Photo of the Day.

I am still working with the trial version of the NIK HDR Software. I am posting 2 photos today to show the power of HDR to create really compelling photographs. I was using a Canon 5D Mark II that I had on loan from Canon Professional Services. I used a Canon 16-35 f2.8L II lens on a tripod to take an automatic 3 shot bracketed exposure from my camera. The scene is the Bartlett Reservoir located in the Tonto National Forest near Cave Creek, Arizona. The setting for the auto bracketed exposure was for the camera to shoot a best guess exposure with the camera at 100 ISO, f16, and evaluative metering. Then the next exposure will be 2 stops under exposed, and the third exposure will be 2 stops over exposed.  Focus is set manually, and the camera is set to continous shooting mode. Use a cable shutter release and hold it down until the camera has taken all three exposures.



The first photo I am posting here is the best guess exposure straight out of the camera with no additional processing. 



Best guess single exposure JPEG file



HDR Image after processing



Even processing the best single exposed RAW file in CS5 will not give me the detail and tonal range I was able to do with the HDR software. As I have stated before, I like doing HDR from the natural look all the way to the craziest stuff imaginable. It just depends on what you want to do. It will take a lot of practice, failues, trial and error, and much more learning, but I am afraid I am a true HDR convert. Now when I look at a subject or scene to photograph, I will also consider the possibility of doing it as an HDR.  

Scott   

Monument Valley

 

This past fall I took a road trip out west and visited some amazingly beautiful places that were very inspiring. I spent a lot of time in central and northern Arizona visiting national forests, parks, and wilderness desert areas. Sedona was beautiful, and the Grand Canyon is one of the most amazing natural wonders on the planet. As I moved north into southern Utah, I had been longing to return to a place I had briefly visited on a family vacation a very long time ago. Monument Valley.

Hwy. 163 coming into Monument Valley from the North

If you have ever watched the movie Forrest Gump, the scene where he stops running across the country was shot in this exact spot in the photo above. Highway 163 running south from Mexican Hat UT. into Monument Valley. In my opinion, one of the most iconic scenes you will ever see while driving on a road trip.

Massive Sandstone Mesas and Buttes rise from the desert floor

This area is a place you may feel very familiar with, and yet you have never been there. This area was discovered by Hollywood director John Ford in the late 1930's and there have been parts of over 70 major movies filmed in the area, along with countless television commercials and videos . So in your subconscious you have been here many, many times. But I highly recommend that you visit it in person. Like the Grand Canyon, this place must be visited in person to truly appreciate the stark beauty of the landscape. I spent three days here and wished I had at least a week.

Massive Butte with a daylight moon

For a landscape photographer this area is a pure paradise. Monument Valley lies within the 16 million acre Navajo Indian Nation. 

Along HWY. 163 south of Monument Valley

There are only a few options for lodging in Monument Valley. I stayed at The View Hotel, owned and operated by the Navajo Indians. This is the only hotel located inside the tribal park, and I highly recommend staying there. A bit pricey, but the view from your balcony is just amazing.

View from my hotel room balcony of the Mittens and Merrick Butte

If you just do a Google search on Monument Valley, you will find many links with all kinds of information you would need to learn more and plan a trip. My goal is not to rehash all that information here, but to inspire you to really consider visiting this place with my photography.

The North Window

I also highly recommend signing up with one of the local Navajo Indian guides for a tour. You can drive much of the area on a rough dirt road, but they have access to areas that are restricted unless you are with a guide. They provide great insight and information you would not get just driving it yourself.

The View Hotel, Monument Valley UT.

Three Sisters Rock Formation

The tough part of visiting Monument Valley as a photographer is trying to photograph as much as possible in the limited time you have. The desert light is extremely harsh within a couple hours of sunrise so starting very early is a must. Sunrises and sunsets there are spectacular if the weather cooperates.

Clouds add dramatic textures to the sky

A Monument Valley Sunset

I found a real sense of peace and rejuvenation in Monument Valley. While I was wandering alone in the early morning darkness or late afternoons looking for the perfect landscape photo opportunity, The desolate beauty and remoteness of this place are inspiring. I just wish I could have captured it better than I did on this trip. I know I will be back again.

  

Photographs From The Road



Hwy. 88 in the Superstition Mountains

 Recently I went on an 18 day road trip to Arizona and Utah. I had intended to post photos and information on my blog every few days as the trip progressed. I drove about 5000 miles in that time through 8 different  states. I was trying to squeeze what should have been a 3 month trip into that small window of time that I actually had. The good thing about a trip like this is you get to see a lot of scenery and visit many interesting places. The downside is that you do not have the time at any place to really stay and explore it totally. When I visit somewhere new I would much prefer to have more time to throughly explore and learn all that I can and photograph the location.







A bridge on Hwy. 88 climbing into the mountains

With all the places I wanted to visit on this trip, and so little time to do it, I did a lot of driving and quick visits to many locations. I took more photos on this trip that I care to reveal because many people would laugh and tell me I am crazy unless they were a serious photographer. I did some wildlife photography, but the vast majority of my photos on this trip were shots of the amazing landscapes. Although I shoot digital, and always in color, I love to convert manyof the southwest landscape scenes to Black and White.

