Garden of the Gods

hawkeye978 · July 8, 2009

A few shots from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

This is actually quite a place. This is actually a city park that was donated 100 years ago by a wealthy resident. The stipulation was that it had to be free to the public in perpetuity.

The area is full of sandstone uplifts that produce these beautiful opportunities throughout the park. I was chasing clouds for about 2 hours waiting for holes to open and flood the valley with light.

C&C always welcome. I processed these a little darker so I would appreciate comments.

#1 Yucca Blooms

#2

#3

#4

Thanks for looking...

Photog4Christ · July 8, 2009

Great shots!!!

I miss GOTG! I used to live down the road near GOTG/I-25. I want to go back!

patsy easley · July 8, 2009

These are beautiful! We just moved from Colorado Springs to Texas about six months ago. Garden of the Gods is one of the things I miss the most.

dlplumer · July 8, 2009

Wow, quite a place. Excellent captures. Looks like you decided to process these with quite a bit of contrast which is fine, but now I want to see one (just curious) with very little contrast just for comparison. I think #1 is my favorite. Good job here Tom

Dan

torags · July 8, 2009

Nice shots Tom. I agree with Dan,

a trifle too rich (but that's personal preference)

Still very nice - excellent comp, looks like a nice place.

Rags

thapamd · July 8, 2009

Great series, Tom! I really like #'s 2 and 3. The light on the rocks are heavenly!

Tango · July 8, 2009

I see you had success in your light quest! Wonderful images.

Photog4Christ · July 8, 2009

patsy easley wrote:

These are beautiful! We just moved from Colorado Springs to Texas about six months ago. Garden of the Gods is one of the things I miss the most.

Agree 100% (about missing GOTG the most!) That and .... well... pretty much EVERYTHING!!!

christinamae · July 8, 2009

Great series! I really love #2 & #3. It sure was worth the wait for the right light.

MT Stringer · July 8, 2009

Nice shots, Tom.
But...where are the kissing camels? Or the balanced rock?
We made a drive through last year on vacation. Naturally it was the middle of the day!
I'd like to go back and spend some time shooting the rocks.
Mike

hawkeye978 · July 8, 2009

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

For those looking for some other shots (camels kissing and rocks balancing) you can look here if interested.

Thanks again..

hawkeye978 · July 8, 2009

AaronNelson wrote:

I see you had success in your light quest! Wonderful images.

Thanks Aaron. My wife was beginning to wonder what exactly I was expecting. There was one cloud that wouldn't quite move enough to bring in the light but then finally did for a few minutes.

hawkeye978 · July 8, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

Wow, quite a place. Excellent captures. Looks like you decided to process these with quite a bit of contrast which is fine, but now I want to see one (just curious) with very little contrast just for comparison. I think #1 is my favorite. Good job here Tom

Dan

Thanks for the comments, Dan.

What I was trying to do throughout this trip was expose somewhat bright to get the dynamic range in the picture. I was also using a circular polarizer and a Grad ND. For a lot of my shots I did something Marc Muench suggested. I went into Photoshop, duplicated the background image, and applied it with a Multiply blending mode. Then dialed back the opacity and masked to taste.

I took the first and last image and reworked for lower contrast. That principally involved reducing the opacity in the Multiply layer. Here are the results. I'll let you judge.

#1

#4

I was trying to bring out the details in all the pictures by keeping them a little dark.

Thanks for looking..

jstpeter · July 9, 2009

your first is a great image with great DOP balancing the blooms in the forground and the rocks and sky in the back ground.

dseidman · July 9, 2009

All are beautiful images. Good work!

dlplumer · July 9, 2009

Well, I must say that I personally prefer the ones you re-did by a lot..

This photography stuff is so subjective, but that's my preference. Thanks for posting these. I'd be curious to hear what others think

Dan:D

thapamd · July 9, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

Well, I must say that I personally prefer the ones you re-did by a lot.. This photography stuff is so subjective, but that's my preference. Thanks for posting these. I'd be curious to hear what others think

Dan:D

I'm with you Dan. The reworked versions do look better on my monitor as well. Great job, Tom!

hawkeye978 · July 9, 2009

thapamd wrote:

I'm with you Dan. The reworked versions do look better on my monitor as well. Great job, Tom!

Thanks Dan and Mahesh for the comments. The first shot I could go either way on the post. The second one I'm still leaning towards the darker version.

I think I know the answer here but I'll ask. Are you both running calibrated monitors with color managed browsers? I know that Internet Explorer isn't color managed and some pictures can look really odd there even on a calibrated monitor. Firefox is managed, but has to be turned on. Dan, if I'm remembering properly I think you are running on a Mac which is managed.

Thanks for the comments. It's all very helpful.

dlplumer · July 9, 2009

hawkeye978 wrote:

Thanks Dan and Mahesh for the comments. The first shot I could go either way on the post. The second one I'm still leaning towards the darker version.

I think I know the answer here but I'll ask. Are you both running calibrated monitors with color managed browsers? I know that Internet Explorer isn't color managed and some pictures can look really odd there even on a calibrated monitor. Firefox is managed, but has to be turned on. Dan, if I'm remembering properly I think you are running on a Mac which is managed.

Thanks for the comments. It's all very helpful.

Calibrated Mac and Safari, sometimes Firefox.

hawkeye978 · July 10, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

Calibrated Mac and Safari, sometimes Firefox.

Thanks, Dan. Just what I thought.

The lighter second image is beginning to grow on me.

thapamd · July 10, 2009

hawkeye978 wrote:

Thanks Dan and Mahesh for the comments. The first shot I could go either way on the post. The second one I'm still leaning towards the darker version.

I think I know the answer here but I'll ask. Are you both running calibrated monitors with color managed browsers? I know that Internet Explorer isn't color managed and some pictures can look really odd there even on a calibrated monitor. Firefox is managed, but has to be turned on. Dan, if I'm remembering properly I think you are running on a Mac which is managed.

Thanks for the comments. It's all very helpful.

Me too...Mac with calibrated monitor and Safari browser.

dlplumer · July 10, 2009

thapamd wrote:

Me too...Mac with calibrated monitor and Safari browser.

Garden of the Gods

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