Arches National Park – Stuck in Customs
19
Aug 2018 : Sunday
filed under  Arches National Park, Utah

The Phallic Rock + Edit

New Video today on Passport Sunday!

Today for Passport Members, you’ll get to see my decision process for choosing the composition of today’s photo as well as the edit. I still have so many “old” photos from Utah to edit, and I kind of randomly pulled this one off the pile.

Editing this photo from Utah

In this video, I’m with Harriett again as I go through about 20 photos I took of this rock to pick my favorite composition. You can see how I am sometimes indecisive on the scene, but then later when I get back in LR, I take my time and go through the options. After I choose my favorite one, I do some simple edits in Aurora HDR.

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Daily Photo – The Phallic Rock and Edit

This is some Wile E. Coyote kinda rocks going on here, eh? I’m still amazed that formations like this can exist. You know it gets so windy and stormy there. You’d think a big stiff wind would just topple that thing over, right? And there’s another rock barely hanging on back there on the left as well. There were quite a few tourists around too… I was wondering how scary it would be if the rock chose a moment to topple over while there was a gaggle of selfie-taking tourists down below.

The Phallic Rock and Edit

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-08-20 10:35:18
  • CameraNEX-6
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1600
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length98.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

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11
Nov 2014 : Tuesday
filed under  Arches National Park, Monument Valley, Utah

The Flaming Anasazi Ruins

Getting Super-Lost

What is the most lost you’ve ever gotten? I get lost a lot, and it usually doesn’t bother me. The one below did a little bit because I did have a much-desired destination at a certain time of the day for the light! It caused me a bit of stress, which I usually don’t have… was not a big fan!

Daily Photo – The Flaming Anasazi Ruins

Good lord this place was hard to find! I had quite unremarkable directions. First, it was almost impossible to figure out where to turn off the main highway. There were many dirt road options, and none of them seemed right. And then, at one point, I had to figure out how far down that dirt road to go! I went way to far at once and got myself into a serious car-trouble-situation. I somehow got myself out of that then doubled-back to find a probable spot. The next step was walking about a mile down a canyon where I had no idea where I was going! There were no trails, no signs, no nothing. I got to the point where I was thinking, man, I’m not even close. And then, there it was.

The Flaming Anasazi Ruins

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-08-21 23:25:13
  • CameraNEX-7
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/80
  • Aperture11
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length10.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
2
Jan 2014 : Thursday
filed under  Arches National Park, Photography Tips, Utah

Deep into the Desert

Lightroom Presets

If you haven’t popped into the Stuck In Customs Store to see the latest Lightroom Presets, I invite you there. I used them in today’s photo, and I honestly find myself using them all the time. I especially use them on my personal and family photos to add a little special touch. If you already have them, well thanks! I’ve been seeing them pop up in style all over Facebook and Google+ — always fun to see

Daily Photo – Deep into the Desert

I needed to spend more time here! But I suppose it is a good reason to go back. Arches National Park was nonstop gold! It’s always been on my list, and I never actually made it a point to go here until after I moved out of the US. I really had no excuse for not going while I was there. I guess it just seemed far away or whatever, which seems silly after I went there all the way from New Zealand!

I guess everywhere is far away from somewhere else. That’s something I say when people ask me about living in New Zealand. They say, “Well isn’t that far away?”

Deep into the Desert

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-08-21 01:48:13
  • CameraNEX-7
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/250
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length18.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-0.3

Comments
7
Oct 2013 : Monday
filed under  Arches National Park, Sony NEX-7, Utah

Night in Arches National Park

Getting Light Trails

I’ve recently changed how I get light trails. It’s a minor change, but I’ve had more success with it. I used to take a series of bracketed photos when cars go by and just hope for the best. This actually worked quite a bit, but sometimes the very short and very long exposures in a bracket would be useless. The short one would be too dark and the long one would be too bright. Anyway, now I turn off the autobracketing and switch over to manual.

It honestly takes a lot of guesswork, but I usually get my f-stop quite low and my ISO around 100 or 200. I play with these so that my exposure is at least 5 seconds. Sometimes 5 seconds is all you need for a car going by. But if I want a lot of cars and need 20 or 30 seconds, I’ll keep moving the f-stop to a higher and higher number to balance. It’s actually kind of fun to guess and then experiment with different settings. You can simply press play after you shoot to see if you guessed right, then make the adjustments accordingly.

Daily Photo – Night in Arches National Park

Okay well here is yet another amazing place in Utah. Yes, I know all you people in Utah are saying, “Yes we know Utah is awesome, Trey — it’s about time you figured that out for yourself!” Well I have… and now I lament that I was only in Arches National Park for a day. But I tried to make the most of it, even squeezing all the light out of dark here after an amazing day of sightseeing.

Night in Arches National Park

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-08-21 02:59:07
  • CameraNEX-7
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time30
  • Aperture4
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length11.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments