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Glen Avon Falls and Trees – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Minnesota, North Shore, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Sep 172011
 

Glen Avon Falls and Trees, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 50mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f8 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am returning to an image I made on the Beaver River on the North Shore of Lake Superior. During editing I passed over this image and jumped on the more dramatic waterfall shots I took. But on a second take I think this may be the more successful image I took. On my first scout trip I picked out this grouping of trees almost immediately. The wonderful way the trunks twisted and rolled at their roots seemed to emulate the fast moving water rushing by.

Photographed in the early evening the shot required a long exposure to capture detail in the deeper part of the woods and at the same time to capture the water motion. There were not a lot of specular highlights to contend with so I did not use a polarizer. Instead I employed two of my favorite Singh-Ray Filters; a 2-stop, Soft Edge Split Neutral Density to cover the water, and a Singh-Ray 4-stop Neutral Density to add exposure time. The RAW file was processed in Lightroom and then finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Morning Fog – Shenandoah River, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

 Harpers Ferry, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Robert H Clark Photography, Shenandoah River, Sony α900, sunrise, Trees, WV, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Sep 122011
 

Morning Fog, Shenandoah River, Harpers Ferry, WV. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 35mm. Image exposed at ISO 200 hand held at f11 for 1/60th of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. The drive in to work this morning was simply beautiful. Low lying fog in the cornfields gave way to a blue sky full of wispy, cirrus clouds. I grabbed my camera before leaving the house this morning in the hopes of something special along the river. Often in the early days of fall we will get an inversion that will hold the fog low and floating just above the river.  Sometimes the fog envelopes Loudon Heights and the Virginia mountains on the other side of the river. And sometimes you get the view that greeted me when I got to the office this morning. A long band of fog hung low, drifting parallel to the line of the river. Above the cirrus wisps gained form and structure as the high winds moved them over the mountains. This view, from the patio of our office, greets me everyday I come to work. Every morning I walk to the edge and take in the view, tracing the course of the river until it turns the corner and disappears from sight. This view, like life in general, can be plain and ordinary. But when you least expect it the view, like life, can be full of surprises. Today the river gave me a surprise gift. And the funny thing is I knew it before I even got in the car. Some days are like that. Days when you are so in tune every fiber of your being vibrates and resonates with the world around you. The kind of day when everything just seems to go your way. Magic really.

Thanks for stopping by today. Walk in peace.

Bob

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Seastacks at Waters Edge – Bandon Beach, Oregon

 Bandon Beach, Helicon Focus, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Pacific Ocean, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Wide Angle Photography  6 Responses »
Sep 062011
 

Seastacks at Waters Edge, Bandon Beach, Oregon. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Images exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 2 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image was shot at sunset on Bandon Beach along the Oregon coastline. I had an opportunity to shoot on the Oregon coast about a year ago and though I had dreadful weather I knew I wanted to make a return trip. It is a wild and rugged coastline with beautiful stretches of beach and incredible shoreline seastacks. Bandon Beach is but one of many accessible shorelines along the Oregon coastline. It is an intimate and intriguing beach that is very accessible and can be shot at sunrise or sunset. In this shot the late evening sun backlit a large seastack out in the ocean causing it to glow in a warm, orange light that was the perfect complement to blue hues in the sand and water. The tide was out and an impromptu river of water was flowing back towards the Pacific Ocean. There was a beautiful, crisp, clarity to the air and the light was simply stunning.

Technical Details: The image was shot in two exposures with a 3-Stop, Singh-Ray Soft Edge, Split Neutral Density Filter. The two exposures were focus brackets and the file was merged in Helicon Focus before final finishing in Photoshop. Each of the RAW files was processed with the same settings in Lightroom and saved out as TIFF files before exporting to Helicon.

If you make the trek to Bandon I would recommend the Bandon Beach Motel. The hotel sits on a cliff over looking the beach and offers instant access to the shoreline via a stairway. When you get there ask for Caleb and tell him you want room 205, the one on the corner with the amazing view.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Reflections – Ellingson Island, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Lake Superior

 Adobe Lightroom, Heliopan Filters, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Minnesota, Moab Masters, North Shore of Lake Superior, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Water, Zeiss Lenses  2 Responses »
Aug 252011
 

Reflections, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am off on Saturday for a weeklong trip to Crater Lake National Park. I have a good bit of work there next week but suspect I will get in some shooting time. In the meantime, and until I return, here is a new image from my recent venture on the North Shore of Lake Superior. On Sunday evening before the start of the workshop I did a brief scouting trip down to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. It was a beautiful and very calm evening. Lake Superior was glass like, without ripples and the color of lake and sky seemed to merge with only a thin line along the horizon separating the two. The overhead band of clouds were almost perfectly mirrored in the calm waters. Out from the shoreline, Ellingson Island appeared to suspend between water and sky, connected to earth by the thinnest tendril of stone. I was enveloped by stillness. The lake barely lapped at the shore and for a brief moment time simply stopped.

