When we were planning our trip to Wales, we decided we wanted to explore Snowdonia National Park. Our hardest hike of the week was going to be Mt. Snowden. For us, the path that made the most sense was the Llanberis Pass, at nine miles, it was the longest way up and back, but is the least technical of the six main paths up the mountain. We would be climbing 3,199 feet and the Llanberis path had the most gradual ascent of our choices. This is what awaited us at the top:
ISO 800 50mm 1/2000 f/13
Technically, this is a panorama. It is two photos stitched together. The originals were incredibly hazy, but after I had created the panorama in Photoshop. I used Lightroom’s “dehaze” sider to make it clearer. I also used the clarity slider and sharpened the image a bit. I didn’t take the haze out completely though because I knew I had a clearer image.
I also had hiked with my iPhone and I created this panorama:
ISO 25 4.15mm1/2500 f/2.2
It’s clearer, and certainly the sky is bluer, but to me the first photo more closely represents what this hike meant to me. We had designed our trip around this hike. It was what we scheduled ourselves for the first day in case we had to delay or reattempt it another day later in the week. It was the hardest hike I’ve done in awhile. So getting to the top was more about the serenity and silence of the first image than the community that is represented in the second. The haze and lack of people in the first image to me look more like a postcard or an image you might print and put on your wall.
Do you plan your holidays around a single activity or goal? Do you bring back a photo from your holidays that represent the trip? Do you sometimes go with out a camera on purpose? How do you feel about my two images, they do represent two different things don’t you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
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