SHOW - Shots in 2.4:1

[GeorgeHudetz]

Let’s do the story-tellers aspect ratio!

I do have some shots from my anamorphic lens to post later, but I’m going to start with a crop from a spherical lens.

This was the moonset of the full moon of December 2025 called a “Cold” moon). This time of year, the alignment of the setting moon with our most prominent local peaks is perfect from anywhere in town with a view.

So, what we are looking at is the moon over two peaks, called Mt Meeker (the most obvious peak) and Long’s Peak (to the right and back a bit, mostly obscured by Meeker). Long’s peak is a legendary “14er” in Colorado. 14ers are peaks that are over 14,000 feet, and people love to climb them. Long’s is quite challenging, and can extract a heavy toll if you are not careful. Anyway, the lighting and the clouds were just perfect on this particular morning. The captures used for this image were about 30 minutes before sunrise, hence the classic “purple mountains of majesty” seen here. And those clouds! I couldn’t believe my luck. I intentionally chose to frame the moon & peaks with the two trees. This was a bit of a departure for me, but I do like how it turned out. All capped off by the snow in the foreground from the snowfall 12 hours earlier

I used two images - one for the moon, and one for everything else. Both were captured at 200mm using the 70-200 f/2.8 S-Pro.

The moon shot was 1/25s, f/2.8, ISO80 on the S1RII.
Everything else was 1/2s, f/2.8, ISO 80.

Merged in photoshop and processed to taste, to get a little more color out of the mountain and to make it pop a little more.

To see the 4k image, click here: https://georgehudetzphotography.smugmug.com/Backyard/i-jkShKD8/A

Cheers!

• Panasonic DC-S1RM2
• LUMIX S 70-200/F2.8
• 200mm
• 1/2s
• ISO 80

 

[pdk42]

That’s pretty spectacular George. But I think a bit of careful AI to remove those foreground trees would move up a few notches more!

 

[GeorgeHudetz]

Thanks Paul.

The trees are interesting. I normally do shoot the mountain without the trees - it’s just a few more steps for me to do so. For this shot, I specifically chose to frame the mountain & moon with the trees, and I knew I was taking a bit of a chance in doing so, but I wanted to give it a shot. Now, when I captured this moment, I didn’t full appreciate how unique & beautiful it would turn out, and if I did, I might have been more conservative and framed it differently.

Having said that, I did use some tools to do a basic removal of the trees, but then the FG seemed a bit too empty to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve photographed Meeker & Longs literally hundreds of time that way; not sure. Anyway, while I won’t deny that some would consider them to be distracting, I decided to leave the trees in. And, the more I look at it, the more comfortable I am with that choice.

FWIW, this has been one of my most liked images on FB - I publish to a page called “Discover Colorado Through Your Photos” for example (which has 250k members) and am at 1200 likes. Which is a lot, for me anyway. Of course, the algorithm plays a huge role here, and that doesn’t mean it’s good art, etc. Or that it might have been even more popular without the trees, LOL. But I’m pretty happy with it and will make some prints.

But thanks for the feedback - I always welcome constructive criticism!

 

[Travis Butler]

FWIW, I also like the framing effect.

Though you should have dug up and moved the shorter tree left a few steps... ^_-

 

[GeorgeHudetz]

FWIW, I also like the framing effect.

Though you should have dug up and moved the shorter tree left a few steps... ^_-

Thanks.

Yeah, or I could have moved to the right just a smidge.

 

[PJD]

Thanks.

Yeah, or I could have moved to the right just a smidge.

The technical director yakking at me through the studio headsets (in my past life) is yelling, "Dolly LEFT and get rid of those damn foreground trees!"

I really enjoy how everyone has a different sense of composition. It's all good. My instinct would be to X-nay the trees, if possible. But because the rest of the image is so wonderful, my brain kinda filters the trees out anyway. Cheers.

 

[pdk42]

The technical director yakking at me through the studio headsets (in my past life) is yelling, "Dolly LEFT and get rid of those damn foreground trees!"

I really enjoy how everyone has a different sense of composition. It's all good. My instinct would be to X-nay the trees, if possible. But because the rest of the image is so wonderful, my brain kinda filters the trees out anyway. Cheers.

I did my own AI edit on a copy of the image to remove the trees. I also added a bit more PP sauce and I must say the end result is absolutely stunning !! I won't post it here, for obvious reasons, but I do think removing the trees elevates it to the level of "exceptional". @GeorgeHudetz - if you want a copy of my edit, drop me a PM.