Moving On

First off I would like to apologize for being so unpredictable when it comes to blogging, but I'm lazy about some things (most things?) and blogging happens to be one of them. That being said, though, doesn't make it ok.

When I started this blog a year ago it was never my intention to post in a scheduled way, but then I never figured anyone would be reading it either! And now that some folks do, I feel the need to adhere to some sort of regular schedule. If not for myself, then to at least keep my faithful readers from wasting precious time by checking to see if mcmurma has done anything lately. Heck, if I can get to work on-time 99% percent of the time, then surely I can post in a regular fashion!

So what kind of time frame should I work on? Once a day is out of the question, I would never make it. Even though I greatly admire those who do. So I have decided to shoot for once a week--every Monday. It's more or less what I have been wanting to do, even though I have missed the mark more often than not.

Anyway, enough reflection, self-loathing, and what not... on to the last of the Utah images.

Now, about these Utah images. Frankly, I'm glad to be done with them. It was a great experience, to be sure, but it happened almost 6 months ago and it's time to be moving on.

This first image is of the Colorado river, shot a hour or so before sunset at Dead Horse Point. It's not the classic gooseneck shot (which was already in deep shade) but a view more to the east, towards Colorado.

The second is one was taken just minutes before sunset from a viewpoint along the scenic Islands in the Sky drive. Both parks are within a few minutes drive of one another, and Islands offered a much better all around view so we raced over there after taking in Dead Horse Point.

I still have an image or two I'd like to share from our visit to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado, but for Utah, this is it. I reserve the right scare up the odd Utah image on some rainy day, but for now, I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas, and are looking forward to a Happy New Year!

Addendum: Ok, so I am slow. I just tried Advman's idea of saturation and clarity increase and I must say the results are much better than what I initially came up with. I had already increased saturation a little, and also done a clarifying, so I was skeptical that even more could still look so natural. Well, I was wrong. I really like the results. Compare for yourself... as if there is any real comparison.

Thanks Andreas. I was willing to leave well enough alone until I tried it. Now I'm glad I did :)

Arches Part Two

As our afternoon at Arches wore on it became increasingly evident that we were going to get some rain, the only question was how much? The wind was blowing fiercely as we scrambled through the park to take in as many locations as we could before the storms hit. In fact, I can't even recall exactly where we were when I took some of these images.

I believe the first image was taken near the Cove of Caves area, but I couldn't swear to it. I took dozens of shots of this scene trying to get one where the wind wasn't moving the brush too badly, but it was impossible. This was one of the few images where the wind effects weren't too bad. (In my previous post Ted noted that one of the images was over-sharpened. Can't argue with that, it was. I hope this is not as bad, but I suspect it may be a bit oversharp as well.)

The next shot was one that I was seeing in black and white even as I took it. There was so little color present in the original that using monochrome wasn't much a stretch. Besides, there was a parking lot in the foreground and I couldn't see any good way to blend it into this scene:)

The last shot is one of Balanced Rock. There was very little light actually on the rocks, so it made sense to treat them in silhouette. Also, the color is a bit fanciful. (As if you couldn't tell!)

The next stop will be a few shots from the Islands in the Sky area of Canyonlands. It's a wonderful drive that gave us an opportunity to look down upon the White Rim Road that we had taken earlier in the week.