I just returned from a wonderful few days in Death Valley, one of the US National Parks located in the Mojave Desert in California. I took the course with @jyokota -- we both thought we'd benefit from its focus -- landscape photography, work flow in Lightroom (desperately needed), and miscellaneous other fun things like light painting and astro-photography (I always thought of that as the 'night sky'). Great fun using a rented 80-400 telephoto and my wide angle. We did sunrise shoots, sunset shoots, and night sky shoots. So, if you consider the hours when these occur...no wonder I'm tired! And during the 'down time' we had mini-instructional sessions or processing time. I've learned a lot and am looking forward to practicing in LR to process the photos from each event.
I am woefully behind in commenting as usual, but did want to say how grateful I am to everyone for putting my lighthouse photo at #1 this week on TT (didn't have internet while gone -- so nice to see!) as well as one of the winter beach scenes. Many, many thanks!
@maggiemae Thanks Maggiemae! I do take it seriously, but all in fun, if that makes sense. This was one of my only shots as I'd gotten separated from the others I was hiking and photographing with, went up the wrong way, and had to put everything away, use my tripod (with legs collapsed) to help, and sit as I slid back down what was not really a path, to a safe spot. Learned a city girl should not go off by herself in the mountains!!
An absolutely stunning shot, Taffy. I really admire your photography and that you get to travel so much. Everywhere you go, the images you produce are nothing short of stunning! Fav!
The world is obviously your oyster, Taffy! I confess this is starkly and beautifully amazing! Ken has been trying for years to get me to go there with him. Looks as though I've been missing something wonderful!
Wow what a fantastic course! Just the kind I would love to go on. Not seen one here in the UK which combines all those different types of photography. Plus LR! Perfect! Love your shot and your story - sounds a bit dangerous! A great capture Taffy!
Wow, what a fabulous shot, Taffy. I hope we get to see some of your others as well. I am so glad that it was so beneficial to go to this seminar for you. Glad you are ok after venturing off. FAV
What a wonderful experience you must have had - I envy you!
I really love the way in which you have used the ridge of the mountain to lead to the top. It makes me feel like I am there and I am having the experience of climbing the mountain. The background plateau, I assume, was at a slope (not your horizon being skew, in other words)? I also assume that this was a bracketed shot to compensate for the shadow side of the mountain against the setting sun. The HDR rendering looks a bit hard an unnatural for my eye and for a nature shot/landscape (may have been fine for a cityscape).
wow Taffy this is gorgeous!! good to hear you had such a fabulous time at the course and learned a lot! No bring that LR knowledge to practice! I decided to buy the Lightroom book myself, to learn more and get the maximum out of it. and it also gives my mom a chance to learn without me having to help ;)
@frankhymus Yes, I rented the new Nikon 80-400mm and was not at all happy with it when I used it on my D90. It felt awkward and limited. Then, I put it on my 610 and loved it! I'd rent it again--totally fun to use, but I wouldn't want to have that much invested in owning it, as I don't think I'd use it that often. My 70-300 is better for a carry-around one, even if the glass isn't as strong. I can always put it on my D90 to get the focal length.
@taffy Is it an HDR-image? I would redo the whole HDR processing and choose a more natural look. Or (from Photomatix) you can save the interim TIFF image, open that in LR and edit it to your liking as you would do with a RAW image.
this is beautiful... you've done a fabulous job with bringing out the details throughout... guess you've got LR sorted then? i'm so envious of that workshop... it sounds like it was divine!
@northy Oh, I so wish I had LR sorted out. I now have only a basic understanding of the catalogue. For processing, I have a workflow process using the WB related sliders and other basic ones, but still struggle with the ND rectangle and the radial thing, so feel very clunky in my use of it. I need to create the time for the tutorials I've bought and ones on line and really systematically go through the Kelby book, but life (i.e., work) is just not cooperating! Retirement is in sight -- teaching my last class, then only 25% next year. But right now...LR is on hold for learning new things and in the 'practice' category, adding bits and pieces that folks recommend that I can follow. AGH!
@taffy first off, do NOT talk to me about LR cataloguing... i have totally f***ed up my catalogues and am now planning on investing a bunch of money in some one on one training...
with respect to LR processing tools - i found for myself that these things only came with practice (to the extent that i have mastered any of them - i think for the most part i have not) and that practice only came with need... that is, i could not sit down to "learn" a specific function... i only ended up learning it when i needed to figure it out in order to get an image to work the way i wanted it to... anyhow... i think learning bit by bit as the specific need arises will surprise you... a few months from now you'll look back and realize just how much you've learned and how far you've come!
@northy That's encouraging, actually....and it makes a lot of sense. That does seem to be how it's working -- needing to figure out how to do something is how I've been doing this recently. Thanks for taking the time to write this!
I really love the way in which you have used the ridge of the mountain to lead to the top. It makes me feel like I am there and I am having the experience of climbing the mountain. The background plateau, I assume, was at a slope (not your horizon being skew, in other words)? I also assume that this was a bracketed shot to compensate for the shadow side of the mountain against the setting sun. The HDR rendering looks a bit hard an unnatural for my eye and for a nature shot/landscape (may have been fine for a cityscape).
with respect to LR processing tools - i found for myself that these things only came with practice (to the extent that i have mastered any of them - i think for the most part i have not) and that practice only came with need... that is, i could not sit down to "learn" a specific function... i only ended up learning it when i needed to figure it out in order to get an image to work the way i wanted it to... anyhow... i think learning bit by bit as the specific need arises will surprise you... a few months from now you'll look back and realize just how much you've learned and how far you've come!