Dumont Dunes #3

Dumont Dunes #3

Still experimenting with leaving the off-road tracks in the images using them as graphic elements instead of  distracting lines....I used Viveza2 to enhance and sharpen the lines in this image before going over to ColorEFXPro2 for final adjustments. I tend to use a good deal of photoshop masking with both CFX and VV2 including using the brush option in the software. 

Coney Island

Coney Island 

“Fuck Art, let's Dance!”.....Lawrence Ferlingetti 

Red Church, Iceland

Red Church, Iceland

This image is from two years back on my first trip to Iceland. On this day it was off and on rain with a few moments of decent light when the rain would stop. This image, posted today, was made through the bus window during a particularly hard rain using my Canon 5DMKII. This was the first time I realized if you kept your lens wide open most of the moisture on the window would not be apparent in the final photograph. Point in fact it actually made the image appear soft and, and for lack of a better word, semi foggy....which I think actually made the image work.

There are times when I get into thinking images always need to be sharp and have a full dynamic range - I might need to get over that....

I was able to process this image in a way that worked for me using Photoshop CS6 Beta, NIK Color EFX Pro4 and Lightroom4.

Dumont Dunes

Dumont Dunes, Death Valley

'Artists are visionaries. We routinely practice a form of faith, seeing clearly and moving toward a creative goal that shimmers in the distance - often visible to us, but invisible to those around us'......Julia Cameron 


These dunes are new to me - first time there. I had heard about them so I sought them out last Sunday while cruising around the Death Valley area. It was love at first sight when I pulled up to these dunes - problem was they had been through a weekend of off-road vehicles chewing up the pristine sand. I decided to make a few images and see what I could do to turn the tracks into texture, which in the end I felt good about.

The areas in and around Las Vegas and Death Valley are ripe with imagery - well worth a trip if you are in the area...

Las Vegas,Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon, Panoramic 

Stopped off at Red Rock Canyon on the way back to Vegas on Sunday and caught some decent light. This post is a three image stitch using my Canon 5DMKII and photoshopCS5 (have not had the chance to play with 6 yet). 

Death Valley, U, We, Wash

U, We, Wash, tecopa, California

Last week, for the most part,  was spent in a hotel in Las Vegas. Being in Vegas for that long you lose touch with the outside world. Almost anything can be going on outside your 'climate and smell' controlled environment.

So yesterday I jumped in the car with a few cameras and headed out for the day to clear my head. The area just outside Las Vegas is really great for losing ones-self in a much more natural landscape so I headed out for Dumont Dunes. Little did I know that the dunes were located just outside of Death Valley. As many times as I have been to Death Valley I never traveled Route 127, and now that I have, it is on the list for another day of more extensive exploration.

The Dunes were really interesting but more suitable for a sunrise when there is less chance of tire tracks covering the sand from off road vehicles.  I did, however manage to make a few images that will be processed on another day.

Today's post was located near a trailer park just outside of Tecopa, California, a small town that is home of the Tecopa Hot Springs. Usually I content aware out the wires but for this image I thought they they needed to be left as is....some sort of a last connection to civilization. Actually sights like this are not uncommon in this area of California....a surprise around every turn..

Zabriske Point

Zabriske Point

'When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world'.........John Muir