Utopia Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Today, we drove from Brisbane through Southern Queensland, and crossed the border into Northern New South Wales. Part of this scenic drive incorporated the Border Ranges National Park, a World Heritage rainforest area. This view looks south from these ranges towards Nimbin, a locally famous little town of eco-friendly communities, special hydroponic plants, organic food and rainbows. Here is one of them! Sorry about the over exposed sky; I sacrificed this to enhance the colours of the rainbow. I love looking down onto a rainbow, you are able to see more of the sphere, and sometimes the rainbow will form a whole circle if the viewer is high enough. There was a hidden joke there (locals might laugh). Next stop, colourful Nimbin!

robertosalguero, ribeiroantonio has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

robertosalguero (110) 2007-04-07 6:26

Matthew this is a nice scene from a high point. The background colours seem washed out, dull and lacking contrast. The foreground though is nicely saturated. The rainbow is well positioned to guide the eyes into the image. Good angle of this natural place.

Roberto

ribeiroantonio (21969) 2007-04-07 6:55

Very nice rainbow and picture. It is great to see that we are getting some moister in the air. Don’t tell me you are going to Nimbin! What a great place. I have been there for a marriage ceremony in one of the many communities. It was an amazing day, outside town, at their camp site. I also like Byron Bay. It is another amazing place.
Antonio

Irina75 (1517) 2007-04-07 11:48 [Comment]

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SamB (1948) 2007-04-07 16:27

Hello, Matt--
Interesting piece here, but i had a few thoughts on this one. First, i really like your idea in including a touch of foreground plant life to keep a grounded feel, but i think that maybe it would be more effective with just a little bit more. Also, if you had been able to step just a little bit to your right and have the rainbow lead from one of the plants the piece as a whole would feel a little bit more harmonic, rather than with the different elements fighting for attention as they seem to do now. i know that you said that you overexposed the background to keep the rainbow intense... but i think that you would find that if you had underexposed the piece as a whole, the rainbow would have stood out more. The light from the rainbow is much more intense than the reflected light from the landscape, and so when your camera's auto-exposure meter tries to decide what to expose for, it sees the darker background. As a result it naturally tends to overexpose, seeing the rainbow only as a small and insignificant anomaly. If you had underexposed the whole picture the background would have been more accurately exposed, the rainbow would be more intense, and the nearer trees would be very saturated, but a bit dark.
Just a few things that came to mind when i saw it--
Thanks!
sam