Ok, I’m kidding about an unknown sea in California. There isn’t one. These are just some rocks in a grassland and nothing more causing an illusion that helped my think of a title. The atmosphere just gave it a mysterious feel and a view I hadn’t seen before or anything similar at the least in California.. . .
One thing that I will always remember about this place before venturing in is that it is full of snakes and spiders and that you will not be able to see them because the grass is so high. Great, add mountain lions to that. I accidentally stepped on a poor little defenseless rodent walking around these parts. How easily could that have been a rattlesnake? I still haven’t seen one yet ever after hiking so many miles and miles. I have seen plenty of snakes but never a rattle snake unless it was crossing the highway as I was driving by probably over the speed limit. I should be shooting wildlife if I can see like that, however that is a different kind of patience I do not have. Waiting on the sun to do it’s thing is easy just like what happened here.
The Processing:
This was reprocessed 4 years after an older version, that I decided to replace. This is 2 bracketed exposures blended together in CS4 combined with the use fo a GND soft filter moved up and down during the exposure to reduce flare from the sun. The blending is not that difficult and the hardest part is adding the contrast to where the horizon meets the sky. Photoshopping images can take some time so if you don’t want to spend the time don’t take it out on me for being HONEST about it. Anyone that mentions only spending a couple of minutes in photoshop could be pulling your chain and revealing thier character. We shoot in RAW format which lessens contrast and color so we can adjust things to the look and feel we are aiming for.
Camera used Nikon D70, shot way back in 2006!
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Tags: California, Central Valley, foothills, grasslands, hillsides, Landscape photography, nature, plains, rock outcrops, sieren, sunrise, sunset
Steve Sieren's Blog 
January 13, 2010 at 12:35 am |
Wow Steve. Thanks for the processing information. Great learning tool for me. Where is this anyway?
Heather
January 13, 2010 at 12:47 am |
This was taken up in the hills of San Luis Obispo County looking down into the Central Valley of California. I drove around on some very muddy dirt roads, alway think I’m going to get stuck and sometimes I do. Thanks Heather!
January 13, 2010 at 1:06 am |
Nice to know even you revisit images from years ago! This has really nice movement.
January 13, 2010 at 5:13 am |
Not what I imagine when thinking California. Great shot and I love the processing. Maybe I should go digging through some older files with my new skills 😉 Thanks for inspiration!
January 13, 2010 at 3:49 pm |
I like the idea of a waterless sea. Very evocative! I would have guessed this was taken in Great Britain.
It was interesting to me, when I moved to Nantucket, how much less hostile it was for people than the western states are. No poisonous snakes, no scorpions, no stinging plants. Just deer ticks. 🙂
Sharon