#azimuth 12

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Approaching the Waters of Lake Michigan in Indiana Dunes National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the north-northeast while taking in a view along this concrete walkway leading out to the shores of Lake Michigan in the West Beach area of Indiana Dunes National Park.

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A Lone Tree at the Montezuma Valley Overlook by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A view looking to the north-northeast and the Knife Edge at Montezuma Valley Overlook in Mesa Verde National Park. My thought on composing the image was to capture a look across what I felt were layers present. Nearby was the one lone tree with the old Knife Rdge Road entrance behind it. Then far off in the distance was open areas and ranchland in Colorado with more distant ridges and peaks of the San Miguel Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The rest was finding a point where I could center the tree and align myself to capture a look across the Knife Edge and then a more distant view beyond that. I decided to zoom in with the focal length and close down a little with the aperture so that I could have more of the image in focus. This was part of the original entrance into the national park before the tunnel was bored.

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Alive with Colors (Grand Canyon National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting extending to the north-northeast while taking in views to eroded formations, buttes, and temples present along the Rim Trail in Grand Canyon National Park. With this image, I chose to zoom in with the focal length on my Nikon Z8 Mirrorless Camera, having the Isis Temple to my front fill the image, more or less from edge to edge. As this was near sunset, I also liked the shadows present across this national park landscape.

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Points of Interest Along the Peak of Grinnell Point (Glacier National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While hiking the Grinnell Lake Trail with a view to Grinnell Point on an overcast and rainy day. This is in Glacier National Park with a view looking to the north-northeast. With this image, I decided to zoom in to a portion of the ridge coming off the main peak and see what I might be able to capture and later bring out and post-processing giving the rainy weather that day. I was able to use the ClearView Plus in DxO PhotoLab 7 to clean up much of that overcast/rainy look and feel.

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My Navigations in Mesa Verde National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While at the Montezuma Valley Overlook with a view looking to the north-northeast to the Knife Edge and previous park entrance. This is in Mesa Verde National Park. What I wanted to capture with this image was a layered look from the nearby rubber rabbitbrush wildflowers to the backdrop of the rock formations and side of the ridge off in the distance.

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It Isn’t Hard to Find Beautiful Places in Mesa Verde National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While starting out to hike the Knife Edge Trail with a view looking to the north-northeast across a grassy meadow to a lone evergreen tree. This is in Mesa Verde National Park. My thought on composing this image was to take advantage of the blue skies above as a backdrop to highlight and be a color contrast to the greens of the evergreen tree in my front.

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Along the Knife Edge (Mesa Verde National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While at the Montezuma Valley Overlook with view looking to the north-northeast at the Knife Edge (and previous park entrance route). This is in Mesa Verde National Park.

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Sky Replacement in Mesa Verde National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: It was as I began working on the image in post-production that I then decided to once again try out the sky replacement setting in Photoshop with this image. The blue skies with the clouds definitely seemed appropriate as a setting for this southeastern Colorado national park setting. So the skies are from an image I captured in Sonora, TX, a few years ago with the blue skies and clouds, but all else is captured with my Nikon D850 SLR camera in Colorado. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 7 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image. This location is at Montezuma Valley Overlook in Mesa Verde National Park with a view looking to the north-northeast along the Knife Edge.