Winter Quiet Assignment Winner Kevin Russell

Congrats to Kevin Russell for winning the Winter Quiet Assignment!

“I have a friend that lives a little closer to Tipsoo Lake at Mount Rainier National Park. He mentioned he was going up there to shoot stars and asked if I’d like to join in. I’m glad I went along and grateful he asked. It was a balmy 20 degrees out but we had fun shooting various compositions under the stars at upper and lower Tipsoo Lakes that night. This was taken while straddling a small stream that feeds into the Lake. This location is shot frequently by many photographers and I usually avoid places like that, but I’m happy I walked away with something unique from there.  And I’m pretty sure I’ll be back during better weather,” says Russell.

“As for processing, I combined 2 of the same image shot at different settings.  For the sky I used an image that was shot at 30 sec, f/4, ISO 3200, 10mm.  For the rest I used the image shot at 4.5 minutes, f/4, ISO 400, 10mm.  I blended the two with a layers mask.  I get a cleaner, less noisy foreground by taking the image twice at different settings and blending.”

Equipment: Nikon D7000, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens, Manfrotto tripod