Waiting for Winter by stiann

It’s been a rainy and not so magical winter so far, but it’s gradually looking up! The snow cover isn’t all that thick and fluffy yet, but at least the dawn colors were rich and nice. Didn’t do much to the colors except some basic contrast adjustments really.

Thanks for looking, any feedback appreciated.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1PsaaCy

The Big One by stiann

On the way to Store Skagastølstind, commonly dubbed The Big One. This peak is part of the Hurrungane mountain range found in western Norway.

Thanks for looking, any feedback appreciated!

via 500px http://ift.tt/1JjdTxD

Lighthouse Path by stiann

Captured around midnight as the sun dips below the horizon of the Atlantic ocean. Captured on the the coast of western Norway. Any feedback appreciated, thanks for looking!

via 500px http://ift.tt/22daigr

Glacial Fall by stiann

A receding glacier in Western Norway. The diverse and young foliage makes for some amazing fall color. Thanks for looking, any feedback appreciated.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1jBjwk3

Autumn’s Farewell by stiann

Overlooking a fjord from a mountain farm in western Norway. It’s a welcome sight seeing the snow creeping down as the fall color fades away. It was a very colorful sunrise and I didn’t add any color to it except what came from minor contrast adjustments. A 180 degree view. For scale, the cliff to the right rises more than 1,700 meters up from the fjord. Also there’s a cargo ship down on the fjord..if you can find it. 🙂

Thanks for looking, any feedback appreciated.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1NI9qIO

Top of the Cliff by stiann

A panoramic view from a cliff 1300 meters above the UNESCO World Heritage site of Nærøyfjord, western Norway.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1MCCqmq

Glacial Autumn by stiann

Fall colors near a glacier in western Norway on a September day.

Thanks for looking, any feedback appreciated!

via 500px http://ift.tt/1hdIsgi

Giftland by stiann

A fjord landscape in western Norway. It’s an age old shot that had become a seemingly permanent resident in my todo-folder, so recently I figured I’d better get to it. I did go for a painterly look a bit on the surreal side. Maybe I went a bit mad but you got to have some fun!

The idea behind it in the first place was to lend elements typically used by great Norwegian romanticist painters. The big landscapes, the human made element, the fairly intense always complementing colors, the too perfect conditions and scenes etc. I won’t claim that I succeeded in resembling that, but that was my initial thought with it.

Full disclosure as I’m putting this in the landscape category. Obviously there’s a fair bit of editing going on here, but nothing was dropped in that wasn’t there. I did however remove some human made elements that I found so distracting that it was either that or scrapping it. To do that I had to lend some details from the sky and displace it back on the original water texture. Basically cloning it out as far as I’m concerned. It’s as far as I’ll take it and still label it landscape, but only when disclosing it.

Thanks for stopping by, any feedback appreciated!

via 500px http://ift.tt/1gqmupO

First Fall Color by stiann

I went up in the mountains of western Norway yesterday to check on the progress of fall color. I’d say it’s at a…20% of a potential 100%. 🙂 Still nice though. This image is a small focus stacked panorama with lots of fine detail in it, maybe too much for web purposes. You really want to hit the M key to view the actual resolution and minimize muddiness. I did not increase the saturation of the reds as such, I had to reduce them after some contrast adjustments. I left them a little overwhelming as true to the actual colors. Annoyingly, when I arrived, there was a rainbow going right down into the V shape of the ravine in front, but by the time I got the gear out and found something resembling a comp, it was gone! Well, I guess people can do without another rainbow.

Thanks for stopping by, any feedback appreciated.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1OMUF6X

Home of the Giants by stiann

In this landscape the fjord areas of western Norway transitions into the high mountains of Jotunheimen, by any measure the most spectacular mountain range in Norway and home to the tallest peaks in Northern Europe. The name Jotunheimen stems from Norwegian folklore and roughly translates into “Home of the Jotuns”, “Jotuns” being giants or the largest type of troll. Not the modern internet ones though. The trolls roaming around here are of the kind you really really don’t want to run into!

As seen in the foreground, these mountains are completely covered by boulders left behind by glaciers of various ice ages. There isn’t a level surface to be found anywhere and of course there’s no vegetation because of altitude. It’s definitely not the place to bring a tent and it takes time to move around because of the terrain. To the left you can see Store Skagastølstind, commonly dubbed “the big one” among climbers.

A mix and match of 46 images. The sunstar got a bit of a oval shape because of the way I put this together, but…I can live with it.

Any feedback appreciated. If you have some CC then by all means don’t hold back. I won’t hate you for it, rather the opposite. But please be specific. Describe what you would have done differently in shooting and processing the scene. Thanks for stopping by.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1ETZGul