Horseshoe Bend
This is one of my favorite photos and in some ways encapsulates everything I’ve learned in photography over the past few years. Filmed directly into the sunset, this shot would be impossible without more advanced technique. I took six bracketed exposures and merged them to create a “super HDR file” in Photoshop which had stupendous amounts of RAW data. I then took it back into Lightroom for the usual processing without doing the typical exaggerated automatic HDR look. This is a neat trick I learned from Serge Ramelli. Shots taken at f/18 for that nice starburst effect. I’ll do a mini-tutorial in an upcoming post.
This is a sunset shot taken precariously over the cliff walls of Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona. My fear of heights notwithstanding, standing at the edge is legitimately dangerous. If you take a look at the surface from the side, you’ll see all the undercut rock that people are standing on which have no supporting foundation. You are one unlucky rock break away from plunging 1,000 feet into the Colorado River. I walked halfway around the rim looking for the sturdiest place but was still very uneasy taking these photos. Do I also need to mention how windy it is here?
