NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/11, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Deceivingly Nondescript
Toyama Prefecture, Japan

Desktop-Background Versions
Standard: 1024×768  ·  1440×1080  ·  1600×1200      Widescreen:  1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  2560×1600

This looks like a misty-white snow-covered mountain, but it's not.

There's no mist; the fuzzy white areas that seem to be blurry turn out to show clear detail of every snow-covered branch and twig when you look at the full-sized version. (However, most web browsers will downscale the huge image at first, so you'll likely have to click once on the link to bring up the larger version, then again on that larger version to see it in its full-resolution glory).

Also, I like how the snippet of less-snowy foreground mountain in the bottom-right corner adds an odd sense of dimension in an otherwise dimensionless scene.

(I found the level of detail to be remarkable compared to what I expected at first glance, but I'm not sure I'd really use the word “exquisite” here..... but it does lend a nice feeling to the post title :-))

This shot is from among those I took during the final day of our short New Year's trip to snowy Toyama Prefecture, several hours north-east of Kyoto. I'm still working my way through the second day's photos (highlighted so far by some winter-wonderland driving and a visit to the historical Gokayama Village of thatched houses) and have been too busy to even give the photos from the other days a once-over, but like the photo in the “Snowy Mountains” post, I happen to run across this photo while flipping around my image catalog during the incessant testing I do for my plugins for Adobe Lightroom.

Personally, I do not care for bright desktop-background images, but this one has so caught my fancy that I may just give it a try. In any case, links to desktop-background sizes are provided under the photo in case you'd like it for yourself.

Continued here...