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Best of the Week: Textures

My new eCourse, The Compelling Photograph, is running along smoothly and I am having a blast seeing everyone’s images and chatting about photography techniques.

But, since this is an email course, the students had no way of seeing each other’s photos.

Until now.

Welcome to the “Best of the Week” series where I will be posting the best images from the class on each of the weekly lessons. Now students can be inspired by each other’s images and you can too!

These photos are from the first lesson on textures. You can hover over an image to view the name of the photographer or click an image to view and scroll through larger versions.

By the way, the image order is random, so if you reload this page they will come up in a different order.

Enjoy! And feel free to leave your comments below.

May 23, 2013 | Categories: Best of the Week | Tags: best of the week, student photos | Leave A Comment »

Topaz Clarity Adds the Right Amount of Punch

When your images come out of your camera in RAW format, they tend to be a bit dull and grey. That’s because they haven’t been processed yet.

The image is waiting for you, the artist, to define how much colour and contrast you want among many other things.

One of the adjustments you can make in RAW is “clarity” which defines the edges of things and adds some punch to your photo. Adding a little clarity can bring definition into the clouds and provide some separation between the highlights and shadows.

But it can be so easy to overdo it! Before you know it you have halos and artifacts and an un-natural looking image.

Now there is a solution from Topaz Labs, the makers of some of my favourite photoshop plugins such as Topaz Adjust and Topaz B&W Effects.

Last week I was given a copy of their new product Topaz Clarity to try out. Here’s how my trial went.

I decided to work with this image I made of some ruins in a ghost town in Texas. I chose it because there are details in the mid-tone range that need to be brought out as well as some clouds that could use definition. This is how the image looks in Lightroom with only a white balance adjustment and slight sharpening in the building.

original

You are probably wondering what this would this look like if I just added some clarity using the slider in Lightroom. Here is the answer.

original_lrclarity

In my opinion, this has too much of an effect on the building and not enough in the sky. I could use the adjustment brush and make multiple adjustments to different parts of the image in Lightroom, but that’s a bit finicky and I still didn’t get results I liked.

Here is the result I got using Topaz Clarity.

original_topazclarity

All I had to do was simply choose one of their 100 presets and click “OK.” It’s as simple as that.

I really like how natural the image looks. The one I processed a year ago is way over the top compared to this one! There are no halos, no black clouds, and it doesn’t have that gritty look you can sometimes get by adding clarity.

Here is a look at the interface, which will look very familiar to you if you have used any of the other Topaz Labs plugins.

topazclarity

You have the presets panel on the left which is divided into collections. Choose a collection and then choose on of the presets below.

On the right is the preview window and the settings panel which allows you to fine-tune any of the clarity adjustments. You can see that instead of one clarity slider like you get in Lightroom, there are four clarity sliders which means you can target the contrast adjustment for particular tonal ranges in the image.

In the settings panel you can also apply a mask to define areas of the image that you do not want to be affected at all, and you can adjust the hue, saturation and luminosity of various colours.

Pros:

The plugin is very easy to use with a friendly user interface.
The result is natural looking with no halos or artifacts.
There are 100 different presets to choose from and you can make manual adjustments.
It can be used as a stand alone package or as a plugin with Photoshop. I use mine as a plugin with Photoshop Elements.

Cons:

The only con I can think of is that if you don’t already use Topaz products, it might be hard to choose which one to go with. I love Topaz Adjust, it is a fantastic plugin with tons of presets, some of which affect clarity and some do a wide variety of other things. It is fun to use, I use it frequently, and the result is very dramatic. Topaz Clarity adds definition and punch to an image while still keeping it natural looking. So it all depends on what you are after.

Topaz Clarity retails for $49.99, but it is now available at a special reduced price of $29.99 through May 31st using the promo code “claritynew“. You can also download a free trial and try it out for yourself first.

Find out more about Topaz Clarity and pick up your copy here.

May 22, 2013 | Categories: Reviews | Tags: product, review, topaz clarity | 2 Comments »

Mesquite Sand Dunes

Our last stop on our winter snowbird season in Southwest USA was at the Mesquite Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park.

After visiting Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah, White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, and Imperial Sand Dunes in California, I knew I was in for a tough trek on earth that moves underfoot with each step.

Please click the images to view larger versions.

