Robert H Clark Photography Blog

Badlands

Rio Grande Palisades – Big Bend National Park

Badlands, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Desert, Helicon Focus, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, River, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Texas, Zeiss Lenses 3 Responses »

Apr 042011

Rio Grand Palisades, Big Bend National Park, Texas. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 55mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 1/20 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This is another shot from my recent trip to Big Bend National. This image was taken from the Rio Grande Overlook and is a view looking south into Mexico. This is not the classic view from this point and I resisted the urge to shoot that shot. I choose instead to move away from my group in search of other vistas. When I found this composition I was struck by the sweeping curves in the river as it flowed past the rocky palisades. From my lofty perch I could see far and away into Mexico. I find edges very interesting both compositionally and intrinsically. Here we have the edges of two countries separated only by a thin ribbon of river. So close and yet so far away. At the time it was a landscape I could only gaze upon as I was not allowed to cross the river.

There are several interesting and powerful compositional concepts found in this image. The first and most prominent is the leading line formed by the river. It is far and away the most powerful element. The rivers shape and form leads the eye into the frame and moves it deeper into the landscape. It is also the lightest element in tone and contrast and is framed on each side by the darker land forms. The eye will always be drawn to the light in a photograph and this occurs in the upper one-third of the shot.

There are also repeating shapes within the the image. The foreground rocks, the palisades at the turn of the river, the far cliffs, and even the light colored tones in the background are repeating elements in the shot that add visual interest. They also form a secondary leading line that runs diagonally in contrast to the sinuous curve of the river. The combination of these two singular lines makes for a dynamic image full of visual interest.

The image was shot in split-light. Split-light is where there is a defined edge between light and shadow. Split-light is easy to recognize but can be hard to handle with exposure. this is especially true since I shot this image in three focus brackets to combine in Helicon Focus. To this end I could not shoot exposure brackets to combine or blend. To handle the exposure I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop, hard edge, Split Neutral Density Filter to compensate for the dynamic range of light in the image. The focus brackets were made of the foreground. mid-ground, and background and then combined in Helicon Focus to create one image. This was taken into Photoshop for final finishing and conversion to Black and White.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

Juniper Root – Navajo Lands, Arizona

Abstracts, Arizona, Badlands, Black and White, Colorado Plateau, Desert, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Navajo Lands, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Zeiss Lenses 2 Responses »

Feb 082011

Juniper Root, Navajo Lands, near Page, Arizona. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 35mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 1/2 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. The winds are howling today, part of an arctic blast of air moving down from the north. By tomorrow we will see single digit temperatures. Though we are ever so close to spring winter still has its icy claw around us. When it gets like this I think of the desert. It is a powerful and emotional draw that can only be satisfied by feeling the ground under my feet. In my mind I can picture all the formations along the highway from the east rim of the Grand Canyon to Page, Arizona. Today’s image was found near Page, Arizona on Navajo Lands. On this day the wind was also howling. It just would not stop. Gusts of sand were swept up and thrown at me, stinging my face and lodging in the folds of my clothes. Quite frankly the wind was distracting and for a period of time put a damper on my spirits. Wind is not the photographers friend and with this much sand it was sure to lodge in my cameras. But there was a lot to see and I carried on. I climbed higher dropping into a saddle surrounded on both sides by sand dunes. The wind abated, diverted over my depression by the mounds of sand. Climbing higher still I came upon a stark reminder of the harshness of the desert. This juniper, once alive and thriving, had lost in the struggle to live. I thought about a passage from Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey that “the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in a spareness and simplicity . . .”. Indeed existence, that delicate balance of life and death, are emphasized here. So to are spareness and simplicity. Once vibrant and green the juniper would have stood out; defying the odds against the barren rock and moving sand. But the desert is a harsh mistress, relentless and unforgiving. What stresses were brought to bear are unclear but death occurred leaving only the tendril remains to bake in the sun. Over time sand piled against the gnarly remains forming a shallow grave. In time the dunes will move onward swallowing the juniper. And somewhere on the dunes a new juniper with take hold, drawing a line in the sand, daring to survive against the odds. The cycle continues.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Badlands – Big Bend National Park – Photoshop Color Burn Technique

