Pierre and all others, thanks for the comments.
Pierre asked about HDR treatment of the photos. so here is my rather lengthy response. When I capture a landscape image I want the resulting photo to represent what I saw and remembered, which might be a kind of romanticized memory. In the winter photos, I want to tell a story about the beauty of winter just as Pierre has been using his photographs to tell a story about fierce winter storms, or Msmoto has been telling stories about the devastation caused by tornados and hurricanes.
To tell my story, the image must have some dimensionality to it. I can emulate three dimensions in the photograph in two different, but complementary ways. First, through the composition. In a wide angle shot, this means getting the viewer into the picture by placement of various elements in it. The second way is through the post processing that often is needed.
I shoot either with a D700 (mostly landscape) or a D7000 (mostly wildlife). My experience with both is that the histograms are to the right and the resulting image straight out of the camera is rather flat and the colors are not quite as saturated as I would want them. For a couple of years several years ago, I tried HDR (or false HDR) to attempt to deal with the flatness of the image. However, I did not like a lot of the resulting grunge look, even when I tried to soften that component. The grunge look might be great for buildings and even for people, but I did not like it for landscapes.
So now, about half my landscape images are adjusted principally with curves and some output sharpening and the other half with Topaz Adjust, which provides in some cases, depending upon what you do, an HDR look. I try not to have too much of the HDR look in landscapes, but maybe I have done too much with them. Please let me know.
Wildlife images use primarily curves and output sharpening.
So the winter photos I have posted use a bit of Topaz Adjust to help me tell the story I saw when I stopped to do the photography.
So Pierre, thanks for the opportunity for me to explain a bit about my philosophy and technique. I am just an amateur who is serious about having fun with his photography. There are many fine photos on these pages and they do serve as an inspiration to me to improve my approach.