Technical Details: Though the clouds were perfectly reflected in the water I could not get a good single capture. So the final image is a composite of two images, one exposed to capture the clouds in the sky and the other to capture the clouds in the water. In each case I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer and a Singh-Ray “sandwich” consisting of a 4-Stop Neutral Density and a 2-Stop Soft Edge Split Neutral Density Filter. The two RAW files were processed and combined in Photoshop. The 4-Stop Neutral allowed me to increase the exposure to gain some movement in the clouds and smooth out the water.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will see you back here in about a week.

Bob

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Glen Avon Falls – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

 Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photomatix HDR, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, Waterfalls, Wide Angle Photography  2 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

Glen Avon Waterfall, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 15mm Rectilinear Lens. See the post for technical details on the shot capture.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am preparing once again to leave town for another trip, this time out to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. After this one I will be able to stay home for a while and rest a bit. So in this brief respite between trips I am getting the cameras ready, cleaning sensors, lenses, and other packing chores. And of course I am trying to process out a few more images from the Lake Superior shoot. Today’s post may be my last until I return so I thought I would show you one I am very proud of.

For me this image represents the constant struggle we face when trying to craft an image. This is a shot of the upper falls on Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River which empties into Lake Superior. I made two scouting trips to the falls and came away simply befuddled. I just could not get a handle on a worth while shot. The problem I faced is common and many of our workshop participants faced the same dilemma. Glen Avon is not what I might call a singular waterfall. It is instead made up of many cascades rolling through different levels. The problem was one of isolating the shot to achieve a uniform and cohesive composition. Alec and I scouted the falls before the workshop and I knew right away it was going to be a challenge.

When we brought out the workshop folks for the scouting session I once again just struggled to understand the place. When scouting waterfalls it is generally best to start at the bottom and work your way up. It is often difficult to see the cascades and features when approaching from the top. So for most the afternoon I mingled in with our students and made my way down stream. Again not much was revealed to me that gave me a meaningful composition to capture. We would all return that evening for the “formal” shoot and I was resigned to leaving the camera in the bag.

On the way out after the scouting exercise I finally saw what I was looking for. Or that is to say what I had missed. Making my way along the edge I came back to a long rocky chute that connected the upper falls with the lower. This was the isolation of forms I was looking for. The shot angle possessed a strong diagonal leading line and prominent foreground features that jutted into the scene providing a beautiful counter-balance to the strong line of flowing water. I saw the shot in my mind as late evening and in black and white. When we returned for the evening shoot I studied the angles once again from the top and bottom of the chute. The bottom was the best for the evening and the top position would actually be good for a morning shot. Around 8:30 pm  I began to frame up the shot. I positioned myself, rather precariously, on a slippery ledge of rock, and put my tripod into a series of contortions to get the right camera angle. To get it all I had to shoot ultra wide with the 15mm rectilinear lens. I shot two test exposures to get a lock on the histogram and then made three sets of three exposure brackets, each bracket two stops apart, to merge in Photomatix. I shot the three sets in order to make sure I had the flowing water captured in a form I liked.

Technical Processing: The RAW files were brought into Adobe Lightroom and I choose the three image brackets that gave me a consistent look to the water flow that could be merged. Each exposure was approximately two stops apart and included a dark file at 8 seconds, a midtone at 30 seconds, and a lights at 2:00 minutes. Each file was processed and corrected in Lightroom and saved out as TIFFs for Photomatix. After import I processed the file twice-once in Exposure Fusion and once in Photomatix Tone Mapping. This was simply to compare the files and see which one I like better. In the end I went with the Tone Mapped version and let Photomatix convert to black and white. The final Photoshop work included some minor curves adjustments for the falls and dodging and burning layers.