Footprints were everywhere as we started out. I softened the image above in post-processing to minimize the trampled look of all the footprints and give it a dreamy effect.

Ray and I were both glad we went after we considered giving it a miss earlier in the day because it had been extremely hazy for a few days and there were no good sunsets since we got there. But I knew it was my last chance, my last real photo shoot of the season before we started to head home.

We were treated to a glorious sunset. I would have been so mad at myself if I didn’t go! The only thing I could have asked for was a dune with little or no footprints, but that was not going to happen in this very popular national park unless I hiked a lot further and was willing to hike all the way back in the dark.

The image above is a high dynamic range image made by combining three exposures in post-processing.

Next time I’ll try to wait until a wind storm passes through erasing all the footprints and wiping the slate clean.

This is Ray walking along the crest of a dune with the mountains in the background.

May 21, 2013 | Categories: California, Death Valley National Park | Tags: california, death valley national park, mesquite, national park, sand dune | 2 Comments »

Devil’s Cornfield, Death Valley National Park

One thing I was not expecting to see in Death Valley was a photogenic weed patch!

Just like Devils Golf Course, where only the Devil could play golf, here at Devil’s Cornfield, only the Devil could eat this corn! It’s not corn at all — it’s arrowweed.

I made this image in the early evening just as the light began to soften, but while there was still plenty of light illuminating the mountains and making the stacks of arrowweed appear golden. I was heading to the sand dunes for sunset, so I didn’t spend much time here. I just pulled off to the side of the road for a few quick shots.

From ground level, all the arrowweed shrubs blended together, but I discovered that by standing on top of the box in the bed of the truck I could get an elevated perspective and create some separation between the shrubs.

Please click the image to view a larger version.

May 14, 2013 | Categories: California, Death Valley National Park | Tags: california, death valley national park, devil's cornfield, national park | 9 Comments »

Artist Drive, Death Valley National Park

Hazy days made for difficult photography at Death Valley National Park when I first arrived. The air was dense and the clouds and haze obscured most of the grand views.

The haze tended to lift around sunset and I got a few good shots at Devils Golf Course and Badwater Basin, but the days were pretty much a write off except for scouting locations.

On the fourth day I was in luck! The haze finally lifted and there was just enough cloud in the sky to make a photographer happy.

Sometimes waiting for the right light can take days!

I used this opportunity to photograph some of the vivid colours along Artist Drive, a scenic one way loop road with many sharp curves and deep dips.

Please click the images to view larger versions.

The entrance to Artist Drive has countless multicoloured rocks that make a striking foreground.

Then you start going up in elevation to a picturesque lookout.

From here you can also look back on Badwater Basin. In the photo below, you can see some of the haze still in the distance.

Then came my favourite section of Artist Drive known as Artist’s Palette where the rocks display many of the same colours I saw at the Valley of Fire but the terrain was more rugged.

I made all of these images handheld. The heat makes me lazy and I was going out with one lens and no tripod, but when there is lots of light and you have a versatile lens like the 24-105L those are corners you can easily cut.

May 09, 2013 | Categories: California, Death Valley National Park | Tags: artist drive, california, death valley national park, national park | 9 Comments »

Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park

So I’m thinking about getting one of those little mirrorless cameras with the interchangeable lenses like a Sony NEX7 or a Fuji X20. One of those would be perfect for a day like the day I made the photos in this post.

I was already feeling sluggish and had a headache coming on and it was super hot — 90 degrees in March! I remember that I went out for the very short walk at Badwater Basin with only one lens and I didn’t even bring my tripod. My camera felt like it weighed a ton!

I’m surprised these images turned out as good as they did actually!

Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park got its name from a surveyor who was mapping the area and could not get his mule to drink from the small pool of water. He said it must be bad water and the name stuck.

Please click the images to view larger versions.

I have seen images from this location where the salt flats were exceptionally white. I did a little research on this and discovered that it changes every year and some years it looks muddier than others. I guess this was a muddy year because the tops of the salt formations were not white at all.

Death Valley was not created by erosion but by earthquakes. Movements in the earth’s crust dropped the valley’s lowest point, Badwater Basin, to 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.

Unlike Devils Golf Course, not too far away, Badwater Basin floods occasionally but never enough for the water to overflow and seek out the sea (that would be an awful lot of water). The water just flattens out the basin and evaporates leaving the salts behind.

