Anza Borrego Skies

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Last one in this late afternoon Anza Borrego sky series. This is the one where I was lying on my back to take the shot, getting a cactus spine in my backside.

I tend to take series of photos in one place more often now when travelling with our son. We don't get to stop a lot to take photos, so when we do stop we will have a high concentration of photos in one area. That, and this scene warranted several photos and I have a hard time culling them.

For GIMP/Photoshop users and those interested (I used GIMP): A scree duplicate layer was applied on top of the bottom half of the image (gradient masked out of the sky) to brighten the foreground and then a white to black (bottom to top) overlay layer was also added. That gave more contrast to the sky and further brightened the foreground. Sort of my standard edit for shots like this where the sky overpowers the foreground. Some call it DRI, but that can also involve multiple exposures. This was just one exposure. I try not to overdo it, eg. the layers aren't applied at 100%. The fill-in flash did help a lot with this one.

Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as favorited (also my most interesting).

peejaybird, Mark Grealish, feintnate, Qbic, and 300 other people added this photo to their favorites.

View 20 more comments

  1. FotosOArte [deleted] 60 months ago | reply

    You are invited to display your Great Shot !!
    Please add "GreatShot" tag



    ***** GreatShot *****

  2. -Midnight Sun 59 months ago | reply

    Absolutely stunning.

  3. my way to take pictures 59 months ago | reply

    WOW! very nice shot and great sky!

  4. Enchanter of Camelot 58 months ago | reply


    Please add your photo to our group, Impressions
    & Expressions
    and feel free to join us unless you’ve already
    done so.

    Remember to tag your photos “Impressions&Expressions”

  5. rashid2005 58 months ago | reply

    a very high definition photo i like to download it and put as dekstop background on my pc

  6. luceey 57 months ago | reply

    wow! this is so perfect!

  7. Misuqui 56 months ago | reply

    Beautiful!!

  8. 0millencolin0 55 months ago | reply

    love the clouds !

  9. Mr.Dojo 53 months ago | reply

    Nice shot man!!

  10. Pat's Pics36 51 months ago | reply

    Beautiful perspective and the sky is spectacular!

  11. Tafzeel 47 months ago | reply

    Nice sky!
    seen in my contacts

  12. Young photo girl 42 months ago | reply

    Wow that awesom!

  13. Katja & Hanspeter Staeblein 41 months ago | reply

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Pro Natura and landscape, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  14. Vlad_Iftimescu 40 months ago | reply

    I would freaking love this as a wallpaper..NICE!

  15. M. Dolly 25 months ago | reply

    Inspiring shot, I like the chuparosa in bloom there.

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