The final image is born from the struggle that exists for all photographers. We can all point a camera at something and press the shutter. But the crafting of a memorable image takes time, patience, vision, and a little help from the muses. Sometimes our vision is clouded and what we seek will only be revealed by letting go. Easier said than done I can assure you. But working through this is, and always will be, part of the process. Basically some days are diamonds and some days are rust. Enjoy and embrace the struggle for inside lies the genesis of something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Rio Grande Overlook – Big Bend Country, Texas

 Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, National Parks, Photography Trips, River, Sony α900, sunset, Texas, Water  12 Responses »
Jul 202011
 

Rio Grande Overlook, Big Bend Country. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 8 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I was officially labeled as out of control regarding my photography. I think the word obsessive was used a few times. This moniker was given to me by none other than my wife with a few here here’s thrown in from my daughter. Ok, I freely admit this. If I am not shooting, I am processing. If not processing than I am shooting with the iPhone, or tinkering, or reading blogs, or cleaning cameras, you get the idea I think. What to do? I did not say much having been stung to the core by such honesty. I did not promise to do better because I do not think that is a possibility. I do think about photography quite a bit but I have never thought of myself as obsessive-passionate yes, but never obsessive. The iPhone has caused some of this. Or, in the true spirit of excepting responsibility for my actions, I have allowed the “thing” to consume me. But fun is fun, I think, and photography, in all its aspects, is fun. It combines many things that I like; travel, art, technical knowhow, the great outdoors, planning, friendship, equipment, experimentation, and the list can go on. Passion is to be pursued. I am passionate about photography and I pursue it with an all consuming energy. There is so much to do, so much still to learn. It is something that pulses through me , a yearning, a longing, a desire. If I come off as neglectful to the ones I love then I am sorry and I will try to be more attentive. I promise. I did say above that it may not be possible, but I will try. But I am not sorry, nor will I ever be about my passion for making images. I only have one life and as I get older I am finding it needs to be lived fully and in the pursuit of ones passion, whatever that may be.

So what does all this diatribe and self-aware angst have to do with the image above? Nothing perhaps. Or maybe everything. The image was made in the pursuit of my passion. It was made in a beautiful place, on an outcrop of rocks, and amongst good friends. In my mind it does not get much better than that. It was the last day of the Big Bend workshop and this grand landscape could not have been more appropriate as our final shoot. From this lofty perch the Rio Grande flowed into the the dying of the day. As we shot we felt the power of this place and the special bond of friendship forged in pursuit of the same passions. And though we would all be parting company soon the river bound us together and we flowed along its curves into the sunset. My grandmother once said that in life you need someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. My friends, that is passion. Be consumed.

Thank you as always for stopping by to visit.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

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Dolphurs Hayes – Pole Vaulter

 Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Gritty Technique, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, People Photography, Photography Technique, Portrait, Portrait Photography, Track and Field  2 Responses »
Jul 032011
 

Pole Vaulter, Dolphurs Hayes. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikon 70-200mm lens at 150mm. Image exposed at ISO 200 at f2.8 for 1/500th of a second.

Well as promised I am posting some new images from my pole vault shoot. As I mentioned in the last post the process of photographing these incredible athletes has been a lot of fun. Going from the relative stillness of the great southwest to such a high octane shooting event has required a total shift in gears for me. In general I reset my camera menus for autofocus so I could quickly dial in to the athletes. I shot all the images with a fast, f2.8, 70-200mm Nikon lens which put a premium on my hand holding abilities since I was just a bit out of practice. The location was in an area with tall pine trees that provided some light filtration. I generally shot at f2.8 to help soften the background and achieve a dappled bokah. There was a lot of activity and I had to work to isolate each athlete to help simplify the background. The camera was set to Aperture Priority with a +3 exposure compensation. The longer lens allowed me to shoot more covertly which kept the vaulters relaxed and natural.

This is high school pole vaulter Dolphurs Hayes, one of the athletes at my daughters pole vault camp in south Georgia. I found Dolphurs to be very photogenic and quite patient with the photography. In some of my earlier shots he tended to pose and I was really after something more heroic. In this shot I caught him waiting on the runway while another vaulter was going. His gaze was down the runway and he seemed to be concentrating on what he needed to do when it came time for his turn. This was a mid morning shot and the light was beautiful.

The RAW files were brought into Adobe Lightroom for sorting and development. I have been working in a more “gritty” style with some of my recent portrait work processing and I found this technique worked well for these images. But I put my own development twist to the files and created some different Development Presets in Lightroom. I began by using the Lightroom Bleached ByPass Preset by added my own twists to the processing to create my version. I actually created three different Presets and employed each one based on the characteristics of the image including the scene lighting and overall color rendition in the athletes skin tones and clothes. The technique relies on a pronounced sharpening routine for a more hyperreal look. Capture sharpening was performed in Lightroom and a second round of sharpening was applied after setting the Black and White Point and minor Curve work in Photoshop.

