One of Two Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Almost at the northern tip of the country's strip of land located one of the beautiful and inspiring National park in Chile: Lauca National Park. I have visited this park on my way back to Bolivia, long time before I have seen the wild of the south (Torres del Paine NP among other parks in southern Chile). Lauca NP was also the first National Park I have visited in my great tour so I have quite a lot of sentiments to this place.
Lauca NP is located in proximity to the national border with Bolivia, and hosts a great diversity of Fauna and Flora: over 130 different species inhabitant this NP in addition to vicunas, vizcachas, and condors. The park's most famous (and part of it's trademark) is the famous Payachata twin volcanos, dominating the scene over Chungara lake, one of the most elevated of the world, and a peaceful as well as deep blue colored (as can be seen in the photo). Me and my friends took a very lovely and intense 4x4 tour in the park, which I will share with you in the next post. Luckily, this park is quite far from the beaten track, thus enable one to see nature without pronounced tourist interference!
:)
Best Wishes for 2007!
Happy New Year!

zmey, Albrecht, besnard, bibiweb, asajernigan, alainh, KevRyan, Cretense, fayeulle, jmcl has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mesutilgim (37282) 2006-12-29 13:18

Hi Chen,
Simply great !
Very good capture and pow.
Thanks for sharing and happy new year
MESUT ILGIM

ben4321 (9807) 2006-12-29 13:19

Excellent composition here Chen, the central placement of the volcano is perfect here, and I also think you got the balance between lake and sky spot-on.
Unfortunately, the over-exposure on the snowy areas and in the clouds does spoil this a bit.
Reflections in water are invariably darker than that which they reflect, so an ND grad filter is very useful in reducing the difference between the dark and bright areas of an image.
Alternatively, exposing for the highlights using the spot-meter would have enabled you to record detail in the highlights. You would have ended up with darker shadow areas but I think that would have been preferable to the over-exposure you have here.
Using an ND grad would have given you the best results though.
A good attempt Chen, and without the exposure problems you would have had a real cracker here.

Cheers,
Ben

[3] +

Albrecht (11219) 2006-12-29 13:24

Hi Chen
What a beautiful place and a very good picture. Wonderful scene.
Greetings and all the best for 2007
Albrecht

besnard (31064) 2006-12-29 13:27

Bonsoir Chen
Très belle composition de ce paysage montagneux avec très jolis reflets très bien saisis.
Merci pour le partage et meilleurs voeux pour 2007.
Nicole

danyy (69447) 2006-12-29 13:33

Bonjour Chen,
massif impressionnant, bien nappé de nuages comme il doit en accrocher bien souvent.
Des lumières fortes qui ont provoqué quelques surexpositions dans les nuages.
Le cadrage est bien étudié, le POV bien choisi.

Best regards.
Daniel.

bibiweb (8) 2006-12-29 13:43

Hi Chen,
Nice of you to post some more of your photos from South America. i like the way you've framed the Parinacota Volcano together with it's reflection if the lake. As Ben points out, it's a pity that there is some overexposure on the clouds and the summit on the right side, but it's still a very good shot.
Regards, Brigitte

dokadak (11492) 2006-12-29 13:46

Hi Chen,

Its nice photo, color is excellent...
Happy New Year..

Hasan

asajernigan (14284) 2006-12-29 15:07

Chen,
This is an excellent photo with nice color and sharpness. The refletion is outstanding and actually has better color than the original sky. The snow and clouds are a little overexposed but not enough to harm the shot. You might be able to reduce a little of the glare in PP.
TFS,
Asa

GLEM (2998) 2006-12-30 2:48

bonjour Chen,
tout à fait sublime ce volcan, on a l'impression qu'il fume avec ces nuages juste au dessus.
Le reflet dans l'eau est très bien, une belle réussite.

tfs

partha (13667) 2006-12-30 4:37

Hi Chen ,
Perfect shot. Compostion is so balanced and the reflection adds life in it.
partha

KevRyan (22418) 2006-12-30 16:59

Hi Chen....this is such a spectacular scene .....I have to agree with Ben though, what might have been with the photograph hasn't quite been realised because of the over exposure at the lightest end of the scale...I still think it's a fine image though and not imposible to work into it with Photoshop.......that's really good advice from Ben.

Have a great year ahead....all the best for peace and prosperity in 2007

best wishes Kev

alainh (35387) 2006-12-31 10:46

hello Chen
the two are perfect !
clouds or fire ? i like a lot.
my best witches for this new year and nice shots as 2006 you share with us.
regards Chen
alain

Cretense (57010) 2007-01-01 11:57

Hi Chen! Happy new year and best wishes to you and all your loved ones!

Me too, I am very glad to have "discovered" you. Your photo is absolutely amazing with a great composition, great positioning of the horizon at 1/3 and an unbelievable reflection. Marvellous colours too! Congratulations!

Best regards,
Hercules

Mima (204) 2007-01-06 15:43

Hi Chen,
Impressive scenary, the perspective and depth of your pictured was very well captured.
The sky and mountain reflection on the water looks great.Very good composition and sharpness.
Thank for sharing
Inma

EOSF1 (1944) 2007-01-18 17:46

Very nice landscape shot Chen ! Very impressive reflections and strong composition. Some parts of the clouds are a bit overexposed but it's still a good one ! Thanks,

Mario

arnoud1976 (1191) 2007-01-30 15:38

amazing light! nice comp and dof. cheers arnoud

jmcl (14149) 2007-03-08 1:20

Hi Chen,

I came into your gallery looking at one thing and then got distracted by this .. I love the symmetries .. both of the arch like mountain across the image and the reflection .. very meditative balance .. striking place .. wonderful image.

take care,

John

Polonaise (5638) 2007-05-14 19:00

How to download two pictures per day on TE...
Easy !!!
Just ask Chen how to do it...That's all !!!!

(:-))))))))))))))))))))

Wonderful presentation, pal.
The beauty lays in simplicity...I guess.

Have a great day, dear friend

george