. I guess Friday night during the summer the mountain top is the place to be.