Picacho Peak

dlplumer · March 15, 2009

Picacho Peak is about a half hour drive nortwest of Tucson Arizona. I have driven passed it on my way to Phoenix scores of times and I always say that someday I will stop there to see the wildflowers. Today was the day, but there were no wildflowers. These were all taken with the 10-22.

Awais Yaqub · March 15, 2009

nice photos Dan !

bryanj87 · March 15, 2009

Nice shots, gotta love those cacti. I was there a few years ago with only a p&s.

All but the second seem to have a yellowish tint, was this intentional or is it just my eyes?

dlplumer · March 15, 2009

bryanj87 wrote:

Nice shots, gotta love those cacti. I was there a few years ago with only a p&s.

All but the second seem to have a yellowish tint, was this intentional or is it just my eyes?

Intentional Bryan. I've been experimenting with PP Tiffen filters to see what kind of aesthetic affects I can create.

Dan

jeffmeyers · March 15, 2009

Are those blue/gold Tiffen filters? I tried these kinds of filters and determined that I could achieve better, selective results with PS and post-processing software.

Nice series, Dan.

dlplumer · March 15, 2009

jeffmeyers wrote:

Are those blue/gold Tiffen filters? I tried these kinds of filters and determined that I could achieve better, selective results with PS and post-processing software.

Nice series, Dan.

I am using PP software Jeff (Tiffen DX) as an Aperture plugin. No actual on camera filters.

Azzaro · March 16, 2009

Nice set of pic.

Like you, I have passed it thousand times. Did you know that they fought a Civil War Battle there. They do a reenactment every year.

azzaro

dlplumer · March 16, 2009

Awais Yaqub wrote:

nice photos Dan !

Thanks Awais.

dlplumer · March 16, 2009

Azzaro wrote:

Nice set of pic. Like you, I have passed it thousand times. Did you know that they fought a Civil War Battle there. They do a reenactment every year.

azzaro

Thanks Azzaro. No I did not know that. Have you seen it?

canon400d · March 16, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

Thanks Azzaro. No I did not know that. Have you seen it?

Excellent shots Dan. Do you use the 10-22 when you are shooting landscapes. The reason I am asking, I was reading in this months Canon PhotoPlus magazine, and they recommend to use the 10-22 at all times on F22 when shooting landscapes. I only use mine occasionally so this is where I am possibly going wrong.
Regards
Bob

Onrey · March 17, 2009

Dan, this is amazing, thought I would never see this place again.
As a young child I lived on the backside of Picacho Peak for 5 years!
we used to hike all over that place. If my memory serves me right there is a natural spring at the top facing I-10 and yes they fought the one and only civil war battle in Az. The confederates had a wagon train with Gold and weapons, lore has it that the confederates hid the gold and weapons in caves on the mountain (None found), but people occasionaly find old pistols laying on the ground. The backside of the peak can be accessed from the Red Rock exit on I-10, travel towards the school and go past it about 4-5 miles, not sure now but there used to be a feed mill/cattle yard, take the right fork go several miles and road will turn to right and you will see the backside of Picacho Peak, follow that road several more miles and it will turn to the left, from there my memory fails me, sorry. BTW on the back side there are several OLD Turqoise mines (about 3/4 the way up) , old shafts and caves.

hawkeye978 · March 17, 2009

Dan,

I particularly like #3. My first impression when I saw it was that you were using a Blue/Yellow polarizer. I'm surprised your are doing this in PP. Nice set! I'll have to check out the Tiffen software.

anonymouscuban · March 17, 2009

Nice Dan! I really like the third shot.

dlplumer · March 17, 2009

Onrey wrote:

Dan, this is amazing, thought I would never see this place again.
As a young child I lived on the backside of Picacho Peak for 5 years!
we used to hike all over that place. If my memory serves me right there is a natural spring at the top facing I-10 and yes they fought the one and only civil war battle in Az. The confederates had a wagon train with Gold and weapons, lore has it that the confederates hid the gold and weapons in caves on the mountain (None found), but people occasionaly find old pistols laying on the ground. The backside of the peak can be accessed from the Red Rock exit on I-10, travel towards the school and go past it about 4-5 miles, not sure now but there used to be a feed mill/cattle yard, take the right fork go several miles and road will turn to right and you will see the backside of Picacho Peak, follow that road several more miles and it will turn to the left, from there my memory fails me, sorry. BTW on the back side there are several OLD Turqoise mines (about 3/4 the way up) , old shafts and caves.

Thanks Brad. This is very interesting. I had gone up there to see wildflowers. Aaron Newman tells me in a couple of weeks after a good rain they should be blooming. Now, I'll have to check out the back side and see if if I can find some gold or old guns (lol). Thanks for the interesting info.

dlplumer · March 17, 2009

canon400d wrote:

Excellent shots Dan. Do you use the 10-22 when you are shooting landscapes. The reason I am asking, I was reading in this months Canon PhotoPlus magazine, and they recommend to use the 10-22 at all times on F22 when shooting landscapes. I only use mine occasionally so this is where I am possibly going wrong.
Regards
Bob

These shots were taken with my 10-22 Bob at f/10 which seemed to give me a good dof. Should I have shot these at f/22?

wfeller · March 17, 2009

I really like the first of the bunch. For what it's worth, I keep my aperture cranked down as far as possible all the time out there. f/22, 27, 32, etc. as small as I can get.

dlplumer · March 18, 2009

hawkeye978 wrote:

Dan,

I particularly like #3. My first impression when I saw it was that you were using a Blue/Yellow polarizer. I'm surprised your are doing this in PP. Nice set! I'll have to check out the Tiffen software.

Thank you Tom. Yes, do check it out. I have found it to be of great value, and it contains so many cool options.:ivar

dseidman · March 19, 2009

Beautiful series! Saguaro cacti are very cool.
If I had any complaints about these photos over all, I'd have to say they seem a little flat. A bump in contrast could do them a lot of good. Also I'd prefer if the cactus arms weren't cut off in the first photo and if the color balance were a little more accurate in the third.
Anyway, these are just minor issues. Overall, I feel that these were very well done.

dlplumer · March 19, 2009

anonymouscuban wrote:

Nice Dan! I really like the third shot.

Thanks Cuban

dlplumer · March 20, 2009

wfeller wrote:

I really like the first of the bunch. For what it's worth, I keep my aperture cranked down as far as possible all the time out there. f/22, 27, 32, etc. as small as I can get.

Thanks Walter. Why such high Apertures? I have found that with a wide angle lens, F/11 or even f/8 gives me sufficient dof. What am I missing?

Picacho Peak

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