Abandon Building Outside Roswell New Mexico

I was driving into Roswell New Mexico when I noticed this abandon building sitting alone in he middle of no where. There were no signs to indicate what it may have once been. I stopped and photographed it from several angles and bracketed some exposures for an attempt to do an HDR image. My problem was it was in the middle of the day and the sunlight was extremely bright with not a cloud in the sky. When I was looking at the images, I was not real happy with them. Plain and boring to me. Then I tried the conversion to B&W but was not happy with the plain sky. In a stroke of creativity I darkened the blue and cyan channels to create this totally black looking sky. With some further tweaking in the various color channels, it now appears that it was taken at night with a bright moon light. A good Photoshop save of an otherwise drab photograph. No idea what happened here, but I think the aliens from nearby Area 51 may have been involved.

Scott                                                                                           

Sunrise At 10,000 Feet

In February of 2005 I was finally able to make a trip to the Hawaiian Islands. I spent 10 days trying to see as much as I possibly could fit in on three of the islands. The islands are truly a paradise. I had just purchased my first digital SLR, a Canon 20D. I knew I would not be happy with the kit lens so I dug into the piggy bank and also bought a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L wide angle zoom. Being able to only afford one good lens, I opted for the wide angle since I figured I would be doing mostly landscape photography there. For the most part this ended up being a good choice, but there were times it was very limiting.

Sunrise from the summit of Haleakala Volcano

I had watched a special on the travel channel of the things you must do when you visit the Hawaiian Islands, and high on the list was traveling to the summit of the Haleakala Volcano to watch the sunrise. Haleakala National Park is located on the Island of Maui, near the costal town of Lahaina. So I set the alarm for 4:30am and made the 2 hour drive to the summit at just over 10,000 feet. When I left my hotel at sea level it was about 75 degrees, and at the summit it was about 30 degrees with a strong 30+ mph wind. This sent the wind cill factor to single digits. I have watched many beautiful and inspirational sunrises in my lifetime, but I will admit that watching the sun come up above the clouds at 10,000 feet gave me goose bumps and had me completely awe struck. I was so riveted watching the light come up that almost forgot to take photographs.

Haleakala in Hawaiian means "House of the Sun". I cannot think of a more fitting name.

 

                Inside the crater of Haleakala Volcano

From the summit you look down into a massive depression some 7 miles across, 2 miles wide, and nearly 2,600 feet deep. The surrounding walls are steep and the interior mostly barren-looking with a scattering of volcanic cones. The potentially active volcano has produced numerous eruptions in the last 30,000 years, including in the last 500 years.

 Silver Sword

One of the most fascinating members of the sunflower family is the infamous silver sword that grows in the cinders of Haleakala Crater on the island of Maui. The rosettes of sword-shaped leaves are covered with silvery hairs that reflect light and heat and provide insulation against the intense solar radiation and extreme aridity of this 10,000 foot volcanic mountain. In addition, the leaves contain air spaces filled with a gelatinous substance that absorbs and stores large quantities of water during the intervels between rains. This stored water is especially important when the plant blooms, because the fast-growing flower stalk requires a lot of moisture as it develops into a massive inflorescence. Another subspecies of silver sword grows on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. Pretty amazing to stand and look at a plant that only grows in the small area of the summit of the volcano. 

If you ever make a trip to the Hawaiian Islands, this is a must see place to visit.

Road Trip Day 8

On the eighth day of my road trip journey, June 18th, I was leaving West Yellowstone Mt. and again driving south through Yellowstone Park and heading to Teton National Park. I was planning to spend a couple days in Jackson Wyoming nearby so I would be close to the park. We started off in really bad weather. Clouds, fog, and a steady cold rain prevented me from doing any photography or sightseeing. The traffic was heavy, and road construction had started between Yellowstone and Teton parks, so it was a long slow journey.

We had stopped at a rest area to stretch a little since it had stopped raining. As you can see the moutains were clouded in quite a bit and it was a very gray day. This Yellow-headed Blackbird was pretty friendly though and he allowed me to get close enough to get a few quick shots in.  

The drive from Yellowstone NP to Teton NP is pretty spectacular even on a crummy weather day. I could see the weather was starting to break in the afternoon. So we stopped for a late lunch and again waited out the weather. This allowed me to catch a few landscape photos before heading into Jackson.

One reason the Tetons are famous is because of their great elevation above their base. Unlike most mountain ranges, the Tetons lack foothills, or lower peaks which can obscure the view. This is due to the fault zone being at the base of the range on the eastern side, and the range being too young to have had time to erode into soft hills. As such, the Tetons rise sharply, from 5,000 to nearly 7,000 feet above the valley floor.

The town of Jackson is located in the Jackson Hole Valley, not far from Teton National Park. Jackson is a really interesting place to stay. There are numerous art galleries and plent of great shopping. It is not cheap in Jackson. If you are looking for a bargin vacation spot, this is not it. I highly recommend it, but just bring your check book!                                            

Joints like the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar are really fun and the decor is amazing. Did I mention that you need to bring your check book.

A street scene in Jackson before the traffic picked up, At night it is usually bumper to bumper. Had to turn in early for a goond nights sleep. I had planned a very early photo trip in the morning. 

Beyond Vegas