A Story of Two Road Trips

[stuartcnz]

Back in the day we decided to take a road trip. This is the photographic diary of that road trip.

First thing we needed to do was pick up the automobile. This is what it looked like when we picked it up. Even back then she looked old, but was built tough and reliable.



The first place we went to was the Badlands in South Dakota; boy was that a harsh environment, though to say it was stunning would be an understatement.





From there, we traveled down into Colorado; starting around the Estes Park area we went down past Telluride, and on into Mesa Verde




Now I gotta tell ya, Mesa Verde is one amazing place. Just look at the buildings down there and how they lived on the side of the cliffs.













From Mesa Verde, we headed back north




Stopped off at a place just outside of Beuena Vista, Colorado, called Ruby Mountain Campground.



After a spell, we headed on back south, into Taos, New Mexico. First to have a look at the adobe built San Francisco de Asis Mission Church and other buildings, in the old Ranchos de Taos Plaza. This mud church was completed back in 1815, and it is still standing and in use today!










From there we went to have a look at a house, of some new fangled design, just outside of Taos. The folks out there reckoned they were onto the buildings of the future. Sure was nothing like we'd ever seen before.



Then we went back up into Colorado again, to stay by San Luis Lake, looking out over at the Great Sand Dunes. Them fellas have gotta funny idea about what a lake is, for as hard as we looked, we couldn't see any water there.














Then we decided to take a look at the Great Sand Dunes; from a distance mind you.










After that, we figured on heading north again



To have a look at The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.





By about then, we were about worn out with all that touristy stuff, so we headed home again.

Recently we have been reminiscing bout that trip, and decided to do it again, following about the same path as last time. Stay tuned for the photographic diary of that road trip in full modern technicolor.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Wow

[ol trunt]

Wow, that is what is so cool about this site--lots of stuff you just won't see anywhere else. I look foreward to your reports and wish I could come along. Jack

[stuartcnz]

So we went back to pick up the old girl, from where we left her last time. And looking no worse than last time either.



And like last time, started off in the Badlands, boy they are something to look at.







Next stop was to the old Norwegian church, or Stavekirke, in Rapid City, South Dakota.



Then on down to Colorado. We stayed in Estes Park.



Then Buena Vista.



And at Sunshine Campground State Forest




We then meandered down through Cortez and onto the astonishing Mesa Verde















Like the last trip, we then headed back up north again.




To stay at the Ruby Mountain Campground.




Then it was back down into the old Ranchos de Taos Plaza, just south of Taos, in New Mexico, to have another look at the old Church and surrounding buildings. Doesn't the church look good for a two hundred year old mud building! Apparently they tried coating it with a cement mortar to reduce the maintenance. But that had a bad impact on the structure of the building, so they took it off, and went back to using an earthen plaster again.








We thought it would be interesting to see what was happening at that futuristic looking house we saw down there last time, and discovered that they are still building like that out there, with more of that type of house.






Then it was back up to San Luis Lake, in Colorado, and we still couldn't find any water at that lake. It sure is a place of spectacular scenery though.








Then it was onto the Great Sand Dunes. We didn't get any closer this time, because they charge money to get into them now, and we figured that sand is sand.









So we hit the road north again, heading towards Colorado Springs.



To have another look at The Garden of The Gods.





And that was road trip number two, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did.

[stuartcnz]

All of the photo's from the two Road Trips, were taken during a trip to the States in September 2012. The camera used was a Canon 5D mk2, with three lenses. An 35-70mm zoom lens, which is from my old 35mm film camera, an 80-200mm zoom lens that I bought second hand, and a 20mm wide angle lens (the only one I bought new). the 35-70mm and 20mm lens both had polarizing filters on them. Most of the photo's from the two road trips are printed from the same digital negative, so to speak, though a few were different.

For example



These two photo's were taken from the same spot, with slightly different angle and direction. (notice the same mountain is in the background).

While in the following photo, the black & white one was looking behind, from where I was facing with the colour one.



The juxtaposition between the black & white and HDR colour was deliberate. It is the first time I have attempted black & white and I found it much more difficult to process than the vibrant colour, to which I am naturally more comfortable with.

Why the HDR process? Simply because I like it. It doesn't work with all, or even most shots, but it can also make shots, which otherwise don't turn out, work well. The photo's around Mesa Verde are a good case in point. While they actually turned out much better than I expected, in black & white, they didn't work that well as colour photo's, due to light and shadow contrast, however HDR alleviates that problem.

Bearing in mind that HDR was originally developed to take photo's of atomic explosions, in detail, here is a good example of the before and after processing.

Original unadulterated colour shot



After HDR processing

[stuartcnz]

Here are a couple of examples, starting with the original, unprocessed photo's, and comparing them with the processed HDR and B&W results.

[somewhereinusa]

Great pics Stuart, I've been many of those places, but mostly passing by in a truck.

I play around with HDR some. The ones I like the best are done by laying a HDR image on top of the original and playing with the opacity of the HDR image

If you go to this page, most of the scenery pictures toward the bottom of the page were processed that way. You can also just erase parts of the HDR layer you don't want changed. Say, leave the clouds and
erase the forground grass.
https://somewhereinusa.blogspot.com/sea ... results=50

[stuartcnz]

Nice Photo's Dick.
To be clear, though I use the term HDR, in reality it is tone mapping. In this series I have done everything with a single exposure shot, as opposed to using several shots of different exposure, over laid. The program I am using for it is Luminance HDR (originally called QTPFSGUI) which has some interesting presets. I tend to pick a couple to several presets that look suitable to the individual shot and overlay them in layers, of various opacity, generally without the original image. When I do these, I am going for something that doesn't look real.
For that reason, the clouds in particular are what I am looking to use this process on, especially when there is a largely clear sky, with just some whisps, it really brings them out, with a lot more detail, than is noticed by the naked eye.

When I am doing straight colour shots, I tend to just use a combination of saturation and brightness/contrast adjustment, where I still like to go for an image that is outside of natural. Though given your suggestion, I may start playing around with mixing parts of a shot being original and parts HDR.

[somewhereinusa]

Stuart,
I kind of figured that you hadn't really taken all of the pictures needed for HDR
I don't actually use real HDR either, although I have, I have a photoshop plug in called ReDynamix which isn't available anymore. I looked at two or three of the tone mapping programs and picked this one because it is a plugin and I can just make a duplicate layer, then play with it and if I get something I like, just flatten it and I'm done. I have even done it at some of the events I have done where I have at most 5 minutes to process the picture before sending it to the printer and I'm off to take pictures of the next entrant.

[ol trunt]

Stuart and Dick. I admire the talent both of you share--it makes photography an art. Like both of you, I have been to each of those places at one time or another during my life. Stuart, I viewed each of your pictures over and over and will go to sleep recollecting them and my visits. Fun. Oh, and how did you get that ground squril to sit in exactly the same place on each of your visits? Ha Ha! Jack

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Wow, what a road trip that must have been

[stuartcnz]

Oh, and how did you get that ground squril to sit in exactly the same place on each of your visits?

Must be genetic predisposition, given the second ground squirrel was the great great grandson of the first one.

[Stealth Camper]

You guys are both making me so envious!! Fantastic pictures, Stuart!! That is a wonderful path you took. You mentioned taking the same trip over again....I would recommend moving it over (east/west) at least on part of it, to catch some of the other things out there. There is just SO much to see/do it is mind boggling.

Somewhere - caught your blog with bus. You have inspired me to get back on to my little "box on wheels" project. And your photos are amazing!! Love the doggies!

[stuartcnz]

We are planning on having a look at Oregon and Washington next time.