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A contrail catching the dawn above receding misty hills at Mount Tomah on the Bells Line of Road in NSW, Australia.
A contrail catching the dawn above receding misty hills at Mount Tomah on the Bells Line of Road in NSW, Australia.
The different image sizes, Nook, Feature and Mural, shown to scale against a human figure. This comparison is for

Glint Over Bells

$100.00 AUD
1749
1749
499
499
129
129

For a brief moment a contrail lights up in the early dawn somewhere along the Bells Line of Road near Mount Tomah in NSW Australia. Somehow I managed to stop the car, grab the camera and capture this shot from the edge of the road in the 30 seconds the effect was visible!

NookFeatureMural
Dimensions
  • Story
  • Planning
  • Technical

How this shot came about.

This shot is one of those rare moments where all the elements for the image come together in an instant and then dissipate just as quickly.

Mia and I had struck out from the house very early that morning on our way to the country town of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. Mia was going to compete in the state waterpolo championships and we had left well before dawn in order to arrive in time at the end of a 10 hour drive. 

The sun was just beginning to make its presence felt as we got to the top of the Bells Line of Road near Mount Tomah. There was a nice inversion layer in the valleys to the right of the car as we traveled along but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

As I guess it is with all photographers I was glancing to my right every now and again to see if there was a shot forming in the improving light. As I flicked my eyes to the horizon for the umpteenth time there was, all of a sudden, a tiny glint in the air as a contrail started to form behind one of the first flights of the day going into Sydney Airport. A second glance, and I could see the trail lengthening and lightening as it caught the first rays of the sun from below the horizon.

I quickly decelerated and pulled the car over to the side of the road. Grabbing the camera and the tripod from the back of the car I setup on the verge, set the camera to ISO400, opened up to f5.6 and took the shot. 30 seconds later the contrail was gone!

The hills and the fading inversion layer coupled with the shining contrail and the dark shadow of the earth projected onto the atmosphere at the horizon make for a most unusual image.

 

Shot Location

The Shot

…was completely without a planning process. The shot presented itself and was gone again inside of a minute - but luckily I was quick enough to capture it.

The Photographer's Ephemeris showing the shot location

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is a trademark of Crookneck Consulting LLC, registered in the United States.
Please visit their website at https://photoephemeris.com for more details
All other trademarks and logos remain the property of their respective owners

Gear

Camera: Canon EOS 7D

Lens: Canon EF 70-210mm f4

Storage: SanDisk Extreme Pro CF UDMA 7 64Gb

Ballhead: Manfrotto 498RC2

Tripod: Manfrotto 055XPROB

Cable Release: Promote

ND Filter: None

Exposures

Count: 1

HDR Count: 0 exposures per shot

Aperture: f5.6

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 250 mm

EV values: 0

Shutter: 1/125

Filters

ND Filter: Not used

Gradient Filter: false

Polarizer: false

Image

Rows: 1

Shots: 1

HDR Shots: 0

Aspect: Portrait

Arrangement: 1x1

Post Production

Basic Workflow

  • This image is a single exposure so no stitching was required
  • The image lay dormant in Lightroom until I acquired my copy of  Topaz DeNoiseAI  
  • There was a strong pass through Topaz DeNoiseAI removing low-light CCD artifacts from all across the image
  • I used Photoshop's spot healing tool to remove quite a few sensor artifacts from the image

Image Adjustment

  • Once I was satisfied with the results there was a couple of light passes through Topaz SharpenAI to bring out the details in the contrail
  • The image is not cropped from the original

A graphic of the shot's layout structure

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How is my image shipped to me?

After printing each image is trimmed to include mounting margins for your framer.

It is then rolled in protective sheets and placed in an appropriately sized mailing carton.

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We usually print on Ultra Smooth Cotton Rag at 308 gsm.

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Each print is personally named, numbered and signed by me.


Additionally I also emboss the margin of the print with our logo.


Finally each print comes with a certificate of authentication which includes an encrypted QR code containing a unique print identifier and the known provenance of the print.

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All images on the Amuigh Faoin Speir website are copyright the author. A great deal of time and effort goes into the acquisition and production of each image and unauthorized use of any of the images is prohibited.


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Why does the price of each image vary over time?

Each of the images comes in three sizes, Feature, Mural and Nook.

For each image each size has a restricted and predetermined run size.

We guarantee that this run size will never be exceeded, ever.

This means that there is a natural scarcity for each image/size combination and as prints are sold that scarcity increases with a corresponding increase in the price for the next print.

This approach provides an opportunity for early purchasers to acquire an appreciating asset the market value for which increases with each subsequent purchase of that image/size combination

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