Fort Photo's photostream  

One of the things I try to focus on as a photographer is getting out to unique local landscapes and finding my own story. With a career like Galen Rowell had it's pretty hard to find something he didn't already hit out of the park.. but such subjects do exist! ;-)))

This location is a really interesting remote geological formation right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. With continually dynamic (and windy!) conditions, it's a good bet you can get fantastically energetic clouds like this with just about every visit to the hardly photographed Wyoming basin country.

There are those seminal images that folks like Galen and Ansel put out that now seem like a required rite of passage for a landscaper to dutifully repeat. And not to take anything away from these incredible places, but we have a lot of magical locations in all of our backyards just waiting to have a passionate photographer tell their story. I urge all of my friends to find those local places and help create a new generation of advocates for their appreciation and stewardship. Find your local haunt and tell its story!

Image Notes: Not a lot of post on this one, basically a single frame. One trick I used to help pop the clouds was to create a black and white version in SilverEfex and then blended that layer with soft light blend mode masked to pop the sky with just a bit of contrast and lumno adjustment on the foreground.

A classic early spring sky shows off how dynamic our skies get at times along the Front Range of Colorado.

Have a great weekend ahead all!

Shot Notes: 6-frame HDR processed in SNS-HDR.

Dome Rock State Wildlife Area provides a classic example of an exfoliation dome that formed on Pikes Peak Granite. This is the dome formation just to the west of Dome Rock and may be known officially as Point 9112. If anyone knows the official name for sure, I would be much obliged!

Every now and then the dream world and reality seem to collide in beautiful fashion, this day at Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon was just such an occasion. The misty sun-dappled atmosphere set quite the intense ethereal mood, yet another serendipitous moment to never be repeated. ;-)))

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

This petroglyph panel from the Formative Period (A.D. 1 to A.D. 1275) is found along the Potash-Lower Colorado River Scenic Byway just outside of Moab, UT. The anicent rock art extends along the base of this towering cliff for a good 125 feet in the darkened area you can see above, it truly is some of the most impressive petroglyphs I've ever seen.

Image Notes: 7-frame HDR. I do have some closeups of this rock art, I will hopefully get some of them posted somewhere down the line.