Over the years I’ve tried several times to get a picture of this spectacular golf hole that would really convey the feeling I have when seeing it in person.  One of the most scenic holes I have ever played, it requires a drive over a deep canyon to a beautifully sculpted fairway.

I have always visualized shooting the hole from an angle that would allow the unique bridge to be included, far enough away I could use a telephoto lens to compress the distance between the bridge and green.  This would allow both to be part of  the final composition.  I’ve hiked around and tried to find a good spot a couple of times, but unfortunately the angle and position that I felt would deliver the shot required a risky and difficult hike down a steep canyon wall.

Recently, a project to expand the driving range changed that.  A tee box was built in almost the exact spot I needed to capture the effect I wanted, complete with cart path.  I walked over there from my house to scout it out with the 50d I was testing,  and after firing off a couple of quick test frames, walked back home and returned with my Hassleblad and PhaseOne P45+ back.

The marine layer from the nearby ocean was building rapidly, dropping contrast dramatically and making it a little difficult to capture the scene.  However, it was my last night in town, I was there, so why not try?  I exposed several images trying to frame it just right, with various combinations of my 150, 210, and 1.7x convertor.  The 210 and the 150 with the convertor was a little too wide.  I decided to throw the 1.7x convertor on the 210 lens (@360mm) and captured two vertical slices to stitch together later.

I overexposed the capture a little,  knowing I would be cropping out the area that would blow out.   I was mainly concerned with keeping detail and low noise in the shadows.  To get the soft sculpting light on the green I waited till the sun was buried behind the marine layer.  Exposure was 1/10th at f/8.0, using mirror lockup and the seven second self timer. 

After basic adjustments to the raw files in Lightroom,  I blended them into a single image using Photoshops merge to Panorama command.  The resulting blend was perfect .. I couldn’t find any flaw or need to tweak the layers.  I added two adjustment layers (with no adjustments), setting one to screen for dodging and one to multiply for burning.  This allowed me to dodge a little more detail into the bridge, and burn down the trees and hill in the distance.

The final image is 8614x2968 pixels in size, meaning it will print about 3 feet long at 240dpi.  There is so much detail in this image that only a big print really does it justice  The flag is very sharp, and very visible when printed large.  Detail in the bridge, including various textures, is terrific.  I’m guessing the perfect size will be about 22”x48”.  Unfortunately when you smash 8000 pixels down to 900, there is no way to hold it together, so the web version doesn’t really do the image justice.  Here’s a couple of small detail sections at 100% to help visualize how much detail is available.

I’m not completely satisfied ... I’ll be trying this again on a clearer evening on my next trip down.  But I’m still pretty happy with how this one turned out.