# Pack Monadnock Mtn. 2009, trying a few different things



## Carol (May 16, 2010)

Quick backstory: this was my first time photographing one of my hikes.  It was a good day for hiking (very cloudy) but not such a good day for photography.  All shots in the set were taken with my camera on Auto.

I took some liberties with the processing of many of the shots on the  summit.  I'd be interested in hearing what you all think of the shots,  if they work, or if I've just created a monster. :lol:

This is the Raptor Migration Observatory.  The decoy owl has been installed to attract migrating raptors (and other carnivorous birds) so they can be counted and tracked by the NH Audubon Society.  The society has volunteers that stand watch at the summit in September and October.







Looking north towards the observatory from further south on the summit:






A picnic shelter:







There are 45 photos in total (most with "normal" processing), slideshow is here in case anyone is interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sikaranista/sets/72157624066832278/show/with/4609176365/


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

A couple of my fave shots from the hike:

Near the base on the Wapack Trail -- this was one of the last spots on the trail that had some decent foliage








At the summit, overlooking Grand Monadnock


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## tshadowchaser (May 16, 2010)

LOVE THE 2ND ONE IN THE FIRST GROUP
the first one in that group would be ok without that Sunoco sign in the background
The trail in the 2nd group is good I enjoy the color and the composition


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

tshadowchaser said:


> LOVE THE 2ND ONE IN THE FIRST GROUP
> the first one in that group would be ok without that Sunoco sign in the background
> The trail in the 2nd group is good I enjoy the color and the composition



No Sunoco signs for miles :lol:   You mean the owl?


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## Bob Hubbard (May 16, 2010)

I like them. The processing looks to be a bit HDRy yet a bit old school to me.


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

Bob Hubbard said:


> I like them. The processing looks to be a bit HDRy yet a bit old school to me.



Its a kluge between both :lol:  I was manually redoing the exposure, and repainting, the large areas that were difficult to work with.  Its a learning process, to be sure. 

This particular mountain has an auto road to the top.  Once the tree cover has filled in a bit more in the surrounding hills, I'll be driving up with a tripod to try out some HDR photos.


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## MBuzzy (May 16, 2010)

I like the processing a lot!!!  You should write down what you did.

Can you post a few of the originals next to the processed versions.


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

MBuzzy said:


> I like the processing a lot!!!  You should write down what you did.
> 
> Can you post a few of the originals next to the processed versions.



Gladly!  I'll post them up soon.  

 Actually none of these were tweaked in Corel, it was all done in Lightroom -- which keeps a record of what you do with each shot.


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

This is the Raptor Observatory, as well as an alternative B&W version.  SOC original is attached


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

Looking towards the observatory


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

Overlooking Grand Monadnock.


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## Carol (May 16, 2010)

The shelter


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## Xue Sheng (May 17, 2010)

Carol said:


> A picnic shelter:


 
 PICNIC!!!

You don't picnic on Manadnock..you CLIMB IT!!!!

:xtrmshock SHELTER!!!!! on MONADNOCK!!!!!

Who the heck is climbing Monadnock these days... I don't remember those being there... It is just not that hard of a climb.

Other than that...great pictures Carol


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## Carol (May 17, 2010)

Xue Sheng said:


> PICNIC!!!
> 
> You don't picnic on Manadnock..you CLIMB IT!!!!
> 
> ...



Pack Monadnock, Xue, not Grand Monadnock 

This is Grand Monandock's kid sister in Peterborough.  (You can actually drive to the top....shhh...)

Grand Monadnock is a challenge to climb.  Not hard if you're in really good shape, but it kicked my butt when I tried it.  Of course...running out of water and getting mild sunstroke on the way down didn't help...LOL


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## Xue Sheng (May 17, 2010)

Carol said:


> Pack Monadnock, Xue, not Grand Monadnock
> 
> This is Grand Monandock's kid sister in Peterborough. (You can actually drive to the top....shhh...)


 
OK, I feel better now... for a second there I thought hikers and climbers went soft... much like I have 



Carol said:


> Grand Monadnock is a challenge to climb. Not hard if you're in really good shape, but it kicked my butt when I tried it. Of course...running out of water and getting mild sunstroke on the way down didn't help...LOL


 
OK now I don't feel so good, sorry to hear about the trouble you had climbing Monadnock


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## Carol (May 17, 2010)

Xue Sheng said:


> OK now I don't feel so good, sorry to hear about the trouble you had climbing Monadnock



Not to worry.  I never said I was a good hiker :lol:  

But what I lack in cardio, I make up for in heart.   

