Nothing better than the SW and New Mexico in particular for amazingly cool and colorful doors and windows. Okay I now France and Europe and Mexico has them as well but I aint been there. This is near Albuquerque and while the wall is newer the door is very old and it just popped out as I was driving by and of course, I had to stop. I had no camera with me except my iPhone which still amazes me as to what I can capture with it especially when I gotta get the shot and dont have my Canon’s.
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
Get my book on Outdoor Flash Photography below…..
Here is another interview I just did with John Colley of the Online Learning Podcast.
058 – Photography – Charlie Borland, Lighting Master on Mastering Photography: Libsyn Player
html5-player.libsyn.com
You can see more of John’s podcasts here.
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.
How to Find and Photograph Fallen Roof Ancient Pueblo Ruin in Cedar Mesa Utah
Read the full post here:
http://pronaturephotographer.com/2014/04/photographing-fallen-roof-ruin-cedar-mesa-utah/
This is a popular place to shoot for outdoor photographers and I was lucky to be here after a rain so I got some nice clouds and a great sunrise.
Nature…..my new best friend!
It is Mt. Shuksan WA and I shot with a Canon 5D and 28-70 mm lens.
This is a small ground cover plant with frost on it from a venture through the Colorado Rockies.
The whole image might be 5-6″ across.
Shot with a 100 mm macro lens.
And they were all quite colorful plants of varying colors and some blue sky bouncing in.
This is one of the most amazing places I have ever shot! It’s part of Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, Utah.
The soft light is very flat lighting: no whites and no blacks, just light grays and dark grays, so you have to create the black and white. But do you need them?
Honestly, I struggled to find my ‘look.’ The original file has a blue cast from the blue sky above, so I worked that a bit: added blue/took away blue, saturated, added contrast, then took it all away. Today, I decided to do B&W and high contrast. Tomorrow, who knows.
I love Happy Snappin’! When I am not seriously shooting (full pack of gear) I am obsessed with Happy Snappin’ with my iPhone.
This one from old store and looks like they sold a variety of weapons. You could choose an ancient weapon or a modern weapon. From Cerrillos New Mexico, which is almost a ghost town.
It has some cool old buildings and while Happy Snappin this old building I noticed this picture which I captured on the iPhone.
Oh this was so fun! Drove through Holbrook AZ on our way to New Mexico. Stopped in Holbrook to shoot Petrified Forest and when driving through town we saw the Wigwam Motel. OMG–gotta shoot!
Came back at dusk and it started pouring down rain. Perfect! LOL. I did get pretty wet but who cares? I did a non-grungy HDR, then accentuated lighter areas by painting highlights in Photoshop, added a vignette, and a little more burning and dodging for effect. A teeny weeny bit sharpening. And I am done…for today that is.
