This is the second post in my "Redo" series. Last week, I talked about how I was reprocessing some old photos that needed a "fresh coat of paint" from the bad processing that I applied in the past. This photo was taken in 2006 at Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park. While my "cringe" factor wasn't as high as the last photo that I reprocessed, it still was in need of a redo. The original was quite dark in the shadows and did not have the warmth to it that I remember seeing at the time I shot it. The water had an unnatural look to it, especially at the bottom of the frame, probably a result of an overuse of a vignette. In any case, I like the redo much better. What do you think?
The Mill - Stone Mill, Lawrence, Massachusetts
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to shoot the Stone Mill with my friends Bob Lussier and Steven Perlmutter. They conduct workshops in the Lawrence mills and I highly recommend them. This particular workshop was focused on light painting. I haven't done much light painting photography, so it was an interesting and learning process.
One of the things that makes the Stone Mill a great subject for night photography are the lights that come on through the windows that create great shadows on the walls. These shadows, coupled with the use of colored lights, make some really cool effects. I typically might try some HDR processing with the high dynamic range of light, but the Lightroom has come such a long way in the past few years that it wasn't necessary. I also used Lightroom's new feature in the Transform Panel (Guided) which worked amazingly well. It was quite simple to use and it did wonders straightening the windows.
Atop Mt. Washington - Mount Washington Cog Railway, New Hampshire
Last month, my son and I headed up to the White Mountains for a couple of days to celebrate Father's Day (I had been traveling in June). It's funny, I have lived in New England for 24 years but hadn't ever been to Mount Washington before and I am not sure why. We were planning to take the Mt. Washington Cog Railway the next day but, on a whim, decided to drive up the famed Mt. Washington Auto Road. I have driven quite the few mountain roads, but I never had to pay $29 to do so. Turns out that the auto road and the cog railroad are privately owned, or at least a 66-foot wide strip of land from the base of the mountain to its summit is. They were granted ownership in the mid-1850's. For the $29, you get a cd that you can listen to on your drive, a bumper sticker that reads "This car climbed Mount Washington", and some terrific views of the White Mountains.
The road climbs 4,618 feet to the summit, which is 6,145 feet above sea level. The average grade is somewhere around 11%. It was a really nice day and, when we got to the top, we got to watch some of the cog trains climb to the summit. I was a little surprised that the train consists of one car that is pushed by a locomotive up the mountain. To descend, they go backwards down the mountain. When the first one let off the passengers, I quickly got a few shots before different passengers hopped on for the ride back down.
Jasper State of Mind - Jasper National Park, Alberta
The great thing about photos is that they can transport you back in time and allow you to re-experience the feelings that you had when you took them. A sort of time machine. This one took me back a couple of years. A short drive from my hotel and, as I saw my first view of Pyramid Mountain, I felt a sense of anticipation. When I reached Pyramid Lake, there was no one in the parking lot and I hoped that I would have the lake to myself (I did). As I worked the shoreline, there was fog across the lake and the mountain tops began to glow. The quietness and the beauty overcomes me and you realize that it is not the photo that is important but rather the chance to experience the wonder that Mother Nature has to offer. A sense of calmness is in the air and you are glad to be alive. Soon, the crowds of people will come and change the mood, but until then, enjoy the oneness with nature.
Shack View - Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
There have been thousands (okay, probably millions) of photographs of the magnificent scenery in Monument Valley. So many so that coming up with a new composition is hard to do. I still try to find something new and sometimes come up with one that I haven't seen before, like this one (that doesn't mean that it hasn't been shot before). We were just coming back from shooting the road shot that was made famous in the movie Forrest Gump. On the way back into the park, we spotted a road that leads to a series of shacks, and stands where the Navajo sell their goods to visitors to the park. Given that it was the first week in May and off-season, there wasn't anyone there. That gave us the run of the place and I wandered through each structure to see if I could use it to frame that amazing scenery. This was my favorite from the shots that I took there.
Garage View - Steptoe Butte Foothills, Colfax, Washington
Many photos have been posted of the Palouse that show its magnificent scenery of rolling rich farmland. The best ones are usually taken during the golden hours when the shadows and lights give the landscape a three dimensional look to them rather than the flat light of mid-day. The Palouse has become the new "must visit" location for photographers. Not into landscapes of farmland, no matter how beautiful? There are plenty of other subjects to shoot there, from farm equipment to barns to grain elevators to abandoned farmhouses. One of my favorite type of photos is shooting some of the abandoned houses. I think it comes from my fascination with Urbex photography (a genre of shooting abandoned buildings). But is an abandoned farmhouse considered Urbex or should it be called "Rurex"? In any case, I love shooting these abandoned places, as they always make me wonder what happened to cause their demise. This abandoned house is located somewhere in the foothills surrounding Steptoe Butte State Park. I wandered into the garage and saw this scene through the window and thought it made an interesting photo.
