Keota

Photographer's Note

Pawnee Buttes - For Didi

Nearly Every time he writes a critique for me Didi prods me to start stitching panoramas. ... Well after seven months I have finally done one.

This is a hand done stitch of four images done in Photoshop .. My first attempt .. so all thoughts are very much appreciated.

The Pawnee Buttes are the primary attraction in the 193,000 acre Pawnee National Grassland. They rise 300 feet (91.44 meters) above the surrounding plains .. The Buttes were popularized by writer James Michener in his novel "Centennial" .. (in which they were referred to as the "Rattlesnake Buttes")

Michener earned his Master's Degree and then taught for several years nearby at the Colorado State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Colorado ... where I teach)

a good account of a trip to the Buttes:
http://www.trailsandgrasslands.org/pawnee.html

more on Michener:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Michener

jwmunro, JDDeming, happypoppeye, claire526, scobert, Viera, Buin, rushfan2112, kiwi_explorer, NellyD, Didi, Leilani, JoseMiguel, danos, evanrizo, stego, jaywalker, Cretense, calimex, pboehringer, alainh, delic, riclopes, Angelillo, gunbud has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jwmunro (286) 2007-05-11 21:38

Hello John -

Well done! You have some nice light on the near butte but it is too bad the far butte does not have a spot of light on it also. I know it's still early but are any of the cacti up yet. I seem to remember that it is late June when they start blooming. Again, well done!

If I recall these are Rattlesnake Buttes in Michener's Centennial.

Thank you for sharing.

John

Thank you for sharing.

John

JDDeming (294) 2007-05-11 21:42

This is just amazing. Great stitch job. Thanks!

happypoppeye (4819) 2007-05-11 22:53

Great job on the stitching, especially for a fist time. I can't see a seam anywhere. Great composition and color. Love the sky with the clouds creating a really "deep" picture. Great sun "spot" highlighting the focal point and making it even more prominent. Even like how the trail anchors the lower right side of the photo. Truthfully, the only complaint I may have (really not even sure if I would complain) is that the ground on the right is a bit too dark. But it is definitely a well seen, well stitched, well composed and exposed photo. Great work.

testmaniac (13508) 2007-05-12 0:11

Hello John

Great shot! Colors and sharpness are very good!

Thank you for sharing.

Regards,
Philip

jjcordier (79299) 2007-05-12 2:22

Tu as bien retenu les conseils de Didi pour r嶧liser ce stich parfaitement r嶧lis�. Un panorama d'une tr鋊 grande qualit� et dont la beaut� est encore plus 憝idente dans la version large.
Amicalement
JJ

claire526 (1267) 2007-05-12 2:25

Hi John,

Amazing, amazing, amazing ( if redundancy is in ;) ) panoramic shot. I love the blue sky and the uber white clouds and sharpness. Congrats on the stitching, well done!

Cheers,
Claire

scobert (5355) 2007-05-12 2:34

Hello John,
You are really kicking your landscape photography into high speed "warp drive" now. This shot is unbelievable! It blew me away when I opened it up from the thumbnails. Being a fellow Coloradoan I know this area well and this is the best shot ot Pawnee Buttes that I have ever seen. The panoramic is great. Keep on posting these beauties!
Stan

Viera (948) 2007-05-12 2:43

Hi John,
I like this photo with nice perspective. White clouds, blue sky, shadows and lights - very nice scenery. Well done
Have a nice day
Viera

Buin (42580) 2007-05-12 2:45

Hallo John!
Here again you've caught a wonderful light sentiment and this landscape really is great. These "towers" in the plain are very impressive. It's a bit like monument valley ...
Greetings from rainy Germany - and have a nice weekend!
Frank

rushfan2112 (2965) 2007-05-12 3:57

Hi John. What a superb image. The light that falls solely on the most prominent "butte" makes this shot for me. I was a little concerned, at first, that this quality of light wasn't replicated across the panorama but, as it wasn't there, why should it? It doesn't! I disagree slightly with Polonaise. You're not a good photographer, this shows you're a great one. Wish I could grant more than 2 points for this one. Regards, Paul.

jonathan_hart (21276) 2007-05-12 5:52

hello John
nice place and good moment captured, the clouds disposition makes a great depth, good light and colours, good framing, well done, good pano, good sharpness too
regards
jo

kiwi_explorer (12209) 2007-05-12 7:04

Hi John,
What makes this compo stand out is the sky ... can't beat that for a background ... the color contrast between the sky and clouds is an eye catcher. The main subject is also very interesting natural formation. Well captured and composed. Excellent! tfs
Cheers,
Renier

Polonaise (5802) 2007-05-12 7:40

Unbelievably American�!!!!
I still remember those great western movies, which always opened with that magnificent, panoramic view of the vast land of The Big Country, and then came those gigantic letters across the screen:
TECHNICOLOR�or KODACOLAR�or
20-th.Century Fox� or�
And the music was dazzling, with the trumpets and bassoon and deep drums.
Oh, Boy� What a magical daze it created to our brains.. What a view�? What a picture !!!!!!!!!!

