Slickrock and Shadow

Candy Rocks of Coyote Buttes South Real yet unbelievable is what I experienced while exploring Coyote Buttes South.  The lines and colors swirl in ways I could never imagine to be natural.  Yet this was truly the handiwork of Mother Nature, that creative maven I've come to admire.  This photo was taken at the same sunrise location as my previous post and this high outlook truly is the place for sunrise  in all this land.  I backed away from these rocks a bit, went with a wide 17mm tilt shift lens and shot several frames.  This lens allows me to stitch the frames together later and create a larger, wider vast landscape.  Just as I was doing this the sky brightened and changed from purple to blue, making this a most-colorful photo.  Enjoy the pastels of this incredible landscape!

Cavern Cascade in Watkins Glen State Park I wanted to photograph Cavern Cascade from behind from the moment I walked underneath the falls.  This is such an exciting experience to have, I hoped to capture the feeling of being there.  My camera lens is simply not wide enough to capture the path coming down on the left, passing behind the waterfall and then continuing on to the right and then down into the light of the canyon.  I took the photograph by standing behind the waterfall and, using a tripod, took many photos in nearly every direction. Immediately I thought of stitching multiple photos together.  Adobe Lightroom make this a much easier process.  I shot more than 20 frame in a portrait orientation at different exposures to allow for the darkest shadows and the brightest rays of morning light.  Then I walked away with hope of salvation in the digital darkroom.  Back home, Lightroom (LR) could not stitch it together.  Some images a...

St. Giles Kirk Ceiling St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh Scotland is a national landmark.  It's also very photogenic.  And most important for a photographer, they allow photography with tripods for a small fee.  Having a tripod makes the difference in a dark cathedral.  It allows long exposures, letting the light pour onto the sensor.  Cathedrals do not really move so these long exposures work wonderfully here. I took advantage of my 17 millimeters tilt shift lens and pointed it heavenward.  As I shifted from side to side, I was able to take in a huge amount of architectural information.  I tried very carefully to obtain a symmetric image.  I stitched these pictures Lightroom postprocessing.  With my lower ISO settings I was able to bring a lot of the detail out of the shadows including the rich color in the stonework.  Please enjoy.

Arches Windows Section Panoramic Sunset Having only one sunset in Arches National Park, I thought long and hard about which location to choose.  This was near the end of my trip to Moab and I felt weary.  I'd previously debated between the Windows section, delicate arch, and the marching men.  Perhaps choosing the easy way out, I decided to shoot a panorama of the Windows section.  However I did not simply take one picture and call it quits.  Instead, it shows the location far away from the Windows and set up my 300mm f/2.8 lens on a heavy tripod.  Shooting quickly but deliberately level at sunset, I captured more than 20 images from the left to right.  The golden hour was truly beautiful. At home, I stitched these together to create my most successful and beautiful panorama.  The power of a panorama comes out when these are viewed very large.  I encourage you to visit my website where you can see this in original size.  It's huge...