#azimuth 209

[thorsenmark]

Taking in a Full Expanse with a View of Tundra, a Braided River and the Alaska Range (Denali National Park & Preserve) by Mark Stevens

[thorsenmark]

It Has Started to Snow in Joshua Tree National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: In Joshua Tree National Park at a roadside pullout looking to the southwest and across a snowy landscape with Joshua Trees and other desert plant-life. I liked the layered look of this national park landscape with the snow covered foreground, leading up to the mountainside that was partially hidden in storm clouds moving in.

[thorsenmark]

An Oak Tree and a View to the Milky Way by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the south-southwest while taking in views of the night skies at a bed and breakfast that a friend and I were staying overnight in Cuba, NM. To capture this image, I had brought a Sirui tripod that I use with my travels because of its weight, an RSS tripod head and a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED Lens. The rest was making adjustments to the ISO and shutter speed so that I could capture an image in about 15 seconds time and minimize any star trails. I later used NX Studio that Nikon provides to make basic adjustments and then exported a TIFF image to Viveza 3 for final adjustments.

[thorsenmark]

Under the Milky Way in Cuba, New Mexico by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While staying at a bed and breakfast location in the Cuba, New Mexico, area with a view looking to the south-southwest at the Milky Way in the skies above. The story behind this image is one that goes back over 3 years to when I had planned to visit Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde as part of a trip a month before the start of the Covid pandemic. I had to wait for several years obviously, but this trip had been one I had wanted to see all those sites and enjoy some dark skies. So when I knew that dark enough, I grabbed my Nikon SLR camera, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED Lens, remote shutter and tripod and headed outside. The skies did not disappoint! After some practice working on focusing and exposure, this was the last image I captured that evening, and one that shows much of the Milky Way stretching above me in the night skies. As for post-processing, I used NX Studio, which I found had better controls with this night sky image. I could make edits there for temperature settings, contrast, and control points to bring out what I wanted. I finished up the post-production work in Viveza 3.

[thorsenmark]

It Has Started to Snow in Joshua Tree National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: In Joshua Tree National Park at a roadside pullout looking to the southwest and across a snowy landscape with Joshua Trees and other desert plant-life. I liked the layered look of this national park landscape with the snow covered foreground, leading up to the mountainside that was partially hidden in storm clouds moving in.

[thorsenmark]

An Oak Tree and a View to the Milky Way by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the south-southwest while taking in views of the night skies at a bed and breakfast that a friend and I were staying overnight in Cuba, NM. To capture this image, I had brought a Sirui tripod that I use with my travels because of its weight, an RSS tripod head and a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED