The sky here is the star, Clyde, but it is a very strong composition with great detail in the clouds. I think that it might have been even stronger if the mountains towards the left edge weren't quite so dark because they have lost some of their detail (but this is very minor). Well done and keep sharing.

This is very nice! Great contrast and tones!

belle réalisation

Clyde, every day Your photos become more and more perfect and beautiful :) All is great with this one, I like that You use the rule of third... I would pay more attention to tonal of B&W and details in shadows!

Thanks Mikhail. Oh, the talent of youth. If you have noticed, most of what I have been posting lately have been scans of old slides, mostly from the late 1970's. I recently bought a Nikon Coolscan and am having a lot of fun re-discovering my old stuff. I am still looking for a 3-ring binder of b&w negatives from college days, stay tuned...

Great exposure and detail in the foreground - I particularly like the light through the clouds on the right. Beautiful shot of a beautiful spot (and appropriately named).

Beamer, you did a wonderfull job, again! However, I know it's panoramic, but still I feel something is missing on the foreground. imo the image needs some more bottom, increase the hight of the image with 10 or 20% would help. Just in general: by making a panorama, is it simply cropping a normal image or is it an adjustment in your camera or lenses, before you shoot?

Anyway... I can't wait to see this on my own becouse in four weeks I'll be there in the neighbourhood :)

Tamara, you make a good point @ the lack of foreground. I am standing on the very edge of a sharp drop off and there really is not foreground to include except those few trees you see on the left. I probably could have moved over there and shot it with those tress more in the middle??? This is a pano created in PS from 12 vertical format shots.

When you are in the area you should let me know and I can suggest some photo opp's. Joshua Tree NP is one of my very fav's. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive east of LA.

I just discovered the actual purpose of 'stitch-option'. :)

I was looking for your e-mail addres on your photoblog, but I can't find it. So, I just do it this way. Our first stop is in Palm Springs, according to my travelling guide that's in Joshua Tree NP, isn't it? It would be great if you can let me know some nice suggestions (see my website for my e-mail).

une pureté de cristal! superbe

Another scan of a shot from the Lake Tahoe area taken cira 1978.

Again, this old gear certainly allowed you to get the exposure spot on and the colours really kick. I like the way that the creek carries your eye through the shot and the trees reveal more and more detail as you go. Beautiful.

Thanks Boyd. I feel like I'm seeing these images for the 1st time. Back in the day I shot mostly slides, some b&w neg's. I did some small printing, usually no bigger than 8x10 and mostly from inter-negatives made from the slides when I could afford it. I also did some slide shows at my church.

Now with this Nikon Coolscan I just bought, they seem to really come alive in a way I never saw them before. The detail and sharpness is amazing and that Digital ICE is remarkable!! Really quite an experience to sit at home almost every night and find "new" photographs I never saw before. It's almost like I am processing film that has been exposed for 30 years but never developed.

Beamer, I think I'm just going to come hang out with you. Not only are your photos beautiful, I'm jealous of what you have around you!!! I know that some of these were taken some years ago, but they're all amazing!

Death valley circa 1978, Ektachome, scanned.

Just playing around a bit with some of the old slides that I scanned a couple of night ago. Sorta a happy accident thingy, what do you guys think??

definitely a happy accident thingy

j'ai beaucoup de mal avec cette photo, il y a une tres bonne idée, mais je trouve la photo trop chargé, pour moi pas lisible. mais c'est un essai, et il faut en faire pour faire des découvertes photos

My first thought was what the heck is this... but on closer look, it's kind of trippy in a pleasing kind of way.

I really like all the textures you've created here. Adds a real depth to the image.

You have used dof and light to make a great composition here, Clyde. I also love the grain :-) ... it almost looks like you have enhanced it digitally in post production ...

Thanks Boyd, nothing done in post but crop and some tonal adjustment in curves with PS, pretty much right out of the scanner.

Very cool.
Glad to see someone else still shoots film!

Full circle for me, back to the ole college days, except PS is still going to be my darkroom and my big ass HP inkjet my enlarger. Thanks for the comments guys!!

BTW, very nice used film camera are VERY cheap on eBay right now. I recently bought a pristine Nikon F100 for $165 USD!!(Some say the best film camera Nikon ever made) This camera was selling new at Samy's 2 years ago for @$750.

I'm with you on the film front, Clyde. I just don't think that an expensive digital will improve my image makeing ... and if you take your approach one step further, medium format 645s are insanely priced compared with a few short years ago and the scanned negs give plenty of scope for cropping etc ... btw, bravo again on the shot.

This was tricky because the clouds are moving VERY fast!! I took a three exposure bracket as fast as the camera would record them. I tied this in Photomatix as HDR but didn't like the results. This is a manual blending of the 3 images in PS using layer masks and different transfer modes. What do you guys think??

Does not look to bad.
You can tell that there was motion on this...
Ever thought of shooting it in raw, then adjusting the exposure out on the post processing side?
That way you could get 2-5 frames of the same subject matter to do an HDR.

I really like the red/orange here!

Yeah, Mike, always shoot in raw. The other one from the same sunset was done the way you suggest:

www.vazaar.com/critiques/id:31711/

Tried this one both ways, seemed here to have a better result with true HDR, but on the other one the 3 converts from 1 raw seemed to give a better result. Lots more detail in the clouds that way.

its a tough call either way...
I like them both!

Another one from @1978, Ektachrome, scanned on a Nikon Coolscan 4000.

beautifull colors not very original but i like

Great shot, Clyde. Just goes to show that some of the older gear in the right hands could/can make a pretty fearsome image. Love the detail and the depth of field from foreground to sky.

Very nice! I like old cameras. This is Real Photography! Excellent scanner result. I wish I had one.

Great sky, very vivid. Not sure about the snow drift in the front tho....

Looks great. Can't believe this is from 1979. Great shot, colors, and details.

Thanks boyd!! Great comments. I had one camera and one lens back then: Minolta SRT-101 w/ 55mm f-1.7 MC Rokkor. I shot mostly Kodachrome some Ektachrome. The slide mounts that I have scanned here don't say what film the slide is, so not sure about these two.

on a l'impression de rentrer dans un monde mystérieux, surprenant mais bonne idée.

Clyde ... this is a great lesson in how old gear with "standard" glass allows you to capture fabulous images - or it is a great add for rokkor 55mm f1.7 lenses ... thanks for reminding me that I should persist with my old OM gear to try to improve my image making rather than spending my time longing for the latest and greatest shiny digital toy ...

Hey, I've been there - that is not far from where I live! :-)

Hey Amber, were do you live? I grew up in Buchanan, went to college at JMU.