I will post a few more of these images in the next few days as I work them up from their RAW state. I promise to return to landscape soon. In the meantime please enjoy these images. The kids were fantastic and my daughter was not too embarrassed. In fact most of the kids were excited to see the images and how I might process them. Overall it was just great fun to work on new techniques.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

 

 

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Dr. Doug No. 2, Terlingua Texas, Big Bend – Gritty Portrait Technique

 Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Gritty Technique, Lightroom, People Photography, Photography Technique, Portrait, Portrait Photography, Sony α900, Texas, Zeiss Lenses  2 Responses »
Jun 122011
 

Dr. Doug, Terlingua, Texas. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Images exposed at ISO 100 at f2.8 for 1/90th of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am in the midst of getting ready for a week in the field that will see my first trip into Canyon X in the Antelope Canyon Drainage. But before I get there I have all the usual “getting out of town” issues that seem to consume a lot of time. Getting a new blog post out was not on that list but I had started this one a few weeks ago and as it turned out it did not require too much time to finish the processing.

My frequent visitors will recognize this image as my wise old friend, Dr. Doug, of Terlinqua, Texas. Recently I was inspired by some beautiful portrait work of surfers on the North Shore of Lake Superior by my friend Alec Johnson. The gritty, hard look of these images were amazing and really brought out the character of the subjects. In today’s post I decided to explore my own version of the “gritty” portrait technique. The technique is characterized by a “hyper-sharpened”, desaturated processing technique. While I do not think it is appropriate for all portraits it is none the less an effective technique that produces an edgy look. The details in Dr. Doug’s face, from his piercing eyes, to his coarse beard, all lend themselves to applying the technique.

Dr. Doug. The processed RAW file used as the starting point for the "gritty" look.

The original shot was made in natural light in the late afternoon. I moved in close using a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 70mm. To the left is the processed RAW file developed in Adobe Lightroom. I followed my usual processing procedures for the RAW file including curve adjustments, fill and recovery, color luminosity adjustments, and sharpening. The file was exported into Adobe Photoshop for the final finishing. The work for the final image proceeded in the following steps:

Step 1: I duplicated the file and performed a little “digital gardening” on the copy to remove a few dust spots.

Step 2: I added a Levels Layer and set the White and Black Point. I routinely perform this step on all my files.

Step 3: I created a Black and White Adjustment Layer set to Soft Light Blending Mode with an opacity of 40%. This is a salt to taste setting but generally 40% is a good starting point. You will begin to see the “gritty” effect with this layer.

Step 4: I created a Selective Color Layer. From there I went into the Red Color Selection and set Cyan to +20 and Yellow to +20. This has the combined effect of removing the Red Cast.

Step 5:  I created a Hue/Saturation Layer and in the Master set the overall Saturation to -35. In the Red I set the Slider to -40, and -20 in the Yellow. Steps 4 and 5 are a salt to taste adjustment. Make sure the preview button is set so you can visually see the effect of the changes.

Step 6: Make sure the top layer in your layer stack is selected then go to the Layer Menu and select Merge Visible. Hold down the Option Key when you do this so you can retain your other layers. This will put a merged file on top of your layer stack.

This is my sharpening layer. For this effect I used two sharpening passes; A Large Aperture Sharpening Routine and a Small Aperture Routine. For the Large Aperture go to the Filter Menu and select Unsharp Mask. Set the Radius to 20 and the Amount to 75. Generally the amount will work between 50 and 100 but you will need to judge the effect on each image. Once you are finished close out to apply the sharpening. Add a filter layer and fill will black. This will hide the sharpening effects. Using a Soft Brush set to 15 to 20 percent, paint white over the filter layer to reveal the sharpening effect. I concentrated on Dr. Doug’s eyes, nose and part of his beard. I do not bring out all the sharpening. Only enough to begin to see the “hyper-sharpened” effect.

Now for the Small Aperture Routine. Using the same image layer go to the Filter Menu and select Unsharp Mask. Set the Radius to 5.0 and the amount to 225. This will tweak out finer detail but it will be mitigated but the Layer Mask. Using the Soft Brush at an Opacity of 20% to 25% I painted White over the eyes and the beard to bring out these areas. In a portrait the “eyes” are the key. This is where the soul resides.

Step 7: I made a Curves Layer and lightened Dr. Doug’s eyes to increase the intensity and bring out the lighter colors in the whites and the iris.

Step 8: I also created a Dodge and Burn Layer to Lighten and Darken a few areas in the portrait. This is a key component for all my work whether it is a portrait or a landscape. The pushing and pulling of light and dark is a painterly process that helps create the sense of depth I like in a photograph. To make a D and B layer add a new Layer on top of the Layer Stack. Change the Blending Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 66%. Fill this layer with 50% Black. Using a Soft Brush set to a low opacity of 5% to 10% I paint in with White to lighten areas and Black to darken. This is a subtle building of tones. There is some intensive work on Doug’s eyes to create a 3-D quality.

