In an effort to avoid the unbearable summer heat, this past Friday I went out to my local marsh just as the sun was rising and watched as the sun slowly illuminated the flowers and vegetation and burned off the mist that lingered above the fields.
I don’t have a lot of experience shooting landscapes, but am relatively content with the composition I chose. I am also happy that I was able to capture the orange shade of the sky and some of the mist. A lot of the details are lost in the shadows, but that was the way it looked in the limited dawn light. In case you are curious, the flowers in the foreground are a kind of hibiscus that grow in the marsh—I think they are known as Swamp Rose Mallows (Hibiscus moscheutos).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Be very satisfied 😀
Reblogged this on jessicaslavin and commented:
What a photo.
Beautiful shot Mike. Have you thought of trying HDR with one of these early morning landscapes — that technique lets you capture more of the range of light intensities. You can use the Photomatix program to combine a series of 5 images shot at different exposures (over- to under-exposed). Some people don’t like the enhancement, but if done well, it can really bring out the highlights.
Thanks for the suggestion, Sue. I have never tried HDR and have mixed feelings about some of the HDR images that I have seen. It makes sense that this kind of image would lend itself to HDR, because it was tough getting both color in the sky and details in the shadowy foreground. I’ll check out the program that you mentioned and see how it looks.
I like this shot because it reminds me of what I see at that time of day. Sunrise and sunset are amazing times to be out with a camera. Rose mallows are beautiful flowers.
Thanks. I totally agree about the joys of dawn and dusk. They are amazing times, though they pose real challenges when trying to photograph them.