Fall Color at Belknap Hot Springs Oregon

• Nature Photography

One of my favorite places to chill is Belknap hot springs in Oregon’s Cascade Mtns, a little over an hour NE of Eugene. This picture is the Secret Garden which is an amazingly beautiful developed garden deep in the forests there.

The hot springs are developed swimming pools with water nice and hot. There are cabins to rent, RV spaces, and lodge rooms. Hiking trails abound right from the springs. The beautiful McKenzie river is great shooting and nearby attractions like Proxy Falls is a favorite for photogs.

Best time to go: October (IMO) when it is cold and rainy. Makes those hot springs feel wonderful after a hike.

I used a Canon 70D with 16-35mm zoom lens and a Induro tripod.

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The Slave River in Canada’s NW Territories

• Nature Photography

Last month I made a trip top see family in Canada’s NW Territories. One evening we went for a hike along the Slave River at a place called Mountain Portage and I got busy with the camera. The area is stunning and very wild and remote. It also has plenty of history dating back to the Klondike Gold Rush and more. nw_territories_slave_rvr_mountain_portage_MG_5674frame   As far as processing this image I darkened the sky and added contrast to the lower portion of rocks, then also lightened the tiny bit of fall color on the other side of the river. Viola! Get my eBook below.

Canyon Country Alpenglow

• Nature Photography

Alpenglow? I have always wondered if alpenglow only happened in the mountains but according to Wikipedia the answer is NO. This was 20 minutes after sunset, the perfect time for alpenglow, and it added a warm ‘purply’ reddish tint to the files which were shot at daylight WB. Processing becomes a challenge in trying to replicate the true color as experienced but then does it matter? Probably more important than processing it perfectly, is avoiding processing it imperfectly where it looks overly processed. Canon 5D, 28-70mm @ 50mm.

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The Oregon Coast

• Nature Photography

This is from the Oregon Coast and while I had been here a long time ago I had not seen this huge rocks that was split in half. Perfect subject for a near/far approach filling the foreground with the rock using my 16- 35 mm lens. The only processing was darkening the sky a little and a bit of saturation and sharpening.

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Post Processing Adventures

• Nature Photography, Software Techniques, Special Effects

I photographed this image at Red Rock Conservation Area, North of Las Vegas, about 6 weeks ago. I was zipping down the road from Mt. Charleston when I spotted the cactus starting to bloom. I guessed that I was about 1 week to early for full bloom, but I was not going to be here in a week, so I shot anyway.

I used a flash to fill in the shadows on the cactus and that worked great. But since it was 4 pm the light was not that great yet, so when I opened the image in Photoshop it looked like a basic snap. That’s where the fun begins. You get started and you never know where you are going in creating. Are these images ever DONE? No, they are abandoned when you are happy with the results.

I always bracket exposures so the first thing I did was HDR process it with the only intention to add drama to the clouds. Then I opened Topaz B&W Effects and used the Cerulean set to colorize the image. Once I got here I decided I had what I wanted and subsequently ‘abandoned’ this image to go start the process all over another. If you want to know about Topaz, here’s the link: http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=196

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Lupine Wildflower Photographed With Flash

• Nature Photography
The large Lupine are out and they look great! I shot this one in a shaded forest using flash in a light box to add shape to it and create separation from the background.
I shot it in the Columbia River Gorge for a magazine assignment which I will announce in the fall when it is published.The exposure was F/4 @ 1/200 with a 580EXII flash and Fotodiox mini box.
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Whether or Not to Use HDR in Death Valley

• Image Processing, Nature Photography

I have told myself more than once that I am burned out on Grungy looking HDR and dont want to look at it let alone create it. But that appears to never be true since I continue to create a few HDR images from time to time. This is Death Valley at sunrise and it made for a great HDR and it is not to grungy, at least by my definition of grungy. Which is hyper color and lotsa noise and halos on the edges.

Fortunately for those of us using HDR software, you can create images that look perfectly normal and even push them a little without hyper color and noise and halos. That was my goal here. Add substantial drama. The ground here is not dark like this but rather very light salt pan. The clouds weren’t that dark either, but HDR is famous for making them look threatening.

So carefully moving the settings added a lot of drama here while avoiding over-done color and noise and other HDR issues that can arise. It is almost like a negative effect, and I am happy with it.

Photographing Proxy Falls Oregon

• Nature Photography

This is one of my favorite waterfalls. Maybe my favorite period!

Proxy Falls in Oregon is a luscious cascade of mist and moss on a steep hillside.

I first shot here around 25 years ago and few photographers had heard of it. There was a small dirt pull off on the winding mountain hwy.  Now a paved parking pull offs, bathrooms, and PAY TO PARK.

Another version of this falls, shot from the other side, is one of my best selling stock photos ever, when you could make money doing this! Well worth the short hike in there. 

Canon 5D and 16 – 35mm lens.