Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Fall Expedition: Nevada and Utah


Fall is always my favorite time of year for photography, followed closely by Winter. A lot of the places I like to photograph are just too dang hot in the Summer and somehow I can't get too excited about the plain blue skies and bright light that we have here in the southwest during the hot season.
On that note, I just got back from my (almost) annual "Fall Color Tour", so time to fire up the blog with some new work. This year, besides my usual, favorite foliage area, I scouted up a couple of new locations that I have never worked before and they turned out to be the real highlights of the trip.
The aspens in the higher elevations of the Cedar Breaks area where I always go had pretty much dropped all their leaves, since I was about a week behind the schedule I originally intended, but that's o.k... Fall is not just about foliage; it's the light and atmosphere of the season and there are lots of possible subjects if you think about it that way.

My first stop was at Valley of Fire in Nevada.  I can't count the times I have passed this place on my way up north.. partly because it is so hot much of the year and I had no idea it could be such a beautiful place, judging from the dry, flat, gray desert that you drive through most of the way to get here. I liked it so much that I spent an extra day and will definitely be going back often.
I've got a lot of raw material to go through and much of it is on film, which I haven't even sent out for processing yet, so it'll take a few weeks to work on everything and get it presentable... in the meantime I'll start with a few digital images that came out pretty good as-is.
This first shot is a general scenic view at Valley of Fire, shot in the late afternoon sun and I actually had to DE-saturate the colors a bit to make it believable:)

4 comments:

Gaelyn said...

Some of the southwest colors are almost unbelievable until you see them for real.

Our fall came about a week late this year and hung on for a while. Just a few colors left now that it's getting into the 30s at night.

Mary Howell Cromer said...

beautiful capture. We just got back from a 6,068 mile journey, which included Nevada and Utah and I am slowly, yet surely sharing them on my blog. I look forward to viewing other shares taken our your journey~

Mark Alan Meader said...

Thanks Mary. Wow, that's a lotta miles! I'll look forward to seeing the photos of your trip. Everybody sees something different, even in the same locations, so it's always interesting.

Gerry Hatrić said...

Love this one, the way the road winds its way through the dusty landscape.