Karen Randall
October 2026 - Untitled
Original
About the Image(s)
I drove to the Eastern Sierra the end of September for the Fall Colors. Sagehen Meadow is the first to turn. Located Southeast of Mono Lake in Lee Viining, Ca. Beautiful area for Fall Colors. The Moon was rising above the mountains, the evening colors were perfect, and the golden from the trees made for a great composition.
I took this with my Nikon D850, f/9, for 30 seconds, ISO 100, with a Nikkor 24-120 lens.
I cropped a bit and played around with the lightening to make it look a bit more dramatic.
2 comments posted
Karen, beautiful colors and beautiful photo. I think you could crop out and make it 11 x 14, and still present the essence of the photo. It does represent October! Posted: 10/08/2026 02:04:44
Karen,
Given how high the moon has risen, this was probably a "blue hour" photo. The moon is over exposed (it looks like a sun) but if you had used a less long exposure to darken the moon you might have lost some of the color in the foreground. This is one of those situations where you might make a copy and make the sky darker in one image and the foreground lighter in the other and then combine them and mask in PS. Night sky photographers do this frequently. Or just use a mask(s) in LR. The attached image was a linear greadient in LR applied to the sky to darken and a couple of radial gradients in the foreground. Just depends on the look you want. Posted: 10/08/2026 04:02:49
Given how high the moon has risen, this was probably a "blue hour" photo. The moon is over exposed (it looks like a sun) but if you had used a less long exposure to darken the moon you might have lost some of the color in the foreground. This is one of those situations where you might make a copy and make the sky darker in one image and the foreground lighter in the other and then combine them and mask in PS. Night sky photographers do this frequently. Or just use a mask(s) in LR. The attached image was a linear greadient in LR applied to the sky to darken and a couple of radial gradients in the foreground. Just depends on the look you want. Posted: 10/08/2026 04:02:49