It wasn't an easy time...but it was partly my own fault.  I learned from the mistakes.  I _will _climb Mount Washington before too long.  It may not be this year...the season is very short if you climb without gear (as I do) but it will  happen.


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## crushing (May 17, 2010)

Bob Hubbard said:


> I like them. The processing looks to be a bit HDRy yet a bit old school to me.


 
I kind of like the "old postcard" look they have.  I think it especially works well with the 'picnic tables/overlook' picture.


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## Xue Sheng (May 17, 2010)

Carol said:


> Not to worry. I never said I was a good hiker :lol:
> 
> But what I lack in cardio, I make up for in heart.
> 
> It wasn't an easy time...but it was partly my own fault. I learned from the mistakes. I _will _climb Mount Washington before too long. It may not be this year...the season is very short if you climb without gear (as I do) but it will happen.


 

Washington... can be a hard climb or if you go an easy trail...long. Boott Spur is easiest but longest. It seems to me that when I went up it was either Tuckerman's Ravine or Lion's Head,. Whichever one it was it was rather steep and I was doing free climbing. And it got fairly vertical in places. Boott Spur is longer but easier. Tuckerman's is easy at first but gets nasty towards the end and lions head is just plain nasty&#8230;. Which just clicked something in my old noggin I would have to see a map but if my memory is correct we went up thinking we would do Lion's head but decided Tuckerman's was probably more our level. 

However the hardest part then was getting back down. We did not want to hike it and all the vans were done for the day. We eventually got a ride with a newly wed couple and I got to tell you the drive down was considerably more scary than the climb up.

And for the record, I am not a hiker or a climber anymore... Washington would likely kill me these days


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## Carol (May 17, 2010)

Lion's Head is nasty.  That's the one that's so nasty, the AMC (or someone) re-routes it in the winter, due to avalanche deaths.  Saw some photos of Boott Spur ono the web...its gorgeous!

I'm going to try the Ammonoosuc Ravine trail.   It is steep, but not as steep as Lion's Head.  Drawback is that its on the western face, so you get the full brunt of those (in)famous winds. As you know from being there, Mount Washington has the highest clocked windspeeds in the world...with a record of 200MPH+ at the summit.  The winds are nothing to mess around with...lol.

The Lakes in the Clouds hut is about 2.5 miles up the trail....good place to find out if I've really got what it takes to finish, or if I should turn back


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## Xue Sheng (May 18, 2010)

Carol said:


> Lion's Head is nasty. That's the one that's so nasty, the AMC (or someone) re-routes it in the winter, due to avalanche deaths. Saw some photos of Boott Spur ono the web...its gorgeous!
> 
> I'm going to try the Ammonoosuc Ravine trail. It is steep, but not as steep as Lion's Head. Drawback is that its on the western face, so you get the full brunt of those (in)famous winds. As you know from being there, Mount Washington has the highest clocked windspeeds in the world...with a record of 200MPH+ at the summit. The winds are nothing to mess around with...lol.
> 
> The Lakes in the Clouds hut is about 2.5 miles up the trail....good place to find out if I've really got what it takes to finish, or if I should turn back


 
It was windy, cold with a bit of rain... NO RAIN PARKA ALLOWED.

If you wear a rain park on Washington, and this has happened, you can become a kite and they may never find you. 

I had to ask my dad (since he was one of the people I was climbing with) which trail we took because Tuckermans does not sound right and I am pretty sure it was not Lionhead and he he said it was Huntington Ravine. I remember going across a face (rather high up) with my feet in crack and my hands on the face to get to a ledge. And I also remember having to trust a tree above the tree line to climb up to another ledge and I REALLY want to do that again someday. Oh and also remember finding the remains of a small plane crash (tin not bodies) that they had not yet removed...just before we started the climb.

When you go, be careful, it is a great climb, great views but it can be more dangerous than it looks


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## MBuzzy (May 18, 2010)

You know - it is much more impressive with the originals to compare with.  would you mind a summary of some of the actions taht you did?  Mainly playing with colors, but the effects that you got are incredible!


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## Carol (May 18, 2010)

Xue Sheng said:


> It was windy, cold with a bit of rain... NO RAIN PARKA ALLOWED.
> 
> If you wear a rain park on Washington, and this has happened, you can become a kite and they may never find you.
> 
> ...



