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Sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park

I didn't like original versions of this photo, but using the latest version of Photomatix with the direct interface to Adobe Lightroom for pre and post processing, it turns out pretty well.  

As I work out the final layout this week, I may use a shot like this as the Joshua Tree chapter header image for my upcoming guidebook to Southern California landscape photography.  www.PhotoTripUSA.com
#JoshuaTree   #joshuatreenationalpark   #landscapephotography  

Sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park, California. I didn’t like original version s of this photo, but using the latest version of Photomatix with the direct interface to Adobe Lightroom for pre and post processing, it turns out pretty well. As i work out the final layout this week, I may use a shot like this as the Joshua Tree chapter header image for my upcoming guidebook to Southern California landscape photography.

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36 thoughts on “Sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park”

  1. Interesting — to me the warm light on the faces of the boulders doesn't look quite real. But would I have noticed if you hadn't mentioned the HDR? Honestly not sure.

  2. I was wondering about that +Donna McClure.  The California – North book used a coastal scene, Yosemite gets the most visitors but probably isn't central or typical enough of "Southern California",  Death Valley isn't very accessible for the hotter half of the year.  With decent visitation numbers and good accessibility to residents and visitors to Southern California, perhaps Joshua Tree National Park would make a good subject for the cover.  This shot shows a number of the park's features, namely the rocks/mountains and the Joshua trees themselves.

  3. I prefer to have viewers of my photos focus on the scene and subject +Kit Stolz, so when I have to do some research myself to figure out what post-processing methods I used, I have succeeded in keeping that distraction out of the way.  Put another way, if the goal of my processing was for a photo to scream "HDR" as loudly as possible, what would be the point of having a subject at all, or for shooting in that particular location, or in that weather or season?  I could stay at home and take photos of a brick, a rock, a spoon.  Not that there's anything wrong with that… I'd simply rather convey a feeling or reaction to a specific subject in a specific place at a unique moment in time.  I do find it a bit more rewarding to pursue realism because it's more of a challenge: anyone can move sliders in software to make a scene look crazy, but part of the great skill of photographers like Ansel Adams was to manipulate a scene without having the result be distracting.  Like Ansel, I often return to a photo over time and rework it, so all of my images are works in progress.  This one is off to a decent start, but there are things I'll adjust when I return to it someday with fresh eyes.

  4. +Jeff Sullivan your reasoning for this as the cover are all good points.  The light on the rocks is stunning.  Love that golden light.  The picture sure makes me want to visit the place sometime.  Your pictures tend to do that with me!  Thanks again for sharing.

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