#azimuth 127

[thorsenmark]

Details in the Waters Falling (Olallie State Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While many of the other images captured that afternoon at Lower Twin Falls focused on a longer shutter speed, I did feel the want and desire to capture those small details with a quicker shutter speed on these waters falling. The tentacle of water still comes out for the image, but the focus is much more on the details of the water.

[thorsenmark]

The Mist and Waters of Snoqualmie Falls by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: For this image, I decided to zoom in on the focal length and have that look across the waters of the river to the falls. There'd be mist all around with the yellows and greens of the nearby forest and woods.

[thorsenmark]

Tentacles of Water by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: Now this was a waterfall to behold...and it's actually pretty easy to walk by the path leading down to the overlook! As I had my tripod with me, I had a chance to experiment with many angles and shutter speeds to capture different aspects of this waterfall. For this image I closed down on the aperture and increased the shutter speed to capture more of a milky or appearance to the waters. It just so happen because of the way the water flows over this cliff face and then the rocks it has almost a tentacle light look to it...and comes out even more with a longer shutter speed. My main concern with a longer shutter speed was metering it properly so that I didn't blow any highlights of the water while being to retain many of the lush, vibrant colors of the nearby plant-life.

[thorsenmark]

Through and Beyond the Mesa Arch (Arches National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A more straight down the center and lined up view through this famous arch to the different forks and canyons below in this portion of the national park. One can even see a little sliver of the Colorado River just before the higher cliff walls off in the distance.

[thorsenmark]

Twin Peaks Falling (HDR) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: Ever since I'd seen the first episode of Twin Peaks when it came out on DVD well over a decade ago, I've fallen in love with the characters, the story and the settings of the Pacific Northwest in Washington. I'd seen this famous waterfall with the famous "Great Northern Hotel" as a backdrop many times while listening and watching to the opening theme song of the show entitled "Falling." Needless to say, capturing that feeling of the opening theme song with the music playing in my head was something I wanted to do during this visit to Snoqualmie Falls. Given the bright, overcast skies from above and the more shadowed area below around the falls, I knew I would have a large dynamic range to meter for any image. I decided to use five bracketed TIFF images and later import them into Aurora HDR Pro to make some adjustments. I could later work with Capture NX2 and use control points and some CEP filters for this final image.

[thorsenmark]

Exploring Sullivan Bay in Voyageurs National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A captured image from an overlook along the Sullivan Bay Trail with a view extending to the southeast. This is in Voyageurs National Park. My thought in composing this image had been to take advantage of the higher ground I was located on to capture a look across the waters to the more distant tree-lined shoreline. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 9 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation, brightness, and cropping I wanted for the final image with a wide-angle, panoramic feel.

[thorsenmark]

Voyageurs National Park Select by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While walking the Oberholtzer Trail in the Rainy Lake area, I zoomed in on a group of trees just beyond a nearby grassy meadow using my Nikon Z8 Mirrorless Camera. The setting is extending to the southeast. I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation in DxO PhotoLab 9. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 7 where I added a Polarization, Foliage, and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured.

[thorsenmark]

Scenic and Historic Katmai National Park (Black & White) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: I captured this image at the Falls Platform with a view looking to the southeast downstream of the Brooks River to some people fishing while observing for brown bears in Katmai National Park. My thinking was to pull back a little on the focal length to include more of the surrounding forest and distant mountains. With that setting, it would capture more of the feeling of the landscape and wildlife in this part of the national park. I later did a conversion to black & white using DxO PhotoLab 3 where I made some adjustments to color filters to bring out a much richer tonal contrast for the final image.