Because of the popularity of this section of the park, there is a strip of salt that has been pounded down by years of people treading on the surface to create what resembles ice.

There was only a very small pool of water and no, I didn’t drink it!

I think having one of those light mirrorless camera might be just the ticket on days like this or when I want to go on a longer hike without having to carry all my equipment.

So I’m curious, have you ever tried one? What do you think about the quality compared to a DSLR?

May 07, 2013 | Categories: California, Death Valley National Park | Tags: badwater basin, death valley national park, national park | 14 Comments »

Devils Golf Course, Death Valley National Park

I visited Death Valley National Park in mid-March and the temperatures exceeded 90 degrees! At 282 feet below sea level, it has the lowest elevation in North America and is the hottest and driest US National Park.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to visit this place in summer when the temperatures reach 120 degrees! No wonder it’s called Death Valley.

At first it seemed like there was nothing here but dirt, salt, sand and lots of heat. But as I started exploring the different sections of the park I realized how diverse it really is. I can’t think of another place that has dry lake beds, sand dunes, and colourful rock formations all in close proximity.

There is a flat salt bed that covers a large section of the park, created when the lake that was once here evaporated and left behind mineral deposits that eventually became a coating of lumpy salt. Occasional rainfall smoothes out the salt into a flat bed.

But the section known as Devils Golf Course rarely receives any rainfall and so the salt crystals continue to grow and form pinnacles that are now about 3 feet deep.

Please click the images to view larger versions.

You can even hear it happening. While I was making these images I could hear the popping and cracking of salt crystals bursting apart as they expand and contract.

It was named Devils Golf Course after a 1930′s guidebook that said only the Devil could play golf on its surface. Since it’s named “Devils” and not “Devil’s” I guess they are expecting more than one player!

I made these images by using a wide-angle lens and positioning my camera close to the ground to highlight the impossibly difficult terrain. It can be incredibly bright here during the afternoon, so I waited until the sun was setting behind the nearby mountains so there was softer light.

May 02, 2013 | Categories: California, Death Valley National Park | Tags: california, death valley, devils golf course, national park | 22 Comments »

This Landscape is a Melting Strawberry Sundae

Sometimes it’s hard to find just the right words to describe a landscape so when a friend of mine described a place as a “melting strawberry sundae” I knew I had to see it for myself.

It was in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Ray and I planned on doing a two hour evening hike (after a day of hiking) and our friends decided to stay a little closer to the parking lot and explore nearby. We all agreed to meet back at the car after sunset.

The shots I made that evening were disappointing due to a number of factors, not the least of which was some unfriendly photographers who rudely left their bags and tripods all over the place so as not to share the spot. (But that’s okay, I had no problem returning another time when the light was better anyway, so there.)

What I did get out of that evening was two locations to return to: one was the place I just visited and the other was the melting strawberry sundae.

Please click any of the images to view larger versions.

Never have I been to a place with colours like these. I spent hours here photographing the textures, lines, colours and patterns in the rock. Here are a few of my favourites.

I can’t wait to return here on our next trip down south to do some more exploring in the Valley of Fire and the rest of Nevada.

On another note, my eCourse “The Compelling Photograph” starts in two days and I’m so excited about it! Unfortunately there’s no more room! I was very surprised that it sold out in nine days. But, if you want to be the first to be informed when registration opens for the next course, you can hop on the waiting list here. Just look for the box with the red dashes around it and enter your email address there.

Apr 30, 2013 | Categories: Nevada | Tags: nevada, valley of fire | 10 Comments »

A Reason to Live and the Freedom to Fly (our first snowbird season)

Just before we left for our first snowbird season in the American southwest I was interviewed on a radio show called “Breaking Free” which is all about people who have broken free from the traditional world, from society’s expectations, and have sought out a new life on their own terms.

When I listened to some previous recordings of the show I was struck by how everyone’s story was different yet the goal was the same: to create change in order to live a better life.

My goal involved a quest to become a happier person and finding that happiness by changing my career and lifestyle. A quick recap for my new readers: I closed my software consulting business, sold my house where I lived for 15 years, sold almost all of my stuff, bought an RV and set out to live the life I always dreamed of – travel photographer.

