The main advance that won me over is the improvement in dynamic range processing. For an image with a very wide range of tones, Lightroom 4 allows you to achieve near-HDR results just by using the new “highlights” and “shadows” adjustments, available in the new “2012″ process.

Compare the two images below, shot after sunset in the Superstition mountains last February. First, the image processed using the old “2010″ process, using the “highlight recovery” and “fill light” adjustments:

Note the washed out sky, halos around the transition areas, and low contrast in the shadows.

Now take a look at the 2012 process:

You can see that it handles the dynamic range much better. There is recovered detail and color in the bright areas of the sky and transition halos are almost gone.

I think what this means is that for an image without clipped highlights or shadows, we can achieve good results without jumping through all of the usual HDR hoops. I like it!

There are numerous hikes in the park, but we ended up driving to a new trail that the Ranger in the visitor center recommended. Like most national parks, Saguaro National Park seemed to have excellent, well-maintained trails.

I shot many saguaros on that hike but with the sun low in the sky, the backlit compositions were the most appealing. It would have been nice to have had some clouds to make the sky more visually interesting, but the empty blue sky does provide a counterpoint to the hectic foreground.

Our recent trip to visit my parents in Sun Lakes included several day trips to local wilderness areas and parks. Our short hike on the Peralta Trail in the Superstition Wilderness was a treat despite the large numbers of people competing for trail space. We arrived mid-afternoon hoping for some good “golden hour” shooting once we explored the area for a while. We didn’t have time to do the popular hike to see Weaver’s Needle, so instead we explored a couple of other trails in the area.

I thought for this first post about our trip I would highlight a landscape shot from that afternoon and how I “massaged” it into what I was envisioning for the image.

I used Adobe Camera Raw to process this image. After some minor color balance tweaks, I applied the Lens Profile Corrections for the lens I used, the Nikkor 16-35mm VR AF-S. I actually dialed back the “Distortion” setting a bit; I think in an image like this with no straight lines, a little barrel distortion isn’t a deal breaker.

Next I created a graduated filter over the sky area at top that decreased the exposure and boosted the contrast and saturation.

In order to edit the shaded foreground and remove a bit of the blue color cast, I used an adjustment brush and painted two masks: One covering the entire shaded area, and another for just the cholla and red rock in the foreground. Each adjustment brush has different settings to increase contrast, exposure and color balance.

I like the adjustment brush technique for images where the edit boundary is relatively well-defined yet there aren’t intricate, sharp details to worry about. I may give this image a shot using another HDR technique like tone mapping, but for now I think it works.

Inspired by Ian Plant, one of my goals was (and still is) to make some interesting images of backlit, ‘fuzzy’ cacti. This is my first attempt last year:

I hope to be posting new images soon from our 2012 trip, so check back in a week or two!

For the past several years, on our way back from visiting my parents in North Dakota, I’ve noticed a sign on I-29 for “Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge.” It turns out the refuge is only a few miles off the interstate, and because it’s only 2 hours from home, I knew it would be a good day trip.

In my research I came across extremeinstability.com, storm chaser and photographer Mike Hollingshead’s site. He has some incredible images of birds at Squaw Creek NWR, and this truly inspired me to contact him for more info and to make a trip to the refuge.

It took some convincing, but I talked Marly into getting up at 4:30 am on New Year’s eve to make the trek. We actually got there a bit early and it was completely dark.

We drove around the refuge loop and after a mile or two, the first faint light started to reveal the water. In the distance I thought I could see a dark cloud low to the horizon that was moving. I rolled down my window to listen, and sure enough, I could hear the cacophony in the distance.

We found a spot to park as close as we could get to the action and set up our gear. The biting wind was gusting around 40mph and made photography and videography a real challenge.

It’s a good thing we got there when we did, because it wasn’t long before the mass of geese, about a hundred yards from the road, started to leave the water. I quickly realized that I had made a tactical error in not bringing my video tripod for the camcorder. I really was torn between wanting to shoot both video and stills, and switching out the cameras on a single tripod wastes a lot of time. I won’t make that mistake again!