And that is the technique. The combinations and applications of color adjustment, saturation, dodging and burning, and sharpening are all on a per image basis. The settings used above are a starting point. I also had a good, solid starting image to make the adjustments. The differences in my mind are not subtle. The starting image is soft and on its own would make a fine file under a normal workflow. But I like the intensity created by this technique. Dr. Doug appears more intense and worldly. The gritty look deepens the story for me.

Give this technique a try on your next portrait. I will be back in a week or so from my Grand Canyon/Canyon X trip. You can follow me through my Twitter and Facebook Feeds.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

 

 

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Hopi Point Sunrise – Grand Canyon National Park

 Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Arizona, Colorado Plateau, Colorado River, Desert, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Circle, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, National Parks, Photography Trips, Photoshop Workflow, River, sunrise  No Responses »
Jan 312011
 

Hopi Point Sunrise, South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park. Shot with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 28-70mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 200 at f18 for 1/20 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In past posts I have eluded to the fact that I often revisit files in an effort to tweak out more detail through better processing. This image is one of those that has been processed several times and each time I do I get a little closer to realizing my original vision for the shot. The image was made from Hopi Point located on the West Rim Drive on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The large formation in the foreground is known as “The Alligator” and the formation to the right is part of “The Tower of Ra”. The shot was made just after sunrise and illustrates just how intense the sunlight can be as it illuminates the canyons buttes and landforms. The intensity of the light striking The Alligator was difficult to balance with respect to other formations in the shot and for some time how I wanted to process the shot escaped me. Shooting red rock formations such as these can pose some problems in terms of the luminosity of the image capture. In this case the light was so intense that much of the buttes detail was lost in a wash of intense color. The trick was to retain the beautiful sunrise color but dial back the colors luminosity and recover the detail. The way to do this is to reduce the color saturation slightly and then dial back the color luminance. Using the sliders in the HSL/Color/B&W panel in Adobe Lightroom I selected HSL and clicked on Saturation. Here I reduced the saturation in the Red and Orange channels. Next I clicked Luminance and reduced the Red and Orange channels. The net result decreased the color intensity and enabled me to recover some beautiful detail in the rocks. Working the Color Sliders along with manipulating the Curves achieved a good RAW file to import to Photoshop for final finishing.

Proper RAW file development is one of the cornerstones in creating a good image and you should not rush through this process. After selecting an image to work on I always start by “zeroing” the image to return it to the RAW state captured by the camera. I almost never rely on the established development Preset in Lightroom. From there I set the White and Black Point and manipulate the Curve Sliders while also working with the Fill and Recover sliders. It is a back and forth process where I am looking to bring out the maximum detail in the shot. Once I finish the major curve manipulations I look to adjusting the color saturation and luminance. In some cases I work these sliders along with the curve sliders. The final step is to apply capture sharpening and noise reduction.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Bob

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Fracture – Antelope Canyon, Navajo Lands, Arizona

 Adobe Lightroom, Antelope Canyon, Arizona, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Mountain Sheep Canyon, Navajo Lands, Photography Technique, Slot Canyon, Slot Canyon Photography, Sony α900  No Responses »
Jan 222011
 

Fracture, Antelope Canyon/Mountain Sheep Canyon, Navajo Lands, Arizona. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am heading out for a week and wanted to get a new image up before I took off. Though the title says the shot is from Antelope Canyon, it is actually a shot in a small, open-top slot, called Mountain Sheep Canyon. It is within a few miles of Upper Antelope Canyon and is available to photographers through my friend and guide Carol Bigthumb of Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours. It is a short canyon but it is full of beautiful details and amazing contortions wrought by the forces of wind and water. This image illustrates how water actually carves out the canyons during flash floods. As water runs through the canyons it can get trapped in small recesses and begins to swirl. As it does so the water carves away at the stone and the recesses become larger and more undercut. As the water rushes through it can rip away and fracture the stone as well as polish the surface revealing beautiful striations. Depending on the time of day the light in the canyons is amazing. The glow on the right wall is the result of bounced, or reflected, light off the wall just behind the cameras position. This is the kind of light I search for and I love to create compositions that juxtapose this light with shadowed areas. In most instances shooting in an open-top slot requires more diligent composition as the light can be more harsh. If you can get in the early morning or late afternoon the light can be softer.

The image was processed in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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