Tag Archives: Valley of Fire
Looking Out in B&W
Not long ago I posted this photo from Valley of Fire State Park. I had climbed up to and crawled inside this little cave and took the photo looking back out. I really liked how it turned out in color – in fact, it was one of my favorite photos from that location. I have been playing around with Topaz’s B&W Effects lately and I decided to process this one as a black & white as well. I have to say that I really like the look and feel of this shot in black & white. I thought I’d offer you a comparison between the color and the b&w. Which do you like better?
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust & B&W Effects
The Hive
Today’s image is another from the Valley of Fire State Park. There were all kinds of these little mini caves throughout the park – it seems that there is a good deal of wind blowing through this area which helps to carve these stones. In any case, I couldn’t help but think of a movie with giant scorpions or ants or something pouring out of these holes when I was taking the picture. In fact, there have been a number of movies shot in this area including The Professionals, Total Recall, Domino, Star Trek Generations and Transformers.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5
Valley of Fire
Just a quick post for today. Here’s another shot from the Valley of Fire State Park. The clouds that morning were just incredible and I could have shot them all day. I took this one just after sunrise – I hope you enjoy it!
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust
The Narrows
My wife asked me yesterday while I was researching new canyons, “What is it with you and slot canyons? You’ve already been through a colorful one and a red one – what is there left to see?” The truth is that each slot canyon is unique. Each one has different rock formations, curves, colors, lines and shadows. Each canyon takes on it’s own spirit and personality and the idea of not knowing what is around the next curve is intoxicating.
I hope to be able to visit a couple more slot canyons this year, but for today, here is a shot of the narrow section from the Valley of Fire. This section was about four feet wide at it’s narrowest so there was plenty of room to walk through comfortably. Check out this photo from the Page slot canyon called Waterholes which was only about two feet wide at it’s narrowest.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust>
White Domes Slot
Thanks for all the nice comments yesterday. There’s just something about yesterday’s image from Caesar’s that I don’t like and haven’t been able to put my finger on it. A big thanks to Rick for his constructive feedback which has given me some great insight. I think I will process a couple more of my photos from the area and see how they turn out.
For today, we head back out to the Valley of Fire just outside Las Vegas, Nevada. This is an interesting little slot canyon that I found on the White Domes hiking trail. The whole trail is a mere 1.5 miles long and this section of narrows isn’t more than 300 feet long, but I still found it interesting. Because of the high, narrow walls of slot canyons like this, I find that it’s best to photograph them closer to midday rather than in the morning or late afternoon. It was about 11am when I started on this hike and the temperature had reached 104ยบ so I was pretty glad that the hike was short. I hope you enjoy this one!
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust
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