I dream of moments like this . . .

[Mikes]

Beautiful image, Dave - fantastic in many senses of the word. Almost prehistoric!

[David Paterson]

Thanks, Mike, I appreciate that.

As for prehistoric - the frost has been there for a few hours, the grasses it was on a few months, the heather a few years, the topsoil everything is growing in a few hundred years, and the mountains will have looked like that since the end of the last ice-age, 12000 years ago.

Talk about a multi-layered image!   

[Erik Lund]

Nice history lesson 

[Akira]

It is like looking at another world from our world.  The image has an amazing depth, not DOF.

[Lowell]

David,

Wonderful.  I really like the four layers in this image with the emphasis on the frost covered grass.

[MFloyd]

Lovely picture ! I would have left - or at least tried - a little more headroom to the sky (not much) 👍🏻

[armando_m]

Fantastic

Thanks for sharing it

[David Paterson]

Thank you Armando, Lowell, Floyd (can I call you Floyd?) and Akira.

Akira - accurate analysis, as usual!
Floyd - I shot it also as you suggest. Believe me, this version is better.

[Bill De Jager]

I love the colors, textures, and frost, David.

Very nice and moody, Dave. An example to show that sometimes wide angle lenses actually do a landscape and its details a lot of favour.

As to the question of locations for  LOTR filming, NZ does have an unsurpassed range of pristine woods and tree species, plus mountain ranges,  more in line with Tolkien's writings. The Westland and Fiordland regions of South Island come to mind with their massive Nothofagus forests. I recognised quite a few of the LOTR landscapes ...

And I had a start when I recognized Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) from California early in the first movie. At that point I had just started trying to figure out where the movie was filmed because I hadn't heard beforehand.