River Road View - Colorado River Scenic Byway, Moab, Utah
Nobody does road shots better than by buddy, Jeff Clow. In the past, I have called him the Jedi Master of this genre of photos and for good reason. Having shot with him many times, I know that I can always expect that he will pull over to the side of the road without any advance warning and get out of the car to line one up. When I first started shooting with him, I often thought that we would never get to our destination because he seemed to stop every half-mile to take a road shot. Over the years, I have grown more accepting and now find myself stopping for these shots when I am by myself. I have also found myself having discussions on the merits of straight roads vs. curved roads that lead into the scene. To say that Jeff has influenced my photography is an understatement. I don't know if I will ever outshoot him on these type of shots but I am sure willing to try.
Around the Bend - Yosemite National Park, California
A Photo Redo
Many of you who follow my photos (and thanks for that - it is much appreciated) are fellow photographers. As such, I am sure that many of you will often look back on the photos that you have shot and processed over the years and really cringe on how bad they look now. I know I do. I am not really talking about the actual photo itself (i.e. good light and good composition are a must) but rather how I processed them. It may be that my processing skills were not that good as they are now or that my style back when I processed them was still evolving. Regardless, at the time, I must have thought they were great because I actually posted them online. Looking at them with today's eyes, they are not very good at all.
When looking at some of these good photos with bad processing last week, i decided that I would start to redo the processing on them to bring them back to life. I came up with the idea of posting a "Redo" photo periodically showing the before and after. Hopefully, you will agree that the after is better than before. The first photo that I have re-processed is one I took from Sentinel Bridge overlooking the Merced River in 2010. I was in my HDR "stage" of processing (I think every photographer goes through this phase) and the end result was what I believe gives HDR a bad name. For the "Redo", I processed this with the tools I now use the most, Lightroom and OnOne Photo 10. I hope this convinces some of you to go back and salvage some of those photos that deserve a new look.
"The Before"
Blue Hour - East Mitten, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
By now, I am sure that you are tired of seeing photos of Banff, so this will be a Banff-free week for my posts. Instead of the towering Canadian Mountains, today we head to the desert of the Southwestern United States. When I think of classic desert scenes, I can't help but think about the genre of movies from yesteryear, the westerns. These were made famous by John Ford and John Wayne. It is said that John Ford made Monument Valley famous through one of his first westerns, The Searchers. It was the first of many collaborations between Ford and Wayne.
In any case, when you get up well before dawn and stand waiting for the sunrise that is sure to come, your mind may wander to the days when both men were getting ready for the day's shoot. Looking upon the sandstone monoliths, you wonder if they are in awe of them as much as you are, towering well above the flat dry landscape. As the blue hour comes near its end and the start of first light on the horizon begins, you snap back to reality to shoot this amazing scene.
Two Jack Splendor - Banff National Park, Alberta
We had two terrific mornings at Two Jack Lake just outside of the town of Banff. The sunrises were spectacular each morning with great clouds that were lit up in reds and oranges. On the first morning, the light show didn't last too long and we left shortly after the show ended. We had much better luck on the second morning, as the sunrise colors gave way to some extraordinary golden hour light. Several of us went around the lake to explore what was over there. This is what we found that was waiting for us. A great view of Mount Rundle bathed in golden light with a near perfect reflection in the still waters of Two Jack. If you look closely, you can see the tent of someone who camped out overnight on the opposite shore.
Morant's Curve - Banff National Park, Alberta
There are some photos of Banff where the subjects aren't mountains, lakes, rivers, glaciers or wildlife. This is one of them. Along the Bow River Parkway, there is a spot where the tracks are used by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was made famous by the Canadian Pacific photographer, Nicholas Morant. For 44 years, Morant traveled the rails throughout Canada shooting trains and company properties (sounds like a job I would have loved). There aren't any signs for this spot, but it is located on the parkway about five minutes from Lake Louise. I have been there many times, but was never lucky enough to see a train on the tracks. Yes, I could have gotten a train schedule, but with all of the great subjects to shoot in Banff, I never did. Lady luck was on our side last month and I were able to see and finally get a shot with a train traveling on the tracks.
Rolling Landscape - Colfax, Washington
Next month, I will be revisiting the Palouse and its amazing landscape. I have been there once before in early June when the rolling landscape was a carpet of green and absolutely fell in love with it. The area has become a mecca for landscape photographers in recent years. The Palouse covers approximately 4,000 square miles in eastern Washington, western Idaho and a small portion of northeastern Oregon, which is slightly smaller than my home state of Connecticut. It is tough to truly measure as there are no signs or boundaries. The best way to determine whether you are in the Palouse is to use your eyes. There is a unique look to the landscape.
That being said, I have seen photos of the Palouse during harvest time when the landscape has changed from green to harvest brown and I am excited that I might be able to see it during that time. Of course, predicting the time of the harvest is akin to timing a visit to see fall foliage. It always depends on many things, especially the weather that year. I will keep my fingers crossed.
Flowing Water - Rearguard Falls Provincial Park, British Columbia
After staying in Banff for a week, a few of us headed up to Jasper National Park to experience this lesser known, but equally impressive part of the Canadian Rockies. The town of Jasper is a quieter and less crowded town than Banff, three hours to the south. It provides a great launching spot to explore the national park and also head into British Columbia to experience some terrific Provincial Parks.
