Elephants In The Desert
The appearance with the shadow casts looks like a heard of Elaphants running away from you. The Painted Hills in Central Oregon....
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The appearance with the shadow casts looks like a heard of Elaphants running away from you. The Painted Hills in Central Oregon.
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Nov, 2015Views
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Awards
Fall Award 2020
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superior Skill
Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
I was on a short photography journey to Eastern Oregon in my motorhome and had heard of the 'Painted Hills' just NW of Mitchell so I set out to find this location. The location is somewhat obscure and was a little difficult to find, there are many lonely roads that take you all over the place.Time
The day was quite cloudy when I began shooting, I would painstakingly hike around marked trails (This is a National Monument and one could damage the vegetation if full compliance with regulations are not followed) with my camera and tri-pod and snap a series of bracketed shots at different locations. I wandered around for a couple of hours, the light was not all that good however, the formations and colors were breathtaking, particularly when the sun peaked through the cloud cover. As I was giving up for the day the clouds began to break and the sun setting in the west cast shadows along the spines of the hills. This shot was taken on 11/01/2015 at 4:46PM.Lighting
The sun was about to crest over the foothills and with the clouds breaking apart gave a great late afternoon opportunity casting shadows highlighting the crests of the hills and gave dynamic definition of texture and color. So, late afternoon on a winter's day with clearing skies and falling sun behind me were the keys to this shot.Equipment
Tri-Pod with a Nikon D750, Nikkor lens 24.0-120.0 mm f/4.0. Shot was taken at 30mm 1/500 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100.Inspiration
The pure beauty of nature - shadows, colors and time of day to produce a clear and unique perspective.Editing
The post processing workflow consisted of Lightroom and Photoshop in a RAW format. I combined 3 bracketed exposures to create a composite, basic adjustments in shadows, highlights, white & black points, contrast, curves layers to get some dynamic range in the shadows, clouds and colors some clarity and, sharpening and a vignette to finish it off before saving to a JPG.In my camera bag
My camera bag is a Filson shoulder carry camera bag and is packed (Doesn't scream camera). I carry two Nikon camera bodies, four len's, extra straps, rain sleeves, six additional batteries, two filter cases, chargers, two small flashlights with extra batteries, chargers and cables for each camera body, manuals, business cards, cleaning equipment, small notebook and pens for notes and lastly an iPad. I also have a tag along tripod (has it's own bag), 'Bob' with a ball head and an Altura flash device, I'm always ready for anything.Feedback
In any shooting scene it's best to shoot at sunrise or sunset (1 hour on either side generally) however, any time of the day will work as long as the sun is not in a location where it will blow out the highlights, cloudy overcast days are actually excellent for shooting you just need to learn to shoot in manual (learn your camera capabilities) and adjust your settings to accommodate your situation and always shoot in RAW. Take your camera and gear with you every time you leave the house, always have spare charged batteries, clean len's and sensor and be looking for shots wherever you go, you never know when you'll see something that is captivating (That is what I do). Most of all have some fun with your photography.
