Abstraction in Nature: Grotto
Traveling through southern Utah I came upon this small canyon grotto. The light and reflections are what caught my eye.
Traveling through southern Utah I came upon this small canyon grotto. The light and reflections are what caught my eye.
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Dec, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
Southern UtahTime
Late morning, if memory serves me.Lighting
Light changes quickly in the desert. With so much open space, dramatic lighting can form or be lost in seconds. I try to focus on the views that have a broad range of darks and lights, or when shooting color, a broad range of warm and cool color, as well. These contrasts of light/dark and warm/cool is where the drama is for me. This point of view also comes from my training as a painter. I often paint and photograph in the same sitting.Equipment
I use a simple point & shoot, the Canon PowerShot SX60 HS. I like it for field work because of the small size, light weight, and built-in zoom. I rarely use a tripod. On occasions, where I'm shooting long distance I try to find a fence or a rock to steady my arms. The other thing I like about this setup is the flexibility it gives me. I can quickly respond to a moving animal, bird, or fast changing light. Having said that, I realize that the quality of my work has many limitations compared to higher-end cameras and lenses. But simplicity is my preference.Inspiration
I enjoyed the broad range of lights and darks, the reflection, and the sensuous curves of the land forms. These rocks were at the end of a small canyon, or grotto. During the summer rains, runoff flows over the top of these rocks, cascading down into the narrow canyon. The standing water is what remains from a previous storm. It's hard to say how long it had been before the last rain, but you can see from the smooth texture of the stone that these rocks have eroded from wind and rain for hundreds, if not thousands of years.Editing
I usually do an auto contrast and an unsharp mask (@50%) in Photoshop. Most of the time the image value range is improved, but not always. Sometimes the opposite can happen, in which case I do an "undo," or control-Z. The camera imports images at 180ppi. I convert them to 300ppi by constraining the width to height proportions under the "image size" option.In my camera bag
My bag is a backpack, and the only photo equipment I have is the PowerShot. Other materials are my painting supplies.Feedback
Always keep your eyes open and your camera handy. Nature, the world has a way of presenting incredible visuals when we least expect them.
