Ecuadorean Sky (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

Boing Boing reader Porter Yates shares this photo, titled "The Earth is Flat," with the Boing Boing Flickr Pool—and explains:

Looking onto Andean fields near Simiatug, Ecuador. My vantage point was from ~ 13,000 ft. The clouds filled the valley below as the sun began to set. I had never seen a sky quite like this.

• [Lobster]

  This is why we invented cameras.

  I hope the guy wasn’t arrested for plotting to blow up the sky. 

• [Blinde Schildpad]

  Whoah.

• [relawson]

  n/t

• [Ricardo Aguiar]

  =) Ecuador its a beautiful place, did you know that a 3 – 4 hour drive from there and you could be relaxing at the beaches in Machalilla National Park?

• [Guest]

  Magnificent! 

• [Noctilucent Studios]

  Wow.

  Wow.

  and Wow again. That is magnificent.

• [Cowicide]

  With photos this amazing in the boing boing pool, there’s no hope any of mine will ever get greenlit.  Dammut…

  Wonderful painting!  Er, I mean, photo!

• [Adjam Oliver]

  Reminds me of when I was in a mountainous region of Peru, the clouds were flat and it looked as if the mountain was an island and the clouds were a sea.

  • [Daneel]

    I took a photo like that once in Washington State.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/15452162@N00/1388424417/

• [dculberson]

  Gorgeous!!

  @boingboing-555d6702c950ecb729a966504af0a635:disqus  – you want to know how I can tell you are (or were) a Farker?  ;-)

  • [Cowicide]

    Is it green?

• [dmal]

  That’s a great shop, I mean shot.

• [opmaroon]

  I knew I shouldn’t have looked at the EXIF. I’m all confused now.

  1/5000 sec?

• [Porter Yates]

  Since I’ve lurked on bb for several years I guess now would be an appropriate time for my 1st post. Thanks Xeni for the link and to everyone else for the comments. 

  As for the EXIF. The image is uses DRI which is similar to HDR but without the tone-mapping. I had to do this in order to capture the entire high contrast scene. To properly expose the sky meant the dark green hills would be deep black. To expose the hills correctly meant the sky would be blown out white. I took three exposures at -3, -1 and +1 exposure stops. The images were then merged in Photoshop where I selected the properly exposed areas from each image. The reason the EXIF shows 1/5000 for a shutter speed is that I used the darkest image as the base and copied the lighter exposures on top of it. The exif isn’t detailed enough to show three different shutter speeds. Anyway, glad you guys liked it.

  • [dmal]

    It’s a great capture, sorry for the sarcasm. I probably would’ve narrowed the range a bit I suppose, but using DRI to expand the range of and image without losing the realism is tricky. You made the most of a great opportunity. Props!

  • [Jonathan Růžek]

    Porter, could you please provide a high-res version of your image that’s suitable for my 28″ monitor? :)
    Absolutely wonderful work.

• [librtee_dot_com]

  I just got myself a new desktop wallpaper. Bravo.

• [DataShade]

  Why is BoingBoing promoting photos from people who disable downloading on their Flickr page?  

• [grs]

  That’s pretty badass.

• [Heather Thompson]

  How BEAUTIFUL!!! Thank you for sharing! I have, just within the past couple of years, found that I really, really enjoy taking pictures. It has come fairly naturally for me to get some good shots, but WHEW!!! Good Job! I can only pray that some day I have an opportunity to take a picture like that! The pic is breathtaking, I cant even imagine what it must have felt like to actually be there in person!

• [dumbeast]

  Lovely colors and tones throughout.  I’m especially fond of those clouds in the middle distance.  A Picture of Ecuadorian Gray. 

  I am very sorry that I was unable to not say that.

• [Angie Coco Colina]

  A place I’d love to call home again… memories….