Badlands, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Color Burn Technique, Desert, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photoshop Technique, Photoshop Workflow, Sony α900, Texas, Zeiss Lenses 8 Responses »

Nov 272010

Volcanic Rock and Badlands Landscape, Big Bend National Park, Texas. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f8 for 1/2 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to todays post. This image was shot in an area of Big Bend National Park that featured a rugged and beautiful badlands landscape. The area was rich in mineral deposits which was evident in the colorful banding in the rock strata. This image was shot in three focus brackets and combined in Helicon Focus software. I am going to use this image to talk about a Photoshop technique, called a Color Burn Layer, that I use on many of my images to tweak out some color detail. I talked about this at the Big Bend Workshop and some of participants have asked for more detail on how to do the technique.

First a few details. I typically employ this technique when I have an image that has some subtle color and where it might be difficult to isolate via a selection. It is what I would categorize as a regional or selective adjustment and therefore I will always apply it in a non-destructive layer at the top of my layer stack after I have performed all my global adjustments. So lets take a look at the technique.

In the screen shot below is the image before I applied the technique. I have circled several areas within the image that contained some color detail that I wanted to accentuate. this included some very subtle green toned minerals, the violet in the volcanic rocks and some subtle rose colors in the rock. All of these can be adjusted and colored using the Color Burn Layer technique. So now lets go step by step through the adjustments and settings.

Badlands image showing areas to be colored with the Color Burn Layer Technique.

Step 1: Add a new layer at the top of your layer stack. Label this new layer Color Burn. Double click on the new layer and bring up the Layer Style dialog box. Go to Blend Mode and select Color as the layer blending mode at an opacity of 100%. This is the Color Burn Layer you will work on and all your color work can be done here.

Step 2: Go to your Tools Palette and select the Eye Dropper. Using the Eye Dropper click on the color you want to modify. You will get a circle showing the light and dark value of the color. In the screen shot below I have clicked on the green color in the rocks in the middle of the image. The color I have sampled with the Eye Dropper will also appear in your Foreground/Background Color Picker Box in your Tool Bar.

Step 3: Click on the Foreground Color Box and you will bring up the Color Picker. The Color Picker will show the Color Values from Light to Dark of the sampled color. A small circle will indicate the color you have sampled from the image. In the screen shot below I have circled in red the sampled color. To effectively modify the color you need to pick a value that is lighter than the sampled color. In this case I chose a brighter green indicated by the red arrow. Click OK to select the color and close the window.

Step 4: Make sure you still have the Color Burn Layer selected and go to your Tool Palette and select the Brush Tool. Make sure the Brush is set to 0 hardness. Selected anywhere from 2% to 5% for the Brush Opacity. I generally use 3% on average. You want to apply the effect gradually. Go back to the area you want to modify and brush the color over the area you want to modify. Slowly build up the color to where you are satisfied. You can also sample other colors and apply them in the same way using the same Color Burn Layer. For the final image I used combinations of green, violets, oranges, and rose pinks. You can also add your color selections to your Swatches in the Color Picker just in case you want to repeat an application.

And thats all there is to it. It is a simple and effective technique that can add some additional color punch to your image. If you think you over applied the effect then simply use the eraser Tool over the area and then reapply. If you have any questions please give me a shout and I will be happy to answer them.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Terlingua Creek Sunrise – Big Bend National Park

Badlands, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Helicon Focus, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photography Tools, Photography Trips, Photography Workshops, Sony α900, sunrise, Texas No Responses »

