Earlier this year my family had the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. during the inauguration, so be prepared for several photos from that trip.
This is the roof of the metro station near the hotel we stayed at during our trip. I really liked the pattern and symmetry that was present in the ceiling. Of course I had to crop in a little tighter while removing some miscellaneous electronics in order to get a clear shot.
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At long last here is my final photo from my trip to Mojave National Preserve. The more I look at this shot the more I like it.
After finishing up on Cima Road I knew I wanted to return to this Joshua Tree Forest I had passed on the way in. I couldn’t have timed it any better. I pulled up, parked, and started shooting right before the sun dropped below the horizon. Had I been maybe ten minutes later this entire area would have been in dark shadow from the hills to the west, or right of this frame.
If you roll over the image and see the original you can see that my polarizer was working super hard to bring out the blue. I chose to go the HDR route for this and I’m glad I did. It enabled me to recover a lot of the warm tones in the image while smoothing out the cool sky.
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I’m continuing this week with another photo taken during my hike along the Pa’rus Trail in Zion National Park.
This is another perspective on the same road I shared last week. You can view the other version here. Of the two versions I think I like the previous version better. I like how the line of the road flows through the image a little better than this version.
Then again I do like putting the center line in the middle of the frame. It does a little turn to the left here to put you right at the base of the cliffs.
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This is the second of three photos taken during a trip to the Mojave National Preserve. For this particular photo I traveled north from Cima along Cima Road. I’d been watching the scene develop in my rear view while driving and only had to find a good spot to pull over. Once I’d found it I had free reign on this isolated stretch of highway. You can get a feel for how late it was getting looking at the long shadows.
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Nothing better than a play on a classic title. This shot was taken in, the now considered ghost town of, Cima, California just north of the intersection of Cima Road and Morning Star Mine Road. My daughter and I had originally planned a hike along the Rings Loop Trail, but cool windy weather stopped us. Instead I turned the hike into a car hike and the opportunity to take some pictures. On the way back to Vegas the sun was starting to get low on the horizon presenting a great opportunity. This is the first of three photos from that trip.
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This is another photo taken during my hike along the Pa’rus Trail in Zion National Park. The Pa’rus Trail is more a sidewalk than a trail. The entire length is either paved or concrete, but don’t let take away from its beauty.
Along the way you cross this service road. I love photographing roads. They can make the perfect leading line right into your photo and that is certainly the case here.
If you roll-over the photo you’ll see that I chose to edit out several signs and a bridge this road passes under off in the distance. If I didn’t know better I’d swear this road was some desolate highway without a soul around when in fact it is only a short walk away from the visitor center.
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