Before Sunrise - Mt Cook NZ

[Killakoala]

New Zealand is a beautiful country, even when the sun is still below the horizon.

D700 - 28-70mm at 34mm, 20 seconds at F4.5, ISO 200

Click on the image for 1280px.

[biggerry]

5.43am

very nice image and something different! how were the shots with the sun coming up?

[chrisk]

for me, this shot is just breathtaking. theres something about it that speaks to me. the calmness, the vivid blue, the light just tipping over the mountains...the simplicty...one of the favourite shots i've seen on this site for a very,very long time.

thank you.

[colin_12]

Very nice Steve,
I take it that the full image does not have the colour blocking in the sky?

[aim54x]

Very nice, it is simply stunning. I see that colour blocking as well...even in the larger copy...maybe you have compressed too far.

[surenj]

i agree with the others that this one is a great capture.

I do wonder what would happen if one were to add a small comet to the left mid area of the sky....

[big pix]

.......nice, very nice......

[robert]

Thats a real nice shot,

[Reschsmooth]

Amazing. Simply breathtaking. It actually gives me the feeling of a night staying up to the 3rd bottle of red to see this as opposed to waking up to this.

[gstark]

Bootifool, Steve.

[craig.rohse]

Isn't it nice to get up early in the morning to take some photos and end up with something so beautiful. This one would make a nice print for the livingroom. Well done

[Killakoala]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Although I have many 'quintessential' and 'iconic' images of New Zealand, I think this one speaks volumes of the serenity of the mountains. Later the same day when I was standing on top of the Tasman Glacier, the one thing that stood out over everything, even the amazing view, was the silence........ I think this image sums that up nicely.

Yes the banding in the sky is jpeg compression for the web. This image is one of over 300 that I took for a time-lapse look of the sunrise over Mt Cook so all the images were shot in JPEG-FINE. There is still minor banding in the original but it's very minimal. Once I get a chance to print it out I will see just how bad it is.

I only used an 8Gb card so NEF was out of the question as it takes up too much space on the card. Once I get a 16Gb card, I will shoot time-lapse images in NEF. I really like this feature the D700 has and I will explore it more in the future.

BigBerry.
There was no cloud over the mountains so while the sunrise looked OK, there was a dramatic element missing with the swirling of clouds around tall peaks as usually happens. Still, I think it will end up ok. I will attempt to convert the images into a movie and I will post it here so members can have a look. Oh, and with such a beautiful view to wake up to, why wait until after dawn.

Rooz.
Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate what you say.

Surenj.
I like the comet idea.

[Man Tripod]

Very nice Steve. Mt Cook village is a very speccy place. Looks like you made it up to Mueller hut as well. My +1 and i did that this time last year and it was sensational. We had several large ceracs break off the hanging glacier on Mt Sefton and cause avalanches below. We watched on from the relative safety of the Mueller Hut track.

[Lukec]

Great Pic, creates a feeling of Pure Isolation.

Well Done

[sheepie]

No words for this one Steve - simply gorgeous

What you doing over there?

[Killakoala]

No words for this one Steve - simply gorgeous

What you doing over there?

Having a nice time Thus place us choice bro....

[Reschsmooth]

Thus place us choice bro....

Watch out for the beached whales.

[Big V]

Awesome

[sheepie]

Thus place us choice bro....

Watch out for the beached whales.

Beached as Bro

[bigsarg7]

its been said already, but absolutely Breathtaking. Such an awesome incredible shot, i could just stare at it for quite a while, actually i was staring at it for about 5 minutes b4 reading everyones comments, and even now i want to scroll back and view it again, and to me, that means you've done one of the best shots i've seen in a while.
Kinda makes you think about a lot of things, how little we are in comparison to the universe and this shot captures so many emotions and thoughts. Congrats, love it!!

[Alpha_7]

Wow, love it, screams middle earth to me, or another fantasy land.

[ozimax]

Wonderful image, in a spot that I have photographed numerous times, but not at your crazy time of day!

[zafra52]

Excellent image. I love it and I wish I had had your selfdiscipline to get up that early to take pictures. You must have been staying at the Hermitage Hotel. I saw there the most spectacular sunset while dining in its restaurant that has the most beautiful panoramic views, but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me.

[LaurieE]

wow - this looks like it was shot on the moon - I almost expect to see the earth come up over the horizon.

pre-dawn is a sensational time of day.