I believe it.  I will need a better backpack and a hydration kit, and a few other essentials before I go up.  I'm thinking I might do what some other folks do, make the climb to the Lakes in the Clouds hut, spend the night in the hut (I think they are booked for the rest of the year, they are only open through August or so), and then summit Mt. Monroe and Mt. Washington.

And take the train down.  LOL!    Seriously...I have no intention of climbing down, my first time up.


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## Carol (May 18, 2010)

MBuzzy said:


> You know - it is much more impressive with the originals to compare with.  would you mind a summary of some of the actions taht you did?  Mainly playing with colors, but the effects that you got are incredible!



Hey, now ya know who to call for post-production help!  

I actually mean that seriously, I am moving towards starting a side post-production business in the not-too-distant future.  I don't know all there is to know, to be sure, but I am getting close to where I may know enough to start getting my feet wet.  Start slow, build from there.

All of my processing has been on a netbook with a tiny screen.  Once I get to the point where I can put Photoshop on a full-sized PC....watch out! 

These were all hand-edited.  Migosh it sounds bizarre to say that when speaking of digital images :lol:  No presets, no photographer actions, I think I spent about 2 hours on each photo finding something that would work.  Is that practical to do after a day of shooting that produces 50 or so workable photos?  No way.  However, I'm doing this not just to process an image but to also learn better processing skills.  

When you introduce noise to a dodgy picture, it can often work to your advantage.   When you are dealing with uneven lighting and/or exposures, the noise adds a rough texture to the photo that helps aid in creating an "intentionally grungy" appearance. 

To start off, I find a basic "look" for the photo.  You can kind of see that in the Raptor Observatory photo, it started as a black and white photo.  I got that to look the way I wanted it, then made it dichromatic instead.  With the picnic shelter, I colored the trees brighter and made the roof bluer to distract from the white sky, then lightened up and recolored the inside of the shelter so the viewer can actually see what it looks like in there. :lol:

You might have seen these before...The Amoskeag Dam isn't a horrible shot in terms of lighting and focus, it's just...boring!  The Merrimack River is beautiful, but the north side of Manchester?  Yawn.








So, since this is in the industrial part of the city, why not make it more....industrial looking?  (Oh and this is where Shelley taught me the rule of thirds...LOL).  I reprocessed the image to look how it might have been captured when the Manchester Steam Plant was in operation.







Another shot of the dam...kind of boring, and the composition is worse than the top shot.






How might it look at sunset? 







Or at night?







I think I'm making traction.  I'm not "there" yet, but I'm making progress.


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## Xue Sheng (May 18, 2010)

Carol said:


> I believe it. I will need a better backpack and a hydration kit, and a few other essentials before I go up. I'm thinking I might do what some other folks do, make the climb to the Lakes in the Clouds hut, spend the night in the hut (I think they are booked for the rest of the year, they are only open through August or so), and then summit Mt. Monroe and Mt. Washington.
> 
> And take the train down. LOL! Seriously...I have no intention of climbing down, my first time up.


 
We did it in one day and I wish it was two.

Something to consider; I have been in some pretty heavy snow storms at the base of Washington in  early September and August can be mighty cold on the top.

But when you climb it let me know how it goes


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## Carol (May 18, 2010)

Xue Sheng said:


> We did it in one day and I wish it was two.
> 
> Something to consider; I have been in some pretty heavy snow storms at the base of Washington in  early September and August can be mighty cold on the top.
> 
> But when you climb it let me know how it goes



If I climb, my shell parka is going with me, even if its in July.  They don't call it the world's worst weather for no reason.   

It depends how it goes.  There are a lot of others that I want to hike in the area, including Mt. Chocorua which supposedly has a beautiful reflecting pool, and Mt. Isolation, which I hear lives up to its name.  There's no shortage of peaks to bag.


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## Xue Sheng (May 18, 2010)

Carol said:


> If I climb, my shell parka is going with me, even if its in July. They don't call it the world's worst weather for no reason.
> 
> It depends how it goes. There are a lot of others that I want to hike in the area, including Mt. Chocorua which supposedly has a beautiful reflecting pool, and Mt. Isolation, which I hear lives up to its name. There's no shortage of peaks to bag.


 
Very true, it is a beautiful state and I'm jealous.


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## Carol (May 18, 2010)

Xue Sheng said:


> Very true, it is a beautiful state and I'm jealous.



Well ya know, you could always bring the good lady and the tree-attackers-to-be up for a visit. Especially if I can actually close on this freaking condo I'm trying to buy :lol:


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