Nov 082010

Terlingua Creek Sunrise, Terlingua, Texas, gateway to Big Bend National Park. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f8.0 for 1/30th of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image is from a recent workshop I attended at Big Bend National Park. The landscape specific workshop was taught by Craig Tanner and Marti Jeffers of The Mindful Eye, with assistance from TJ Avery. I have known Craig for many years and I would highly recommend any of his workshops. It is an intensive, week long, photography immersion that includes two shooting sessions a day, assignments, concept lectures, and critiques. It has been a number of years, probably over 10 to be exact, where I have participated in a workshop. I came away feeling energized about my work and with a host of new friends which is just a small part of the benefits. Additionally I was able to spend time in one of the great national parks in the lower 48 states. Many of us, myself included, spend so much time alone shooting in the field and forget that one of the great pleasures is sharing our work with other photographers who can provide other perspectives and ideas. Craig’s teaching methods, critiques, and assignments are all aimed at improving our technical and artistic abilities. Assignments such as limiting your equipment to one lens, composition challenges, shooting in varied lighting conditions, shooting macro, or for me, the dreaded portrait, can push you to new challenges. No matter where you are along the path of photography, new challenges can push us towards expanding our creative possibilities. I would encourage you to visit The Mindful Eye website for more information on Craig and Marti’s workshops.

For those of you who visit my blog on a regular basis you might think this looks fairly typical of my work. And while that may be true it does represent an exploratory departure for me in terms of workflow. For many years I shot with a 4 x 5 and enjoyed the incredible depth of field I could achieve through the cameras tilt and shift movements. These movements are not available for modern day 35mm cameras except through expensive perspective control lenses. And even so it is very difficult to use them to get the same foreground to background focus. At the workshop each of us had to select a concept area to work in and I choose “depth of field”. To assist in this challenge Craig introduced me to Helicon Focus and the concepts of “focus bracketing”. Focus bracketing is where you take a series of exposures, all at the same shutter speed and aperture, where you adjust the focus with each exposure. With the composition above I focused on the closest foreground point I could see in the viewfinder and then looked at the numbers on the focus ring. I would then divide that number to the infinity mark into a series of brackets. I would make the first shot, rotate the focus slightly, shoot again, and continue in this way till I reach infinity. What you are doing is overlapping the focus zones with each shot. In general most of my shots use anywhere from three to five separate exposures. Now comes the magic. The Helicon Focus software will take each of the focus brackets and combine them into one file blending the focus zones together and creating an image with near to far sharpness. The RAW files can be imported straight into the software. The process also allows you to shoot at lower f-stops virtually eliminating lens defraction. Now what about wind and moving clouds? With moving clouds there can be an issue with overlap but the software allows you to retouch by using the last layer as a reference. You simply paint away the blur to reveal the clouds in a stationary position. It is more of a challenge in windy conditions and usually it is best to resort to hyper focusing over focus bracketing. The saved file can be opened in Photoshop and put through your normal workflow.

Over the next few months I will be posting more images using this workflow. I want to thank you for stopping by today. Don’t forget to consider a workshop.

Bob

Rimrock Hoodoo – May Print of the Month

Badlands, Desert, Featured Image of the Month, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Utah, Zeiss Lenses No Responses »

May 092010

Rimrock Hoodoo. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70, lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 1/2 of a second.

Hi everyone. Todays post is the May Print of the Month available for sale over on my website at http://roberthclarkphotography.com. To view this image and see the over prints in the 2010 series just click on the Print of the Month Gallery.

This image was shot in an area of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument known as the Rimrock Hoodoos. This is the second print I have offered from this location. It is a geologic playground of red Navajo and white Entrada sandstone formations. Photographed in the late afternoon, the photograph features one of the more prominent hoodoos found in the area.

Thanks for stopping by today. Take a moment to view this and other images on my website.

Bob

Badlands Sunset – Grand Staircase-Escalante

Badlands, Black and White, Desert, Grand Circle, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Sony α900, sunset, Utah, Zeiss Lenses No Responses »

Apr 292010

Badlands Sunset. Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 3 seconds.

