I'm spoiled

The sign showing where you turn off the highway says "Call of The Canyon" and it's aptly named.  I've heard the call....more of a Siren's song capturing me and pulling me closer.  It's the West Fork of Oak Creek north of Sedona and I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours creating images and just generally being awed by the scenery. 

The feeling here is very similar to what I've experienced in Antelope Canyon.  Every step, every creek crossing, every turn around a bend in the canyon presents you with another image, each more impressive than the one before.  And when you're headed back to the vehicle it's the same.  You see compositions and lighting conditions that you missed on the trip in. 

I've never seen fall colors so vibrant or varied.  I commented in an earlier blog that I've never seen so many orange and red leaves as this year but this puts the aspens of Colorado to shame.  The oaks and other trees have banded together to produce a kaleidoscope of colors. And now I'm spoiled.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to photograph fall colors in Colorado again without feeling somehow deprived.  I guess next fall we'll see.  For now, I'm pretty happy with this set of images.  Check the website gallery titled "New Work" in a few days to see the whole collection.

To Shoot, or not to Shoot...

Those of you who know me or have read previous blogs know that I'm a research junkie.  When I'm planning a photo trip to a place I've never shot before I spend untold hours online searching for information.  Looking at previously shot images, looking at maps, booking hotels and airline tickets, generally making myself as familiar with the location as I possibly can before arriving.  Most of the time I get some good data that makes my trip successful for the most part.  But sometimes it's a problem.

There are a lot of locations in the West that are very iconic.  They've been shot by tens of thousands of photographers over the years and you've seen images of them all...Delicate Arch, Mesa Arch, Yellowstone Falls, Old Faithful, the Grand Tetons, all the famous views in Yosemite.  The image accompanying this blog is another of the icons, The Mittens in Monument Valley.  I could show you hundreds of images online shot from this particular spot in all sorts of lighting conditions.  I think mine is a bit unique but like many of the icons, if you look hard enough you can find a set of holes from thousands of tripod legs in this spot.  And there's the problem.

I'm heading out Friday afternoon for Arizona.  Flying into Phoenix and spending some time with my daughter and her family before driving north to Sedona for a couple of days shooting.  I've been doing my usual research and in this case, I'm just about sick to death of seeing Cathedral Rock reflected in Oak Creek.  It seems if you google or bing up Sedona and images of the area, 99 out of 100 will be images of Cathedral Rock reflected in Oak Creek.  So the challenge is there for me....create some unique images of an iconic location.  Yes, I'll probably make at least one exposure of Cathedral Rock reflected in Oak Creek.  You can't visit an icon without photographing it even if your image will be number 10,000,000 in a series.  But I'll be spending my time searching for images I haven't seen before and who knows, I may get lucky.  I may run into some unusually spectacular light like I did at Monument Valley.  Check back in about 10 days and see.

What was once old is new again

I am always looking to become a better photographer.  I look at other shooters' websites, read their blogs, and monitor a few photographic bulletin boards where my peers post their images for critique and accolades.  And I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not above stealing a good idea and adapting it to fit my own thought process.  So a few weeks ago when I ran across a blog post by Greg Russell about using newly acquired skills to process older images it struck a chord. 

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not a Photoshop or Lightroom wizard.  There are many thousands of folks out there that have forgotten more about processing images in the digital darkroom than I'll ever know.  But I'm always trying to improve.  I go to seminars...I read books...I follow Lightroom on Facebook for tips and tricks.  I also talk to other photographers and in the past year I've become much more active in a group of Colorado based nature photographers and have even gone shooting a few times with other photographers.  (My wife tells me I probably shouldn't go shooting with Richie V anymore cause he has lots of cool toys and I always want to buy some new stuff after a shooting excursion with him)  Mostly I'm just trying to get better and I think that though I have a long ways to go before I can truthfully say I'm pretty good at it, my skill level is higher than it was 5 years ago.  The software is also better and much more powerful than in years past. 

So with apologies to Greg for stealing his idea, I've assigned myself a project.  I'm going through my older images and reprocessing them with better software and more skill.  This will be an ongoing project and I'll probably try to post some of the more dramatic improvements here.  Which brings us to the photo above.  Combat fishing on the Russian River in Alaska.  This is an image I shot in 2005 when we took a cruise then spent some time on the Kenai Penninsula after the cruise.  At that time I think I was using Photoshop Elements 2 or 3, can't remember which one but it was a much less sophisticated version than Lighroom 3 which I use for most of my processing today. 

The top image is the original version, processed from the RAW file shot in 2005.  My technique then was even more primitive than the software I was using.  About all I did was adjust the black and white points, crop a little, and sharpen the file.  There was a little bit of burning and dodging but that's about it. 

The bottom image was processed in Lightroom and then exported to a plug in called Topaz Adjust where I was able to brighten and enhance the color without increasing the contrast too much.  I also cropped out some distracting elements and I have to admit, I really like it quite a bit better than the original. 

My goal is to work my way through the Alaska images at the rate of 1 image per week minimum so it may be a while before I make my way through the archives.  And by then this year's images will be old so I can process them with whatever software and skills I acquire in the future.  So keep checking back and please leave comments to let me know what you think.