This place is called The Buttermilks

[squashed]

A world renowned rock climbing area in the Sierra's about 2 miles from where I took these shots. My next outing will be "at" the rock climbing area. These are all taken in the mid day sun,sorry. C&C is totally welcome !!

1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b9.jpg

2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b8.jpg

3
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b7.jpg

4
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b6.jpg

5
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b5.jpg

6
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b3.jpg

7
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b2.jpg

8
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/squashed/sierras/b1.jpg

[Clique Allen]

Framing in the third is my favorite.

[zacker]

very nice... did you use any filters? it doesnt appear so but i cant figure out how you got FG, BG, snow, sky all exposed!!

[<AkulA>]

Great captures, looks like it could use a little un-sharpen mask tho. They have a little "hazy" look to them in the shadows and midtones. A little more PP and I think they'll really POP!

[Stav_98]

I love shot 5! Reminds me of those old Western movies

[fireman93514]

The buttermilks this morning ater an over night storm.

[squashed]

very nice... did you use any filters? it doesnt appear so but i cant figure out how you got FG, BG, snow, sky all exposed!!

Thanks for the comments everyone.

zacker, I had a polarizing filter on that day.

[DenZ]

I love #5. It looks very "unphotographic," it almost feels like I'm there looking out at the mountains. Must be the unique lighting and the fact that the trees have lots of detail in them, even though they seem silhouetted at first sight.

[johnstoy]

You made a good point of letting us know this was a mid day photo session... Traditionally, photogs are of the belief that early or late in the day photography, yields soft light and rich colorful sky... here is another cliché... "a good photograph is a result of being in the right place at the right time. " Fortunately, landscape is some what stationery and the variables are not running wildly about the place...

I'm going to briefly interpret each photo and how I see it...You know, I lived in the Sierra's for about 5 years, many moons ago...

The strong and nearly always bright sunlight of the Sierra's provides a good opportunity for outdoor pics while using fast shutter speeds, a great selection of Depths of Field, and rich colors of lower ISO's...
You also have that tremendous temperature swing from below freezing temps (it might even snow at night) in the late nights and early mornings to midday high temps in the 70's, this time of year...In other words, a 50 degree temperature swing is usually expected in the Sierras...

To me, that says "wiggle room"...I would keep the fast shutter speeds to prevent any camera shake and tree leaflets blowing in the wind from blurring the picture unnecessarily...To capitalize, I would also try to find a happy medium between ISO and shutter speed, while maintaining the desirable depth of field for the specific scene application...Lower ISO's are supposed to yield richer deeper colors, however the DSLR camera is a totally new ball game, and the traditional film camera methods can now safely be bent to some degree...

Therefore, I'd establish a desired depth of field, for the composition of the photograph... In this particular sequence, I'd consider keeping some items in focus giving the photo some reference to scale. and it looks like you did that here.

I notice in pic # 1 your shutter speed was the slowest, and from there, you adjusted it along with your F stop... Handheld, I would shoot at least 1/250, 1/320, 1/400, and up to about 1/800 to 1/1000 max. for these types of landscapes...Anything less than 1/250th is going to be borderline dependent on the size of your lenses...
Not all pictures need to be the same shape, and some are better vertically or even square...

I really like # 2. because it tells a very diversified story of succession, over the many endless years of erosion and regrowth... The rounded granite stones exemplify the very old age of the Sierra Nevada's granite...(Unlike the younger Granite of the Rockies.)

Than, you have the small shrub plants, that are probably decades old, and just manage to grow, without spreading out too far and wilting... further, where the soil is still fertile, toward the mountain you have larger shrubs and small trees capitalizing on the water runoff from the mountains...
The rapid runoff at the base and sides of the mountains erodes all sands and soils and the ground is unable to sustain any vegitation... It all makes for interesting composition...It's the light you need to work with to highlight these special features...

Pic# 3, is very interesting because it shows the eroded and weathered, rounded stones while also focusing on the massive snow capped mountain on the horizon, the clouds also give this image perspective, depth, and greater height...

Pic# 4. This rock outcrop is very unique in it's own right, while the massive mountain to the right is very distant on the horizon...The rock formations, themselves can offer great composition... I would try this pic again early in the morning, when the sun first hits the stone and lightens it's various composition qualities...

#5 is a postcard pic...Your polarizing filter may have resulted in this wonderful, clear sky, with detail of the mountain... Next time, if you haven't done so... I'd try a shot here with a high enough shutter speed so the branches on the tree are stationery, and even a tripod to keep the image very stable showing the finest of detail...

#6. is crisp and clean...the small tree on the left adds greatly to the scale and vastness of the mountain...

#7. The meandering valley, seaming through the mountain peaks, down through the foot hills, and right to the observer, makes for an interesting composition... This picture does have some haze and there are methods in Photoshop that correct this...

#8. Your experimentation with the sepia tones is also an area considered valuable to landscape photography... keep experimenting with these options... I hope to get brave and do the same soon...

So your midday trip is productive, with lots of good experiences brought back to work on in Photoshop...

Some of your options Gary are to take along a lot of memory cards...I'm shooting 11 gigs of pure RAW (1100 pics), in three hours at the concert hall... However, from just RAW, everything has to be post processed... So I would use RAW+ JPG... than your best tool in RAW I find at least for me is the exposure adjustment...
I also shoot bracketed...3 consecutive shots at 1/3 increments of aperture... this gives me additional exposure wiggle room... RAW and bracketed shooting eats up memory very quickly...my 1gig cards now are good for only about 35 captures of a subject, when the shots are bracketed...

Try RAW + JPG... It might make some worthwhile difference.
FYI:
I'm buying SunDisk Ultra II, 4gig cards on Amazon.com for $62.00 ea + $7 S&H...

[squashed]

Incredibly thorough and informative John. I look forward to trying the new options that you pointed out.

[johnstoy]

Incredibly thorough and informative John. I look forward to trying the new options that you pointed out.

The plan is usually to dilute the presentation for everyone, to a 9th grade level... It's the suggested target level for general tours... I tend to interpret every picture, just as if I am giving a nature walk in a park... sigh...Hadn't done nature walks or resort tours since the mid 90's...But I still keep trying...

Off subject, for your reference:
Just shot 16 gigs of photos during a 5 hour concert series, (LA Guns, Firehouse, Warrant,) last night... the SanDisk Ultra II Flash Card was pretty slow and kept buffering between rapid fire photos... Now, gotta plan to buy the faster cards too...