Another Smoky Morning

Morning Dew

The photo seen above was taken at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky National Park early one spring morning. The mist still covered the ground in the park. What I was trying to achieve was the effect of sun glittering off the dew drops on the grass in the foreground. It did not succeed in my mind. The sun causes a huge jump in the histagram off to the right but so what. I have seen photos where the sun is in the photo with the mist below. I'm not sure this photo succeeds.

Morning Dew#2

Above is a similar photo after cropping and post processing in Color Efex Pro. I think I like the cooler effect better.

Fire in the Sky

Smokies Fire in the Sky

The first evening in the mountains of the Great Smokies we traveled to a vista and set up our cameras to catch the "Fire in the Sky." I had my camera on tripod with a 70-300mm lens set at 195mm. The settings in camera were 1/20 sec at f/16, ISO 400. As the sun was setting we had a swath of light which penetrated through the clouds and lit up the mountains tops.

When I looked at my photos afterward, I wasn't sure these photos were the best they could be. Post processing might be needed. In this image I used Viveza to give the clouds some definition and brighten up the various mountains.

Here is the photo without any processing:

What do you think? Processing was needed or should have been left the way it was?

                                                   


   

One Spring Day

Cades Cove Morning

The weather is becoming warmer and even steamy but I'd like to remember back 4 weeks to the middle of April when I was in The Smokies (Great Smoky National Park).

Mornings were cool. Probably wore jackets. Going to shoot in the Smokies is a rare treat. We had to set our alarms for 5 AM so that we could meet the group at 5:30 AM. We were in the car by 5:45 AM and heading to the entrance to the park where we would get in the line of cars and wait for the gate to open at 7 AM. The sun would barely be up and it would be hidden behind the mountains. But the most glorious thing would be the mist which hugged the ground and everything would be kissed by a golden glow.


More Smokies images to follow...

Tonto National Forest

Saguaro Cactus in the Desert

OK, one more post about Arizona and then I will move on.

When I was in Arizona a few months back, I was able to photograph in the Tonto National Forest of Mesa. Arising before dawn, I drove over to the Tonto National Forest where you can still see Saguaro Cactus as far as the eye can see.  (a quickly disappearing scene around Mesa, I'm afraid). I just had fun taking pictures. When I'm next in that area, I hope there will be some interesting clouds in the sky, or I could take some sunset shots.

Desert Tree

Saguaro Cactus with Superstition Mountains behind (I think).

Not exactly a place I would want to be walking without water or a hat, but the landscape can be quite beautiful at times and for that reason, makes fun photography.

Macro Photography

Cactus

Macro Photography has changed so much over the past few years. When I first tried macro about 4-5 years ago, I was in the beginning stages of my foray into photography.

Purple Petunia

This weekend I made huge strides in macro photography by attending Les Saucier's 2 day workshop in Charlotte. I learned how to use small flashlights to light up the center of the flower from the back, the front or underneath.

Layered leaves and each layer has a different hue of green.

Another advance I tried this weekend was using a raynox lens which you put on the front of the lens and it increases the amount of magnification through the lens.

Next I used the 1.4 teleconverter between the camera and the macro lens.

Cactus-like plant with great fuzzy branches.

As Les Saucier says, "The object is to get past the need to identify the plant and produce a photograph which emphasizes line, shape, pattern, color and other graphic elements.

Arizona

Cactus photos can sometimes be interesting. I looked for interesting desert cactus to photograph while in Arizona in April.  Here are a few samples: