The tone and depth to the sky here is incredible.

Ah... I know this ship. 'Noah's Arc' I believe it's called :)
Super HDR. And location.

Fake sky? i.e from another time/location?
I must admit I have started to get a little fed up with HDR shots, however, I have always thought that they looked better in B&W, and this image proves it. What you have here is great and it is still subtle enough to not be OTT, it almost has a mono Infra Red feel. I like it.

As you know Dave I am familiar with the location, I can not spot anything unusual. I was up that way on Tuesday evening and I can vouch that is just how the sky was. The only thing I can think of is your view point may be a bit higher than usual! Obviously been pretty dry for a while!

Mhhh... for me it looks like you took neutral density filter and you made a long exposure (e.g 15 seconds). The movement of the clouds made them look blurry.
A really amazing shot, thanks for sharing!

I agree on the shot itself, really good HDR treatment and really jumps out at you.
as Chris said above I think it's a mixture of long exposures for the sky giving the movement in the clouds, then more fast shutter shots of the boat and foreground ?

To be able to make a guess on what's different, I looked up the earlier shots, and noticed this particular ship is taken from the other side than it was in September 2007. Were you in the water to get this one? ;-)

yes, it does look like long exposure. Someone said it jumps at you - I agree, personally I think it's a bit too jumpy :)

Frankly, I just want to leave technicalities aside. I just love everything about this photo. To me, the sky is fabulous - apocalyptic. The thought of 'Noah's Arc' immediately came to my mind too. As a viewer of this vision, I'll simply enjoy the impact of it without being distracted by analyzing it.

Out on a limb here, but might it have been taken at night?

Hi Dave,

Wish I had been there with you again. Great photograph - love the colours

I didn't use an ND filter, despite the long exposure, and one of you almost got it, but not quite ;) I'll update you all later today with how it was done :)

Oh, and it isn't a fake sky ;)

I´d say it´s a pseudo HDR but with the sky from the original shot. I don´t like the way HDR proccessed skies look so if I am right it´s just the right way to go. Oh, and regardless of what technique was used, it´s one of your best shots in a while! /Peter

Hey nice new angle looking from the opposite direction. Also looks like the sun has really dried the mud up which makes a change. That's two differences do they count? :) When I visited this place sometime ago I went up to my thighs in mud :D

Thanks for putting a smile on my face. It looks like the sky is moving... are there two different images?... is the sky... water? Okay... now I sound silly. Still smiling.

Carlos

infrared?

stunning photo. sky and clouds play a big part in some photos. good work

Agree with the comment by Rhys. Did you free transform the sky into an expanded canvas

IR filter + HDR?

I'm guessing its the perspective. That you paid a moving company to pick the boat up and take it back to your house to fix it up for weekend cruising and then decided it was too much work to fix it up so you told 'em to put it back but they put it back backwards, too much work to turn the truck around.

Very dramatic. I have no idea what part of the approach might be 'different' (it's pretty different already, but hints at a compound exposure) but there's something about the tonality that doesn't sit quite right with me.
The area inside the boat (dead lower centre) looks lacking in contrast compared to the rest. To a lesser extent, this applies to the whole boat hull, but it's more pronounced in the interior, which my perception wants to be darker and mysterious. Perhaps the proximity of the large area of high contrast sky exacerbates the effect, but it looks a lot like poor dodging (which I know it isn't).
Other than that, it's a great shot and I'll be interested to hear about the technique.

Thanks everyone, and to put you all out of your misery ...

Rhys was almost right but Steve and Kevin were spot on; i.e. the is an infrared shot, taken using a Hoya R72 Infrared filter that I borrowed from Andrew Thatcher when we were out shooting on Tuesday.

As you can see, the original is a bit dull, but with a bit of contrast enhancement (and the pseudo-HDR treatment) it does make for quite a dramatic image.

The exposure was 20s at f/8.

I have two more that I'll put up over the next few days, probably on Saturday and Monday.

I'm impress of your result after seeing the base capture. I think it's important to "see" the result before you start the postprocessing - or did you played a lot to get this final image?

Nicki: I haven't shot with an IR filter before, so didn't really have an idea as to how this one would turn out. Once I started working on it though it became fairly obvious that a high contrast version was probably the best way to go.

And it works good. I prefer using IR filter (postprocessing) for some HDR images, because you get a good mix of realistic and surealistic ... and little bit confused :D. A example: http://mynicki.net/?p=1355

Great image Dave not bad for your first IR shot ;). The rental bill is in the post :) Think the clouds have just the right amount of movement to them. Looking forward to seeing the rest of them.

Great shot!

Stunning!

I would never have guessed about the IR filter. It's indeed visible but mostly you twiddle so much with the colors that I wouldn't even think you used an IR filter :-)

That is just sick! I wish Bermuda had random huge boats lying around in empty land!! Amazing! Sky looks splendid too. I need Photomatix now

Absolutely stunning, this is one of your best IMHO.

Dave, having been there myself, this place is always a great photo opp, and yet again it doesn't disappoint in terms of final result. The IR tripped me up (as you know! grrr) and is a brilliant pre PP twist. I actually really like the motion in the sky, and the perfect sharpness in the foreground. I think it works really well. Well Done. I guess you'll have one of these in your bag permanently soon, nice loaner Thatch! ;-) I actually laughed so much when I read the comment before last about not having anything like this in Bermuda.... I figured Bermuda of all places would be full of things like this! and maybe the odd one or two planes as well? ;-) csj @ID7

You're experimenting and at the same time setting new principles and technics in photography. Stunning images!

@ cjs:
No, the only open land in Bermuda is golf course.... and they don't tend to like boats on golf courses. There are loads for ship wrecks in the water... but they don't make it onto land. Sad I know.

Great processing...

Thanks everyone :)

Cool shot this. The sky really gives a sense of movement. I also like the detail and the just off black colouration.