Here’s a photo from Pt. Imperial where I made the journey from outside the park to the rim before sunrise. It was a perfect morning with pretty clear skies.
I took the photograph before sunrise at 6:40 am which was 13 minutes before sunrise. When shooting pre-sunrise, if you start early when the alpenglow type light is evident, you have less contrast compared to the minutes before the sunrise.
As I was hiking the desert this last winter, I spotted an area where rain had collected and created this pattern. What I thought was very interesting was how the mud was totally wet and then following the cracks, totally dry. It made for a nice composition was my feeling and I shot it with an iPhone.
But you can see by this pre-processed image below, the photo would not work without some good processing since it was totally flat looking.
The flowers are out and while I have only hit this location in western AZ, near the CA border, I am hoping to head to the Superstition Mountain and search for their wildflowers soon.
Canon 70D 28-70 f/16 set to 28mm
I zoomed in on this landscape a little. rather than go real wide and the reason is that the foreground flowers are not that close together. But standing further back and zooming slightly, I was able to stack teh flowers and make them look more condensed.
For processing, I am now a big fan of Sean Bagshaw’s Luminosity Mask system where I can select individual sections of an image based on tonal values, or colors, and process each of those individually and it works great.
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Captured on a desert hike in March, this was shot with my iPhone in the middle of the day. I was really attracted to the varied color in the rock. There are many places on the planet with colorful rock like this, and I think they are very photogenic and make great photos. This was captured in Western Arizona.
My approach is all about color and not about great light because it is not that great, rather composing based on those lines and cracks and the colors.
I opened in in Photoshop and added some contrast. While the sun was out and there was lots of lighting contrast, the light was flat and that is the reason I punched up contrast slightly. Then because it is all about color, I added a small amount of saturation to make the colors pop some more.
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If you are in the business of marketing your photography, then you no doubt are always on the lookout for great images that are marketable. What makes a marketable image? One that is strong on concept! So why would this be marketable? Because it exemplifies the concept of Drought, Lack of Water or Water Shortage, and more.
I was really surprised to stumble on this and it is one of the best examples I have come across for good cracked mud. In fact it might be the best example of cracked mud I have captured and I say this due to how large the cracks were and how deep they were in the mud. But better yet, you may be surprised where I found this.
It’s not in the middle of some desert wash or a slot canyon in Utah, but instead a storm water collection ‘system’ in Yuma, Arizona. I was out for a long hike/walk with my wife and dog, following a bike/walking path when I happened to look inside this water collection basin.
It is about the size of a football field and completely enclosed to prevent access. When the monsoon rains come the flowing water collects in here and slowly dissipates, and I guess that keeps the water from flooding streets and neighborhoods. I am guessing after years of collecting that water it has accumulated about 1 foot of silt or mud so when the rains stop, it dries out and created this.
I had my iPhone (as always) and stuck my hand and phone through metal fence and began going crazy clicking away and this is one of many results. I captured various different perspectives that all used the lines flowing in various directions. I will definitely be sending this to my stock photo agent.
So the lesson is to always have a camera with you no matter what. You may just discover something unique and marketable.
If you want to learn more about selling photography, check out my online class: How to Be a Professional Outdoor and Nature Photographer
The colors of Mexico always amaze me as they are pretty much everywhere. Saturday we walked into Los Algadones, MX for the Gringos Go Home celebration. I should mention: that is not what it sounds like.
Yuma, AZ is the highest rated Snowbird destination during the North American winters and Los Algadones is right across the border from Winterhaven, CA, a few minutes from Yuma. So you can see the importance of Snowbirds to Los Algadones and their economy.
They local community is so appreciative of winter visitors they put on the Gringos Go Home party on Saturday where there was festive music, free beer, and free food. It was great!
Like other locations in Mexico, Los Algadones is quite colorful and perfect for my obsession with iPhone ‘Happy Snappin.’ As I wandered the streets I was not disappointed. That led me to this wall tucked in between street vendors.
I love these types discoveries and the photos I create of them. The vendor next to this mentioned that the wall was 30 years old and hand prints had been added over the years by school children. It is a great story, but the wall says it all to me.
This file is from my iPhone and I then used Adobe Photoshop Mix (the app) to add contrast (make the whites whiter and darks darker) and added some saturation and slight sharpening.
Viva Mexico!
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I just joined Stockimo which is an online agency for smartphone photography. I have learned to love ‘happy snappin’ with my iPhone for quite sometime.
I usually snap away where ever I am and then later open them in Photoshop and play around with the images, simply for fun. I am addicted to shooting on the fly like that.
Then Alamy launched Stockimo and it got me thinking that while I will continue having fun shooting, I might make some money. So I got busy.
The difference between Stockimo and traditional agencies is that you cannot upload regular stock images from your dslr, they can only be from a smartphone.
Knowing full well, that I cannot let any digital capture pass by unprocessed, I wondered how I would process the images, so I dug into the apps. There I found Mix by Camera360 and it is quite cool as well. Adobe Photoshop Mix is another app I am playing with.
I am just now uploading pics to Stockimo to see how it goes and if I make any money I will be sure and write another post stating as such. For now here are a few of my first experiments with Stockimo.
This is a lot of fun!
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It has been a few years (too many) since my last Grand Canyon rafting trip where I shot this image. It is Granite Rapid which is pretty ‘hefty’ as you can see here. I am standing on the bank of the river and shot this with a 200mm lens.
Most of our rafts and kaykers stop and watch each boat go through one at a time, for photos and safety. There is a sweep boat ‘eddied’ out below the rapid to pick up anyone should a raft flip in the rapid, also for safety reasons. This is one of many large and powerful rapids in the Grand Canyon.
When I do a trip like this I usually am limited with the amount of gear I can take so I pack my cameras and lenses in Pelican waterproof cases. I take one tripod and one light stand and put those in a small duffel bag. I have another Pelican with flashes, storage devices, cleanibng accessories, and more as well as batteries and lots of them.
Rafting the Grand canyon is a life changing event! If you have done it you know what I mean and if you have not, add it to the bucket list. You will be glad you did!
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A couple of nights ago I was out filming and photographing in Arizona’s Kofa Mountain area. I was actually filming for a new introduction video I was making for a new place I am going to be teaching and mentoring photographers.
My focus was on the video clips, but when the light became golden right before sunset, I had to stop filming and start photographing and this is the result. There was no adjustment to the raw file as far as color at all. This ‘sweet light’ was all natural. I only added a hint of contrast, like I almost always have to do, and a bit of sharpening. Mostly a straight shot.
This is Romos Mexican Restaurant in Holbrook AZ on a chilly rainy night. I titled it Rainbow due to the obvious rainbow of color but that is not an official name. The rain ‘makes’ this image so colorful with the color reflections. I processed this with HDR software first and lightly to avoid the Grunge look and then blended back some parts with the original file. Shot with a 70D and 24-70 lens.
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