Slickrock and Shadow

Green Glow, Smooth Flow I discovered this photo in a group of RAW files I never got to during the 2017 year.  In sorting through them, getting rid of the rubbish, I found this one and said to myself, "there's a jewel."  I began processing the photo primarily by adjusting the luminance of various color channels to help the falling water retain it's bright whiteness.  This was easily done using the blue color channel in Lightroom.   Then I turned to the greens.  The greens are under and above the water in this photo and (as always) I try to process them to look like they did in reality.  I was there.  I saw all this and even swam in the water.  This is what it looks like.  The only missing element is the sound of falling water.   With this longer exposure, I blurred the waterfall and smoothed out the water's surface.  I also captured some blurred motion in the foliage as it swayed in a slight breeze.  Some of th...

Spooky Alley and Doorway As I got lost in Venice at night I came across this spooky alley.  Nobody was around even though this was only about a one minute walk from a main thoroughfare filled with pedestrians and shops.  You do not have to wander very far to find yourself alone in Venice.  All you have to do is duck into a dark alley to disappear from the crowd.  I tried to capture the desolate, spooky feeling in this photograph. Focal length 45mm; aperture f/11; shutter speed 30 seconds.  Shot with a tripod.

Seven Sisters of Valley of Fire State Park On a recent trip to Valley of Fire State Park, I arrived early.  I was hoping to be present for the sunrise and even consider doing some night photography. Night photography requires a few elements in the subject for it to be successful.  Typically there needs to be something that extends vertically into the sky, there needs to be some movement either in the clouds or the stars.  If the stars are the subject, everything else can be dark.  If the stars are not the subject, there needs to be enough light to show some of the land. On this particular evening, I had a full moon.  There were some clouds that were moving by relatively quickly.  I decided to stop next to the road at the rock formations known as the "Seven Sisters."  In what is the controversial subject, the state park has put a lot picnic tables between these beautiful rock formations.  That's very nice for picnics but it kind of spoils ...