December 8, 2014 — Point Reyes National Seashore, California
I came across this while verifying my archives a few weeks ago. I marked it to remind me to come back to it and come back to it I did. The original shot was fodder for what you see here: not what the camera saw, but what I saw.
I was quite happy with it when I worked on it last night — but this morning I decided it needed a bit more finessing. Moral: sleep on it.
It got a good reaction on Instagram — @amagaphoto if you’re interested — and now we’ll see what you think.
(Canon 7D, Sigma 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 zoom. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 4.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
AMAGA Photography Blog 
No wonder it got a ‘good reaction on insta’! To me it’s an ‘all-inclusive’ image. All feelings spark from each and every pixel. My, it’s gorgeous!
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Thank you very much, my friend. 😊
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Excellent, I could see this as a gelatin silver print on Ilford cool tone fibre paper.
It really captures the eye and holds it.
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Thank you, David. That is everything I was hoping for.
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I like dark and moody photos.
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Thank you very much. So do I, pretty obviously!
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What do you mean when you say you were “verifying” your archives?
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Sometimes my archives get out of sync with my working drive and I go through and check for and correct discrepancies. While doing that, I am prone to the occasional stroll down memory lane. This particular image popped out and was always intended to be a starting point for what you see. I had just forgotten about it.
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Rich and velvety. The warm, painterly tones in the sky are lovely. Mostly I like the feeling of depth and texture. (I have to say that I have no interest in what anyone said on Instagram – but that’s not to take away from the work).
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Thank you very much. It’s exactly what I was aiming for. Regarding Instagram, I have a very very select group of people whom I follow and who follow me, all of whom are superb photographers. Interestingly, most live in the UK. Unlike most Instagram experiences, these people actually offer extremely articulate comments.
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I’m glad to hear that’s happening on Instagram…my experiences are from several years ago when I had the impression that it all went by way too fast for anyone to say anything worthwhile. But there’s always another side to the story. 🙂
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These are exceptional photographers. They actually look.
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Even though dark, this is beautiful! Very drawn to the irresistible sliver of bright light (as you’d expect). What’s surprising to me is that, in my view, you’ve achieved a very warm and hopeful image. I’m guessing this depends on a very fine balance between light and dark (and the shades in between for that matter). For me you’ve got this image just right!
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Thank you, Liz. This is exactly what I was trying to bring about.
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I like this very much >>> and “sleeping on it” is often a very good idea when it comes to creating images. 🙂
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It makes a huge difference. Thank you very much.
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wonderful black velvety image Michael. I always love natures layers and this is great example of them.
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Thanks very much!
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