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 :)
3 comments:
Hey... You write
...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.
Well geeeeeze... If John Updike took that attitude he'd never write another story, nor would that New England ex-patriate have created characters from his native Reading, Pennsylvania which won him a Pulitzer. Steven King's Carrie would never have appeared without his twisting and turning recollections of long passed high school days about. Deny artists the mellowing of age upon their memories and well, bye-bye Mario Puzzo, John Singer Sargent, August Rodin, even Andy Warhol. Surely Piotr Tchaikovsky was not mulling about in the19th century battlefields when he wrote his great overture?
What? You are in the fast-food-art biz? You will deny us your memories of these dessert ideas as they mature now that you have the time to reflect upon them? AARGH! I expect that I shall enjoy new conclusions nourished from that trip for years... perhaps for the rest of your life as it melds and blends with the excitements of new moments. Travel is instructive. It is an element of growth. A man is the sum of his ideas and the wonder you've expressed from that time is important to share as it nestles into the perspective of time.
Moving on Michael, I hope will mean using that experience to somehow shape your growth, and the growth of those around you (including me). Yeah, obsession, fixation... those are bad things. But understanding comes from experience. And experience too often is what we get, right after we most need it.
Have a happy new year, and thanks for sharing with us, whenever you can fit the sharing in. We all prosper from your growth and the trenchant novelty of your interpretations both visually and in words.
Ted
I enjoy watching your work very much and love the images from the desert you have shared. I am just learning to see the beauty of the desert after living here for 8 years. California was such a different kind of place and it has taken me awhile. Images you share help me find that beauty. I wish you the brightest of everything as we enter 2008.... peace and happiness.
Oh, just post as you feel like it. That's OK. It's hard enough to keep up with Ted :))
I think I understand well how you feel about that trip. With me it's of course the opposite. What doesn't get done the day I shoot it, probably never gets done, so I sometimes think I should slow down (but never do). In the end it's all up to you. If you feel like working through the past like Ted does with his Italy trip, then it's OK, and if you feel like you want something new, then for God's sake go out, shoot it and show us the trophy :)
I'd probably go and try de-hazing #1 a bit, going for more "clarity". A simple saturation layer with +30 on master and -20 in the yellows, along with a tiny increase in contrast does it for me, but your mileage may vary.
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