Thanks.
You𠆫e are a good photographer, Mr. John McLaird

Have a great weekend, pal

george

Gustaw (21670) 2007-05-12 9:28

Hi, my friend!
It is very nice panorama about mountains. Very nice view. I like your nature photo. Good composition, well done. Interesting light. I like your rocks and sky.
Marek

NellyD (1874) 2007-05-12 12:18

Hi John,

That's a very beautiful panorama, the light and colours are beautiful, great clouded sky, excellent sharpness and composition. I like it!
TFS

Greetings, Nel

Didi (61589) 2007-05-12 14:05

Hi John
Many thanks for your dedicace:-))
Very nice composition with this spotlight on the middle of the big rock.
It's a successfull try but how many pictures you make ?
The large post gives a better Idea about the details and I appreciate well your exposure lights management.
Well done.
Cheers.

Leilani (1385) 2007-05-12 14:28

This is a great panoramic! As others have said I don't see any stitches. The clarity is nice and the comp is spectacular. I would have to say that I find the right side a bit dark compared to the rest of the comp. But obviously there is nothing you can do if that's the way the clouds fall. As a Michener fan it's great to see a shot of somewhere mentioned in his books. If this is your first try, I cannot wait to see panoramics done once you're an old hand! Thanks for sharing!

anesugur (18789) 2007-05-12 14:44

Hi John,
Excellent landscape.
Very good POV, nice colors and very beautiful sky.
Best regards. Uğur

JoseMiguel (860) 2007-05-12 15:45

Hi John,
A great first ever stitch!
You did it pretty well by hand in Photoshop.
I have never done a stich yet, but the nowadays software that comes with the cameras do it by itself.
So I like very much this formations, it reminds me about the "tepuyes" that we have here in "La Gran Sabana"
You took good advantage of the large format to present us plenty of clear and sharp details.
Congratulations and thanks for share it.
My best regards,
JM

evanrizo (462) 2007-05-12 17:49

Hi John.
It looks a magical place, the sky is very amazing and the lightness excellent.
With few words, you have a superb photo here.
TFS
Evan

danos (110407) 2007-05-13 3:40

Hello John,
a superb shot of the Pawnee Buttes.A well made panorama,I believe no and the last one,view of this land with a marvellous sky full of clouds.Excellent and the light that falls on the side of the hill.Well done.
Have a nice weekend,Danos

PixelTerror (0) 2007-05-13 5:07

Hi John,
A superb view to please Didi as well as a wide number of other trekkers, including me, stitch of nature is a lot easier than architecture, you got it right here including the levelled exposure, we get here an outstanding impression of space enhanced by the 3D clouds, 1st class post !
Have a nice sunday, JY

stego (24132) 2007-05-13 11:44

Hi John,
Wow! This one really fills my eyes! It's gorgeous! You did a master job with the compo, cleverly positioning the track and both buttes. That cloudy blue sky and the polariser helped you a lot. That piece of sun on the left is another great thing. Then, there is the clarity, sharpness, the vivid colours and the perfect(!) stitching.
A great work indeed, congratulations.
TFS, Regards, Jos�.

jaywalker (16105) 2007-05-13 12:51

Hi John, A strong blue sky & a wonderful cloud formation emphasize the two massive rock creations, the one in the forground is almost 3D & looks spectacular, very well composed & the panaramic scene is perfect congratulations, you take care, kind regards Wilson.

Cretense (68709) 2007-05-13 13:24

Hi John!

Another amazing American landscape from you. The panoramic framing is very impressive and the large version allows us to enjoy all the tiny and beautiful details. Perfect composition, beautiful colours and wonderful clouds in the sky. Congratulations!

Hercules

danyy (0) 2007-05-13 17:14

Bonjour John,
une panoramique d'un pays grandiose et chaud.
Un polarisant qui a parfaitement jou� son r犨e et qui d彋ache les nuage dans ce ciel bien bleu.
Un cadrage parfait pour cette photo qui se pr皻e bien � une vue large.
Best regards.
Daniel.

UnTrained (0) 2007-05-14 10:59

Hi John,
good work, well done. Something to be repeated, for sure. A landscape which askes for a pano to relax. Lovely colours and pleasant sharpness.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

cdmonson (5304) 2007-05-14 15:24

Fantastic shot John. The light on the near butte and the shadow on the rest gives the picture a bit of a surreal look. The subject is beautiful and the composition good, although I would have left out the road--it seems too near the edge of the picture to really be effective in the composition. Just a thought. Good job all around though.

