Moody Desert

38406197606_48b490c958_z

Walking around the desert looking to make an interesting landscape image when you have grayed out skies, can be quite challenging. However, I did come home with this image worthy to work with. I felt the dead tree in the foreground along with the sun bleeding through the clouds worked great with the mood of this shot.  I did an HDR merge in Lightroom then played around with tonal adjustments to come up with this. I also reduced saturation a little using the HSL panel. To finish it off, I used the radial filter to brighten up the dead tree a little bit along with using the adjustment brush to dodge and burn in other areas of the image. Photographed west of Phoenix, Arizona.

You may view a larger size version here on Flickr.

Advertisement

Arizona Landscape

34943394946_5ab15c757e_z

It is always nice, at least in my opinion to see the glow around cacti when the sun strikes the spines just right. The cactus in the foreground is a Cholla Cactus, which is one of the best, if not the best, in my area for catching that light. I stopped down my aperture to f20 to get the star effect and waited for the sun to get positioned just right for this image. I bumped us the warm tones with white balance in Lightroom.  I also used Topaz Clarity to increase contrast and Topaz Detail to bring out a little bit more details. I also did a little some dodging and burning in Photoshop to lighten highlights and darken the shadows some.

35mm, f20, 1/50 sec, ISO 100.

You may see a larger version of this image here in Flickr.

Glowing Cholla

36024025104_9829ff9771_z

One good thing about photographing Cholla cacti is the glow they create when the sun strikes the spines just right. There are two types of Cholla in this scene, the Teddy Bear Cholla and Buckhorn Cholla.The two cacti in the foreground in the lower right are Teddy Bear Cholla then right behind them, there are Buckhorn Cholla.

Beauty in the Desert

2017-06-12_04-03-22

Photographed in the evening nearing sunset in the Skyline Regional Park in Buckeye, Arizona west of Phoenix. The two tall cacti are saguaro’s and in the foreground we have Buckhorn Cholla and Barrel Cactus.

Spring Time Saguaro

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
COL 3:1‭-‬2 ESV

Saguaro cactus with its spring time fruit under a moody sky near Phoenix, Az.

imgp3414_5_6_tonemapped-topaz-adjust