Although I don’t live to close to JT - or a Sonoran type desert like this, but this image to me personifies “the desert is beautiful” by the many folks who know and love the desert. There’s much to explore here, not only the josua tree and prickly vegetation, but also the very interesting crop of rock and geology.
Always a matter of personal taste and choice regarding color, saturation. And this is well within reasonable interpretation, but I think for my taste just ever so slightly saturated? I dunno, I personally process my files with a little bit of punch and this doesn’t go beyond what I might do, so maybe I’m over thinking. The sky is specially pretty.
Having said that, I’m thinkin of a bold alternative and that would be to crop out the sky. The reason I thought of this was because I feel like the landscape of the ridge between the joshua tree, barrel cactus and very interesting rocks, and the sky, is just a bit empty. For me, all the interest is in the joshua tree and mid-ground details, textures and colors. Not suggesting necessarily to improve, but as simply an alternate view.
The only other suggestion would be to clone out the small, light bush on the lower left edge. Not a biggie though.
As presented, I can’t help but enjoy this beautiful desert scene.
Lon, as always I appreciate your interest, review and overall thoughts on this scene. The point of color & saturation is a mixture of personal post processing tastes as you’ve mentioned as well as a bit of film intensity with the V-50. I find that flatness or dullness never works for me and in the end is a fine balance there.
The sky is an easy crop but left here as the latest pano take I have from this location there is no sky and the color is less intense with E-100 instead of V-50.
Again, thank you for the kind review and hope all is going well for you. It’s been a long time since our last encounter in YNP with Chris Chamberlain back in the day…take care !
Hi Paul,
This is especially nice when I opened up the large view. The soft glow of light is quite lovely and does a wonderful job of showcasing all of the details in this desert landscape. The earth tones work well and contast beautifully with the warm tones of the cacti scattered about the scene. I quite like this as is, but I think the pano suggested by @Lon_Overacker would work as well and give you another option. Beautiful work as always.
Wow, Velvia 50! I used to shoot that exclusively when I had a film camera. Loved the rich saturation and fine detail that it produced! I do really like the sharpness and color of this image. The sky is amazing and I want to see more of it. The Joshua tree is really vibrant not sure what time of year you got this but I happen to have been in JT last week and most of what I saw were less vibrant, probably the time of year? I’m not sure? The mid-ground brown hill is not adding too much to the image for me, but not sure you can do much about that. Maybe a vertical comp just to give the Joshua tree a bigger stage? Or another thought would be to give the tree a bit more breathing room on the left side of the image? I’m really brainstorming this one and can’t say for sure do this or that. I’d like to see some other crops/compositions from this amazing scene.
@Lon_Overacker@Ed_Lowe@Keith_Flood …thank you each for the reviews and comments on this scene. I’ve attached the recent pano here and the difference between spring/summer sunrise light and the fall/winter light along with LF & MF along with V-50 & E-100 is very obvious.
I got a good chuckle out of the title, @Paul_Breitkreuz. Too funny. My thoughts mirror Lon’s and as someone who shot Velvia 50 for several years before switching to digital, I do know how punchy its colors are. Overall, I think the saturation looks good except for one small yellow highlight in the sky at ULH of the frame. From a composition standpoint, I’m partial to the panoramic image. I like the balance provided by the other joshua trees in the back right of the image.
Paul, the lighting, especially on the swath of cacti and the J-tree is lovely. I am wondering how you got the magenta and yellow on both sides of the sky and not in the middle. I do think that the pano crop show of what’s best in this view.
I do like the panorama version! It is great you’re able to visit the spot multiple times, there is a lot to explore in this scene and many opportunities for some fine images. I am looking forward to see more from you with your MF, LF cameras shooting Velvia! Very cool!
@Bret_Edge@Mark_Seaver …Thank yo both for the additional reviews and comments here.
Not sure about the sky item you’ve mentioned. I will need to pull up the original RAW image…a.k.a. sheet of 4x5 on the light table. I know I had increased contrast across the entire sky but not anything beyond that. The sky cloud scattering had stuff bouncing around and reflecting too. Research to continue.
Hello Paul. Great subject matter and nice light. Just to add another opinion to the mix, I would probably tighten up the composition and remove the sky and BG hill since. There’s not much of interest in the hill.
PS. I just now saw your pano after posting this. I like it.
