More From Monument Valley Last Year
I was looking back over my photo library tonight and came across some unfinished imagery from a trip to Arizona’s Monument Valley last February with Steve Parker. All three images are 3-shot HDR images processed through either Photomatix Pro or HDR Efex Pro and/or Silver Efex Pro 2. And all three are from a guided tour into the Totem Pole site within Monument Valley.
(The image above exported from Lightroom into a Photoshop Droplet that calls a custom web poster action I drew up after following Moose Peterson’s excellent little tutorial here.)
Posted in General, HDR, Landscapes and tagged desert, landscape, Monument Valley, totem pole by greggl with no comments yet.
North Window Number 2
Another image of North Window, looking directly at Elephant Butte. Same day, same general spot as yesterday’s post and image, but this time more of the evergreen tree in the frame. Plus I present both the original color version along side a black and white version below.
North Window, Monument Valley
Below is an alternatively processed version of the same image above. I love the black and white version for its contrastiness and pop, whereas the color version above seems bland and lacking that special pop I normally like to see in my landscapes.
North Window, Monument Valley
What are your thoughts or preferences? Do you like the black and white version or do you still like the original color version? Why?
Posted in HDR, Landscapes, Shoots and tagged Arizona, desert, Monument Valley, national park, North Window, southwest, sunset by greggl with no comments yet.
North Window Number 1
This location in Monument Valley is called “North Window” where your view is looking northward between these two massive mesas (that’s Elephant Butte on the left) towards East Mitten and Stagecoach buttes off in the distance and Utah. Click here to view a map of the park.
Such monolithic mesas are very hard to capture on “film” and still show their massiveness. By framing the subjects a little bit, I hoped to bridge that shortcoming of film and show just how large these mesas are.
North Window - Monument Valley - 20120226 (104_5_6_shadows)
[Click to enlarge]
Monument Valley is symbolic with the American West. Numerous films have used Monument Valley as their ‘soundstage’ and many good articles have been written outlining the movies, directors (John Ford) and actors (John Wayne) that have made this national park so iconic over the years. A quick Google search brought me this article from the LA Times.
For this sunset outing, Steve and I hired David, a local Navajo Native American, who drove us around the park in the company Suburban. He took us to a few of his select spots ideal for sunset photography. And with his guidance, we were allowed to venture off the beaten path and onto protected (and sometimes sacred) grounds to see and photograph what most people don’t get to see in this park.
Turns out David was also the guide for the Indiana Jones film crew for the Egyptian desert scene where Harrison Ford is looking down into the “snake pit” (“I hate snakes! Why’d it have to be snakes?”) and showed Steve and I the backside of a huge mesa with a natural amphitheater including a natural arch at the top of the theater. David said that was the hole into the “snake pit” scene and the theater was used for the interior filming of that scene…. tourist trivia to excite the numnuts photographers? Dunno, but David was an excellent, very personable guide and we both appreciated his knowledge of the park and his guidance to help us get our sunset shots. Without David, we would have had to stay on the main loop road and not even been allowed to walk off the road into the brush to get unique shots like this. A guide service is highly recommended if you should venture into this National Park someday, they can get you access into restricted areas and they will teach you more about what you are seeing inside the park.
Ahehee (Thank you in Navajo)
Posted in HDR, Landscapes, Shoots and tagged B&W, black and white. HDR, desert, Monument Valley, Navajo, North Window, southwest, tribal area by greggl with 1 comment.