Travelog: The Lake district! Open Call!

For years pictures of the Lake district in the Northern U.K. have fascinated me but I had never been there myself. This time in Europe, I made sure we'd get a look at this wonder.

Well my wife discovered a hotel that overlooked part of a great lake. In the mornings there could be diving swallows criss crossing the window, sheep grazing the pastures or some sort of bird the size of a duck in great numbers eating worms and bugs as if they had purchased an "All you can eat" seat at a Chinese restaurant.

So this is one view from the window after ton mapping to try to reproduce my experience.




...and for those who might wonder, below before tone mapping which was less dynamic than what I had actually seen.




Asher

So, if one exits the hotel, behind the dining room, one passes bird feeders, (later, I promise), and one can wander about a half a mile to the edge of a large lake. It's separated by a fence with barbed wire, I guess to protect the sheep. There's a mass of assorted wild flowers and grasses at the shore, no doubt with abundant birds and wildlife hiding.





This is a very peaceful place and the access is via narrow, some single lane roads, sometimes with sharp tire slashing rocks for unaware visitors from Beverly Hills California or New York City, New York!

Asher

My wife and me we travelled through Lake District some 250 years ago but we do remember it's beauty, through narrow roads while I was driving the motorcaravan.

To be honest Asher, I do not like your first photograph. Oh ! I said it ! Shame !
Too dark, strange spots of light on the grass, flat panorama.

I am sure that you can do a very different image out of this one.
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However, the second one is something different but still, with kind of strange colors...
I do like the plants right here, in the front of us.

But why Asher, do you keep using Autopano with 39 photographs stitched if you can make (can you ?) the very same image with one or two photographs using a different lens ?

Is it because this way you keep the right perspective ?

Antonio Correia said:

My wife and me we travelled through Lake District some 250 years ago but we do remember it's beauty, through narrow roads while I was driving the motorcaravan.

To be honest Asher, I do not like your first photograph. Oh ! I said it ! Shame !
Too dark, strange spots of light on the grass, flat panorama.

Click to expand...

I admire your gusto! Go for it! The morning light is just as it shows with amazing billowing clouds forming a done over the landscape. There is little contrast. The morning mist makes everything a tad diffused. You are looking at a depth of about 0.5 to 1 km to the water at the horizon.

This was made with jpgs. I could color correct the RAW images using a profile for the Leica M lens which iOS a tad yellow. Still, I love the picture and it really fits the view!

Antonio Correia said:

I am sure that you can do a very different image out of this one.

Click to expand...

-

Antonio Correia said:

However, the second one is something different but still, with kind of strange colors...
I do like the plants right here, in the front of us.

Click to expand...

I wanted the intimacy of being close to the plants and then to bring in the landscape and sky with immense detail. This would not be possible with a 14 mm lens as there is not enough sensor real estate!

The colors in the Lake District are special and wonderful, like Kodachrome II, just have there own character. It must be the constant moisture and protective mists and regular fertilization by endless birds and sheep for the past 3,000 years! Still, once again, in the final preparation, all the images will be color corrected before assembling the panorama. I made a custom profile for Adobe Camera Raw. These I did on the plane with jpgs out of the camera which is unaware it mated with a German princess!

Antonio Correia said:

But why Asher, do you keep using Autopano with 39 photographs stitched if you can make (can you ?) the very same image with one or two photographs using a different lens ?

Click to expand...

For sure and it would be so easy. However one cannot have everything so well corrected and rectilinear and have enough pixels to go round for such a challenge you detail rich landscape scene.

Antonio Correia said:

Is it because this way you keep the right perspective ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I set up the perspective by my position so as to grab something of fascination in the foreground and then the supreme wide angle harvests the entire world around it! That's the secret. However without stitching, I would have to use at least 8x10" film or wider. It could be that film would be faster for me!

Right now, I have a good system, just it consumes an extraordinary amount of time! The only justification is getting the picture one dreams of!

Asher