Clark

MP-Moller (592) 2007-05-15 4:46

wonderful dept in this photo

qpochet (1412) 2007-05-15 5:58

Hi John,

Very nice panoramic shot, I can't see any stitching there. Very good colours and depth, strengthened by the red road. Very nice sky as well, I love the effect of the PL filter on the clouds.
Nice job!
Quentin.

agbonavita (0) 2007-05-15 8:24

Great photo John! The clouds going to the infinite was great. Pretty polarized sky and reliev. What lens did you used here?

Nice homage photo.
Regards
andre

ben4321 (9875) 2007-05-15 16:12

The large version looks fantastic, makes me wish I had a widescreen monitor to do it justice.
The composition is excellent, with the three components of the two buttes and the track giving the image a good balance. The line of the track also works well to draw us into the image.
A classic American image, beautifully set off by that big sky.
Good work john.

Cheers,
Ben

guillaumejm (0) 2007-05-15 17:03

Hello john
A nice landscape and large version is great too. I particularly like the light on the butte, and also the clouds. They look like 3 dimensionnal!.
Best regards
JMarc

calimex (151) 2007-05-15 17:57

Hi John,
Incredible hand stitching... I would like to be able to do that someday! The photo is great, full of clarity, shadows, and vast openness. Your note is also quite interesting, with helpful links about the Pawnee Buttes!
Best regards,
Jos�

pboehringer (770) 2007-05-16 13:28

John, I was trying panoramic shots myself this last weekend. I can tell you that yours is amazingly beautiful. It seems to be perfect and I surely don't know how you managed to do it with a polarizing filter. Everywhere it is recommended not do to it beacuse of the difficulty in stitching it. I had the painful experience this weekend to proof this statement to be right, but know I see your post and you proof the contrary. What in the heck did you do? How did you do it? Its perfect, wonderful, awesome ...

Albrecht (11283) 2007-05-16 16:12

Hi John
You live in a spectacular land with wonderful scenes of nature.Beautiful picture and well cropped.
So you have been in music too. I am a musicteacher on hihghschool and still have much fun doing the job.
Music makes my life....
greetings from Holland
Albrecht

alainh (33209) 2007-05-18 0:56

hello John
always the same pleasure to discover these fantastic cloudy sky in this incredible place. a good stich you make. very beautiful
have a nice day John !!
alain

delic (6735) 2007-05-18 2:45

Hello John,
Excellent panoramic view of the buttes. Love those fluffy clouds and the trail seemingly leading to the butte in the back. Masterful stitch work on your part. Regards,
Hakan

riclopes (35577) 2007-05-18 4:04

Ol� John, fantastic first panoramic with a very impressive large version. I also want to do my first one (for some time now), but I'm waiting for the right one...and also I'm a bit lazy :)
You got a spectacular cloudy sky that contrasts well with the lovely landscape and adds depth to the image. Great composition as well. Congratulations!
Best wishes,
ricardo

Angelillo (9374) 2007-05-18 15:04

Hi John,

Very beautiful shots in these days! I choose this for today. I like a lot the light over the mountain. The whole landscape is epic and very wild. The stitch is perfect. Great job! Thanks. Have a nice weekend,

Angel.

berseph (1758) 2007-05-20 0:12

Beautiful shot John. Love the framing here of the two land formations, and the dotted clouds going on forever is so beautiful. Your stitching job is really good here as I can't even see any remnants of it.

mdetay (4929) 2007-05-27 5:18

Hi John,
You did a great job. You have such a great collection of landscape.
Well done. You are a real TE guy now.
Cheers from the south of France, for a change.
Michel

Emiel_Skyfreak (3002) 2007-06-01 6:52

Handdone stitch? Then you've did that very ery well! I've never done that..how do you..do..that? Not that I think it's very necessary, atleast, if an automatic tool does the job well, then it's enough, but if it didn't..it can be the solution ofcourse!

How many time did it take?

Interesting. I love the light on this butte on the left, it draws the attention and due to the fact that it's the most interesting object in the scene, that's really good. Well polarized sky, good sharpness, contrast and colours.
I like the panoramic format, it's well chosen for this image.

Much regards,
Emiel.

capthaddock (28790) 2007-07-03 10:49

Hi John - I ran into this one randomly and couldn't resist, the landscape is quite strange, not everyone's idea of what Colorado looks like, interesting formations, but the clouds are my favorite part.

gunbud (34066) 2007-10-28 20:00

Hi John,
Beautiful blue sky with the lovely clouds makes a wonderful back drop for these famous bluffs. The inclusion of the narrow path lends very good depth to this composition. The lighting is excellent with clear strong colors and excellent sharpness. Very good note brings back memories of the book and television mini series.
Regards, Tom