Hi everyone. I am getting ready to depart for a few days to watch my daughter in a big track meet. So I thought I would post an image before head down the road. This shot was taken in the area of the Rimrock Hoodoos in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The site is easily accessible from Highway 89. A short hike brings you to a playground of hoodoos, balanced rocks, and colorful badlands. I spent the better part of an afternoon exploring this area and as I was about to leave late in the evening a wonderful band of wispy clouds moved in. This shot is looking almost due west into the setting sun. I really liked the contrast of the hard barren landscape and the ethereal clouds. I had taken a few shots when the little dark cloud rolled in to the scene. The darker band of foreground rocks leads the eye to the cloud which adds a nice layer of dynamic movement to the shot.

In order to capture this image I used a 4-stop Singh Ray split neutral density filter to compensate for the difference in contrast between the foreground and the sky. The sunlight was somewhat obscured behind the band of clouds on the horizon which helped keep exposure issues to a minimum. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

As always thank you for stopping. We will see you again next week.

Bob

Bisti Badlands – Preachers Pulpit

Badlands, Bisti Badlands, Bureau of Land Management, Desert, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, New Mexico No Responses »

Apr 172010

Preachers Pulpit, Bisti Badlands. Shot with a Nikon D300 and a Nikor 12-24mm lens at 15mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f22 for 1/6 of a second.

Hi everyone. Todays post is from a remote area in northwest New Mexico called the Bisti Badlands. It is part of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The site is located about 30 miles south of Farmington, New Mexico. Translated from the Navajo, Bisti means ” a large area of shale hill”. The Bisti Wilderness is a remote, desolate, and harsh landscape of deeply eroded hoodoos, badlands, and petrified trees. Time, wind, water, and the natural effects of erosion have created a fantasy land of strange rock formations and weathered hills.

Todays image is representative of the kinds of hoodoos and formations you can find in the wilderness. When I stumbled across this shot the clouds were streaming by over head. The whole formation seemed to be enveloped by the foreground rocks and the pulpit rose up from the middle and glowed from sunlight. In addition there is a beautiful connection of line that begins at the base of the rocks and extends upward into the clouds. The whole effect is one of dynamic motion, connection, and extension. All concepts I think about and like to explore in my work.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

New Mexico Hoodoo

Badlands, Desert, Landscape, New Mexico No Responses »

Jan 102010

A badlands hoodoo in the New Mexico desert. Shot with a Nikon D300 and a Nikor 12-24mm lens at 18mm. Exposue at f16 for 1/25 of a second

Most of my photography friends know that I am a sucker for a good hoodoo and I think this strange beast qualifies. I was on my way to visit Chaco Canyon and noticed some interesting landscapes on the road to the park. I hiked in a little way and found some wonderful hoodoos along with a wild eroded landscape worn by water and wind. I was particularly drawn to this one since the top looked like part of a Samurai warrior’s helmet. Standing nearly eight feet tall, the fragile formation consisted of multiple layers of shale all precariously balanced on a pillar of soil. Oddly human in form, I imagined this hoodoo patrolling the landscape at night in search of desert marauders.

Badlands Butte

Arizona, Badlands, Grand Circle, Landscape No Responses »

Dec 312009

Highway 89 heads north from Flagstaff, Arizona up to Page. It is a road I love to drive because the landscape changes so dramatically. North of Cameron, 89 runs through portions of the Navajo Nation. The landscape here is desolate and beautiful. I have always been fascinated with the eroded hills and buttes in this area. I know this particular butte very well having passed it on many trips up to Page. Each time I have passed it in the wrong light. Heading back to Flag late one afternoon I finally arrived with the right light to take a photograph. The butte was beautifully side lit, nice clouds drifted overhead, and the red hills in the distance glowed. This image is the Featured Print this month on my website, http://roberthclarkphotography.com

A badlands butte on Navajo lands stands tall in the late afternoon sun. Sony α900, Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 28mm, f14 at 1/50 sec.