Hi everyone, as you will probably have seen I have entered one of my photos for my first iPotM.

No, this is not a post trying to solicit votes, quite the contrary as I am inviting critique and comments which you think may have helped make it a better picture.

Firstly, let me explain the picture:
Tirol is basically a mountainous region encompassing parts of Italy and Austria and across to Switzerland, but whether it includes any of Switzerland, I'm not so sure.
The residents are proud to be called Tiroleans and prefer to associate themselves with Tirol more than with Italy or Austria.

Anyway, this particular photo is in the southern part of Tirol - Süd Tirol and technically within Italy, just.

It is just a couple of miles from a much more famous lake or reservior called Reschensee, by the reschen pass. That reservoir was created by flooding a valley, including a village and its most famous landmark is the church tower which still sticks out of the water.

Then just a couple of miles further on is the Austrian border.


Meanwhile, back at the photo:
Haidersee (the larger lake at the foot of the mountains) itself is 1450 metres above sea level and when I took the photo from the side of another mountain I guess I was almost another 100 metres higher. I am guessing I was at around 2300-2500 metres above sea level.

You can just make out the start of a valley between the two mountains in the background (heading off to the right of the photo) this leads deep into the mountains (and Austria eventually) to the area where Ötzi was discovered. I think I got the name right and the fact that he is now the oldest discovered human skeleton.

Anyway, welcome to this little corner of the world and please feel free to comment on the picture and how I may have improved the composition, lighting or anything else about it.






Keith

I love your photo Keith.... I always look at photos and decide if I like them or not by saying I would put that on my livingroom wall as im sure Bruce will tell you the same.... so with your photo I wouldn't change anything I would just print and frame...

Thanks Linda, but with shots like this getting the effects of the lighting correct is extremely difficult.
This particular photo has the rich greens in the foreground, but the background with the mountains is just a little washed out.
OK; so the mountains are primarily much lighter colours, mainly greys, but I feel I could have done a little better, somehow.

Keith

You're right Keith, it is difficult getting the lighting right... just now the mountains have a painted look to them.

This is where the benefits of digital photography really come to the fore (especially if you have plenty of space on your memory card): you can take multiple shots of each scene with slight adjustments to the settings on the camera; then later you can sit and compare them all and hopefully at least one will give you the results that you want! Failing that there's always Photoshop!

Photoshop is not an option for me.
Firstly I have an old copy but it is just too complicated.

I only really tried to use it for a bit of web stuff.
I also have IrfanView, a free program which I use for re-sizing and it works well for that, but I am firmly in the 'no tinkering with pictures' camp, so what you see in my photos is exactly what came out of the camera.

As for different settings / shots, I'm uploading a few more from the same day, see my next post......

I know a lot of people don't like photoshop or similar tools, but I have to admit to having used it in the past. This was mostly to "fix" some photos where the settings on a particular camera were changed without me realising... someone had altered the light to "tungsten" for some strange reason; it gave some interesting results, particularly when photographing in to the sun, but most of the time just gave the picture a blue tint! Now I only really use photoshop it for resizing or cropping!

On that particular day I did take a few slightly different shots, but right now I am struggling to remember which camera I used at that time.
It certainly wasn't the old Olympus system, but I think it was my Nikon analogue camera, before I had the digital. In which case, much is also down to the processing.
Yes, it must have been that as I had prints made, plus CD copies fo the films at the same time.


Here is a series from the same day, same area:

This first one is basically the same, but a portrait version.
My opinion: didn't quite work.




Just a slightly different version, mainly regarding the foreground.
My opinion: Not good.




My choice for iPotM




Totally different perspective without the small mountain pool in the mid-ground.
My opinion: Not bad.




Here is something totally different, but from the same mountain. Just a little further along and looking back across the mountain itself. I like this too, especially the miniature Alpine Rhodedendron!




This next one is interesting as it is the mountain pool in the other pictures. I took the others looking down onto Haidersee from up on that hill you see here.




Remember I spoke about that valley going off towards Austria? Well these next two were taken at the end of the road a few miles along there. Sabine (my now wife) entertaining the locals





Anyway, sorry for derailing 'Scotland' with Italy and Austria.
Keith