View From Hotel Window

[rpcrowe]

This was the view from my hotel window in Guilin, China. I have played with it in post processing.

[arith]

I've not seen anything like that before.

[Wirefox]

Richard

A very interesting image. The processing is verging on the borderline between 'real' and the infamous 'HDR style'. Although I keep banging on that HDR is not a style at all but an tonal range adjustment that can be applied with finesse or a trowel. In my opinion (opinion of the week it seems) is that the sky should be processed separately from the rest of the image (you have lost a lot of detail). I am in a quandary because I am not sure this subject would have the same impact if you backed off the processing due to lighting conditions which probably made the original image quite dull and flat.

In terms of composition I like it very much and it is a really good example of where the thirds rule can be ignored.

Steve

Oh and crop that window edge out on the right. You will lose a bit of tree but it will be worth tha sacrifice.

[rpcrowe]

This is the image with the window frame cropped out. The sky as leaden grey with no visible clouds. This was the best I could do with that portion of the image... This whole area of China has an Alice in Wonderland look, mostlt due to the limestone formations jutting straight up.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Richard. This is not a flat photo. The depth you have achieved with this composition is very good. I like it very much.

[Shadowman]

It looks a bit like Positano meets Ireland with the hillside homes, winding roads, and hypnotic seascapes.

[Klickit]

There is a richness of detail here that your processing has brought out and I like the composition. The one (small) thing I wonder about is a slight greyness that appears to be coming through on the grass areas beside the pathway.
I am slightly envious of your travels, and this is one area of China that I have always wanted to visit. Looking forwards to more!

[rpcrowe]

Choosing a time to visit China was problematic because the very best time to visit that vast nation is in the Fall. However, Fall is the time that I least want to leave my home in San Diego County, California because of the high wildfire danger. I have four Maltese dogs and one large Goldendoodle dog that I need to protect. We have evacuated our home twice in the last five or six years due to wildfire danger. We would not be comfortable leaving our home and dogs in the care of someone else during travels.

We did not even consider a Winter trip because the area around Beijing is extremely cold during that season and the smoke from the heating fires around the sity causes a grey smog which is terrible for photography. Summer was also out because the areas in Southern China such as Guilin are extremely hot and muggy.

We chose the end of March through the first ten days of April as our target dates and were extremely lucky in that choice. Just a week before we arrived in beijing, that city suffered through a massive dust and sand storm which would have been terible for photography. We were lucky in that the residual from the harsh Manchurian winds cleared the air around Beijing and, athough it was bone chilling cold, the clear atmosphere allowed some unprecedented views such as this...



We hit rain as soon as we arrived in South China. It was not as clear as I desired on the Li River. I want to return to the Guilin and Yangshuo areas someday to shoot this miraculously beautiful scenery. However, the rain was not heavy enough to prevent some decent views of the River and its surroundings.



We picked a fortunate time because the Li River flooded and overflowed its banks less than a month after we visited there. The flooding around Guilin was extensive. I shot this image near our hotel during our trip...



Here is a China Press Copyright image of the same area a few weeks after we left...