Here are several images I made from “the exodus:”

The uproar of the loud honking and your entire field of vision being filled with flying geese is unforgettable.

The action was over in about 40 – 60 minutes as the last of the birds made their way to nearby fields for breakfast.

Here is the short video I shot that morning. Best viewed in HD and full-screen – click the “HD” or “Vimeo” button:

After driving around the loop and exploring the rest of the refuge, we eventually noticed the clouds of geese returning to the water. Unfortunately they were all gathering in a spot that was fairly remote and we weren’t able to get close to them again. I did manage to get some video (which starts at around 3:04 in the video above) and some long-range stills. This one shows the birds streaming in and forming a “geese tornado:”

Now I can’t wait for the spring migration!

In addition to tennis, while there I wanted to do some desert landscape photography, so my mother and I drove down to the Sonoran Desert National Monument just south of Phoenix. Below is one of the first shots from that evening’s hike.

Because of the immense dynamic range of this scene, I opened the 16-bit raw file in Photoshop and used the HDR Toning command to reveal detail in the shadow areas. I also made numerous other minor adjustments, including removing some jet contrails with the Healing Brush tool.

Fortunately we were there on a weeknight so there weren’t other people around. My only real concern was inadvertently aggravating a scorpion or rattlesnake. That and finding ourselves a mile away from the vehicle when night fell. Hiking back to the car in the dark desert didn’t sound too wise.

More to come!

It’s hard to go to Florida and not see numerous Great Egrets, and this trip was no exception.

While walking across a footbridge I happened to spot this Black-crowned Night-Heron through the branches. I never got a clear shot but wanted to capture him any way just for identification.

Later on the walk we were thrilled to see a large Osprey perched on a dead tree. Unfortunately it was too far away for a decent shot, but we enjoyed seeing it just the same.

This Little Blue Heron was chowing down on some breakfast and seemed unfazed by our presence.

I was hoping Marly would get to glimpse an alligator while we were there, so this was a welcome sight:

Florida is depressingly over-developed, but the wildlife is still abundant and easy to find. I’m looking forward to our next trip which will hopefully be more photography-centric!

]]> http://shawnbeelman.com/2011/11/a-short-trip-to-florida/feed/ 0 http://shawnbeelman.com/2011/11/back-to-the-beach-part-two/ http://shawnbeelman.com/2011/11/back-to-the-beach-part-two/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:35:26 +0000 shawnb http://www.shawnbeelman.com/?p=234 The morning after my South Carolina Photography Workshop, I hopped in the rental car at 6:00 am and drove back to Hunting Island Beach to do some more shooting on my own. I had slept a bit too long and was afraid I was going to arrive late for the good pre-dawn light, but it was a moot concern; a thick fog had moved in overnight and was blanketing the island with a dull, even light.

Shooting the sky was no longer an option so I turned my gaze downward to the trees that littered the beach. I found an interesting grouping of stumps, attached my polarizing filter (to enable longer shutter speeds), and set my tripod into the wet sand.

I spent the morning walking up and down the beach looking for interesting subjects.

It really was a surreal landscape.

That wraps up my series of posts about the SC workshop. Hope you enjoyed it!

After visiting a couple of less fruitful locations, we returned to the other end of Hunting Island Beach for a late-afternoon shoot. The low-angle sunlight provided interesting shadows cast on the sand. The only problem with shooting this time of day and in this way is getting your own shadow out of the frame!

I converted the captures below to black and white to accentuate texture. What prompts you to convert a shot to black and white? Leave me a comment!

The chapel was partially destroyed in 1886 by a forest fire so only the tabby and brick walls remain.

Because of the wide dynamic range of  mid-morning light, I processed these images in Photoshop with the Photomatix Tone Mapping plugin. I corrected geometric distortion Adobe Camera Raw.