Category Archives: Valley of Fire
Pastels
I was planning to pick a friend up at the Las Vegas airport last weekend so I decided to go early and spend the morning shooting at the Valley of Fire. This is the second time I’ve been there and both times I’ve only been able to shoot at sunrise. I feel like this park is actually pretty underrated. The park is full of small sandstone caves and there are some very interesting sandstone formations with beautiful pastel colors if you’re willing to venture off of the beaten track.
I found this particular wash using Google Earth which I find to be an excellent tool for planning photo excursions. It really allows me to pin point an area that looks interesting so I can explore it more fully. I got several nice shots from this wash, this is one of my favorites.
Vanilla Sky
One more shot of the epic morning clouds from the Valley of Fire State Park. Is it me, or does the rock in the foreground look a little bit like Jabba the Hut?
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Detail
Where The Troll Lives
Today I thought I’d take a little break from the Watson Lake images. Don’t worry, I have many more images which I will be posting in the near future as well. Today’s image is from The Valley of Fire State Park. I found this rock formation particularly interesting. I can picture the cave on the left being the den of some large troll and the little holes on the right belonging to a swarm of smaller insect light creatures. Use your imagination – what does it remind you of?
This is another shot I took not long after sunrise. As many of the photographers that read my blog will know, the light around sunrise and sunset is really the best for outdoor photography. This particularly holds true for landscape shots with one addition – it’s important to have interesting clouds as well. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the light or how interesting the landcape is – without clouds or some kind of interesting backdrop, the images are just going to look rather boring. One suggestion I have if you find yourself faced with a clear blue sky is to do your best to include some element of red/orange in your image. The contrast between extreme warm and cool can often yield some interesting results.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Detail
A New Day Dawns
It was strange waking up in Las Vegas at an hour when I’m usually stumbling back to the room. When I got out to the Valley of Fire Park, I was the only one there and I drove around in the dark until I found an area that had a decent view of the sunrise. That feeling of peace and tranquility you get around dawn when you know no one else is around is incredible and worth that burning feeling you have when that alarm clock goes off at 3:30.
As you might have noticed, I have been playing around with different crops in my images lately. I used a 2:1 crop on this one and I think I rather like it. What do you think?
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust
Ram It!
During my visit to the Valley of Fire State Park, I turned the corner of a winding road only to find a ram calmly walking down the middle of the road. I quickly switched to my 28-300, got as close as I dared in the car and pulled over to take a few shots. Unfortunately, Mr. Ram was not in the mood to turn around. He seemed quite unafraid of the car however and with the roads completely empty at 6am, I decided to pass him at which point I was able to get a few shots. Not long after he decided to stop and have a bit of a snack and I was able to approach closer.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 28-300
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5
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