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Winter Sun Atop Chew's Ridge

Posted by
Monterey John (Hollister, CA, United States) on 27 January 2010 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

Cold up here by golly!

Here we are at 5,000 above the Carmel Valley near the top of the cloud deck.

I have not shot snow in a long while, we don't get much of that stuff here. All my pictures came out hideously under-exposed. You would not believe what I had to go through to recover them. Thank God for RAW format, Lightroom, Photoshop and the dfine noise reduction plug-in.

Hopefully I've learned a thing or two so I don't have to go to quite this much effort in the future. My brother suggested bracketing and my son suggested +1 f stop when shooting snow. Do believe I will take their advice.

Canon EOS 40D 1/5000 second F/29.0 ISO 1250 37 mm

The new web site is live. http://monterey-john-photographer.com/

Scott F. Schilling from San Martin, United States

Very nice work John! How long does it take you to drive to the top of Chews Ridge? Do you go from the Salinas Valley Side or the Carmel side?

27 Jan 2010 5:25am

@Scott F. Schilling: We go up Tasajara Road from Carmel Valley.

Viewfinder from Bradenton, FL, United States

Snow (and white sand both) can be very, very challenging to expose to its best effect. Your lightroom magic seems to have won the day. Plus the good advice might make the "next" day a lot less computer-intensive. Still an incredibly great one here, John. Easy 5 stars from me.

27 Jan 2010 1:33pm

john4jack from Corvallis, Oregon, United States

Perfect in monochrome.

27 Jan 2010 5:12pm

Susan from Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Very cool shot.....love that muted icy looking sun!!!

27 Jan 2010 10:55pm

Magda from Vancouver, Canada

Yes, snow is very challenging! But this image has a character to it that I like! Nicely recovered! :)

28 Jan 2010 1:38am

Jen from Alpharetta, United States

Excellent

28 Jan 2010 2:19am

amy from Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Nicely saved again, John!! I do like the softness.

28 Jan 2010 3:06am

Photosanity from Folsom, United States

This is fantastic and captures beautifully what we in most of California have been dealing with in the last few weeks. Love it!

28 Jan 2010 5:12am

Mandy Provan from Johannesburg, South Africa

I love this shot!!

28 Jan 2010 1:54pm

Canon EOS 40D
1/5000 second
F/29.0
ISO 1250
37 mm

chews-ridge
monterey-county