One of the spots that we visited in British Columbia was Rearguard Falls. This is only one of two waterfalls that can be found on the 854 miles long Fraser River. This particular part of the river is famous, as it is the spawning ground of one of nature's most impressive migrations, namely the Sockeye Salmon. I think everyone has seen photos of the salmon swimming upstream when millions of salmon start their journey in the Pacific Ocean. On this cold overcast June day, there wasn't any salmon to be seen (they appear in late summer) so I set up where I imagined that the salmon would be leaping out of the water and took several long exposure photos.
Herbert Beauty - Banff National Park, Alberta
A lot of photos have been posted from my recent trip to Banff of Herbert Lake. This little lake is mere steps off of the Icefields Parkway and, when the water is still, gives great reflection shots of the Canadian Rockies. The typical shot of Herbert Lake is looking straight westward, where you are able to capture more than eight peaks in the composition. It is a classic Canadian Rockies scene and one of my favorites.
I learned a long time ago that once you get "the" composition, start working the location for different subjects and compositions. I headed to the south end of the lake and looked northward to get this different look. Only two peaks in this photo, but Mother Nature still delivered a beautiful scene.
Sunwapta Falls - Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park, Alberta
Most of the stops along the Icefields Parkway are views of mountain lakes, the fabulous Canadian Rockies and glaciers. This is particularly true of the portion of the parkway in Banff National Park. As you travel north on this amazing 140-mile road and enter Jasper National Park, waterfalls become more prevalent. There are several small ones along the way, but the first sizable one is this one, Sunwapta Falls. The falls actually consists of two falls, one downstream away from the first one that is closer to the parkway. The falls gets its name from the Assiniboine Native Americans meaning "turbulent water". The Athabasca River is sourced by the Columbia Glacier and is at its most spectacular in the spring with the snow melt. The river passes over the falls on its way to the town of Jasper to the north.
Night Arch - Saint Mark's Square, Venice, Italy
What a great place Venice is. It has such a different feel to the city mainly because of its canals, history and architecture. Of all of the cities I have been to, I wouldn't mind getting lost there. Every alley way has something different, and I found myself just stopping and looking around in delight. Some of the architecture is simple, but much of the city's architecture is ornate, really ornate. It's architectural style, is the Gothic with Byzantine and Ottoman influences.
We were staying in St. Mark's Square with some of the most ornate architecture in Venice. As I wandered around one night, I saw the statutes on the top of St Mark's framed by this arch. The inclusion of the yellow glow from light fixture made a nice contrast to the blue-hour light.
Before the Tourists - Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta
Last week I posted a photo of Victoria Glacier from Lake Louise showing the glacier lit up in alpenglow light. I also talked about how the crowds at Lake Louise increase dramatically as the morning grows later. Fortunately, with sunrise happening at 5:15am, we still had a relatively crowd-free chance to roam around the lake taking photos. The lake is pretty accessible from all sides, which allows for lots of different compositions. While the light wasn't the golden glow of sunrise when I took this photo, it was still very nice. The lake was smooth as glass, allowing for great reflection shots (my favorite type of photo). For this composition, I wanted to have Victoria Glacier in it while capturing the reflection of Mount Aberdeen in the waters of Lake Louise.
Fog in the Valley - Lyndonville, Vermont
I know what you are thinking, "This isn't Banff". After two straight weeks, I am trying to ween myself off of posting Banff photos. I know it will be hard with all of the great locations that are there but I want to start adding some variety back into my photo stream. For those of you who love Banff, don't worry, as the withdrawal from my addiction from it will be a gradual one.
So how was I going to start changing it up? I decided to hop to a different season and a location much closer to where I live, fall in Vermont. This photo was shot about five years ago and pictures a classic autumn scene that is found throughout New England. The mountains are not nearly as big as the Rockies, but they add a nice layering to the landscape here. This photo was shot at sunrise and the fog added to the layering of the foliage and farmland.
Canoes - Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta
The trip to Banff last month was a resounding success. Based upon the photos I have seen from my friends, their favorite place by far was Moraine Lake and for good reason. Every time I am asked where my favorite location in Banff is, my answer seems to change, but not anymore. Moraine Lake treated us with some amazing conditions from snow, rain, clouds and sunshine. Seeing it in all of those conditions has locked it in as my favorite location. Sure there is tremendous competition from all of the surrounding mountains, mountain lakes, waterfalls and glaciers but any lake that is surrounded by ten peaks (known as the Valley of the Ten Peaks) is usually the winner.
There have been so many photos of the lake posted by my friends (the disadvantage of being the last one home), I am posting my first photo of the lake with its always present canoes. I have always loved their color with the mountain peaks in the background.
Light Display - Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta
We were blessed with some amazing light during our recent trip to Banff National Park. This was especially true of Two Jack Lake. Being only about ten minutes from our hotel, we visited there twice and were treated to beautiful light each time. This contrasts with my visit a couple of years ago when we visited the lake four times before getting decent light. As you can see, the light was amazing even though Mount Rundle was only partially lit (it never did get fully lit on this morning). Regardless, the clouds and the reflection more than made up for it. This is the reason you wake up at 3:30am for a June sunrise shoot.