No one paid me to be a travel photographer. I just bought an RV and spent some of my savings so that I could go and experience the life I wanted by driving all around North America for a year photographing beautiful places. Luckily for me my husband, Ray, also wanted to travel North America, but we both thought it was something we would do when we retired. You can read the whole story about how I changed my life here if you’re interested.

If I learned one thing through our journey it is this: don’t live for someday.

I can’t tell you how very much it means to me to think that my story can inspire others. Not only was I contacted by the radio show, but I receive emails every week from readers who use the word inspiring. One reader even wrote to tell me that my journey inspired him and his disabled wife to change their lifestyle so they could lead more fulfilling lives. She is housebound, but now their house goes with them. He said that now they had a reason to live. Seriously, he actually said “reason to live.”

I almost cried when I read those words.

It’s astonishing to me that it wasn’t all that long ago that I was searching for my own reason to live. I truly had no idea that it was in me to inspire someone else’s reason to live.

After the first few months of our initial year-long journey, Ray and I knew that we loved being nomads and didn’t want to go back to our old lives. We decided to become snowbirds. We were only home in BC for four months before our first snowbird season would begin. (Actually, because we are from Vancouver Island, we like to call ourselves rain birds!)

The first year we traveled our focus was on experiencing the life, making beautiful images, and sharing them with the world. For our first snowbird season, the goal had to change because now we needed to make our lifestyle sustainable. We needed to start some “location independent” businesses if we wanted to continue being nomads.

Things were a bit different this time as we both spent many hours writing and less time traveling. We stayed in places for longer periods of time and didn’t go nearly as far. Here’s how our travel map looks for our first snowbird season.

Map of Our First Snowbird Season

We focused on the part of North America that we missed on our first trip, southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Please click the images to view larger versions.

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

The Valley of Fire, Nevada

And, oh yeah, we went to Mexico and got all our teeth fixed!! I know, it sounds like a risky thing to do but we met so many people in the RV parks along the way who had done just that and told us that their dental work was excellent, it was clean, and cheap. I had 8 crowns for $1280! The dentist was the best dentist I have ever been to. All the work was done in about 6 days. It could have been quicker, but Ray had some complications with his dental work and had to have oral surgery, which went smoothly and quickly.

All in all we couldn’t be happier with our new lives. My eBooks have been very successful and now I’m just about to start my first eCourse. Ray started a new website called “Love Your RV” all about RVing (it’s at http://loveyourrv.com if you’re interested in checking it out) and he’ll have some eBooks soon too. We are just getting to the point where our businesses are paying the bills.

But the most important part is that we discovered the freedom of the snowbird. We spend our time doing things that we love and anytime we are ready we have the freedom to fly.

Apr 23, 2013 | Categories: I am changing my life | Tags: nomad, snowbird | 17 Comments »

Little Finland, Nevada

During my stay in Moapa, Nevada, I was doing some research on the local area when I came across a map to a spot known as “Little Finland.”

My friend, Don Davis, whose RV park we were staying at, said he had heard of it but had never been there himself. It was a great adventure just waiting for us!

It took an hour to drive to the beginning of the un-maintained road and then the map showed another 15 miles to get to Little Finland. We figured we would arrive an hour before sunset.

It’s a good thing we were in Don’s four wheel drive truck or we never would have made it to the end of that bumpy road at all! It took us well over an hour to travel those 15 miles and by the time we got there we had missed sunset all together, but at least we found a cool spot to bookmark for a future trip.

Ray, agile as his is, quickly scrambled up the steep rocks. I tried, but with my back already sore from the bumpy drive, I couldn’t make it even with Ray’s help, so I told him to go ahead and I would try to find another way.

There was a muddy river so I decided to walk along the path beside the river to see if it led anywhere. The rocks got less and less steep and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw this off in the distance:

Please click the images to view larger versions.

It immediately reminded me of the Inuksuk, a navigational marker used by the Inuit which we often see back home in BC. They mark a place of interest like a good fishing spot or a trailhead. While this isn’t an Inuksuk, when I saw it I immediately thought “this is the way.” And sure enough from the spot on the river to the balancing rocks was the easiest way to get up to the higher rocks, and once I got to it I could see the beautiful rock formations beyond it.

By this time there was very little light left in the sky and I only had time to photograph my navigational marker and take a few more shots before I had to head back.