Posted May 13th, 2012

Spring Moon on Ice

I seem to be fixated on nighttime shots for this Feature Photo spot lately, but this one likely will be the last of that for awhile as it is the time of year when we have just about run out of darkness in the Yukon for a few months. With the snow mostly melted off the ice on the lake, the recent full moon reflected appealingly off the textured surface. HDR processing of three exposures did not really produce the results I was looking for, but a second tone-mapping of the already tone-mapped image using Photomatix’s compressor mode enhanced the cool blue of the snow on the far shore and the mountains to complement the warm hues that the thin cloud imparted on the moonlit ice and sky. I had not pre-envisioned this effect but stumbled upon it as a happy accident. This post was delayed a week while I was moving the site to a new web host and in the last couple of days the ice has mostly gone off the lake, in spite of unseasonably cool weather.
Pentax K-5, Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD @ 34mm, 3 exposures from 0.33 to 7.7 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 1100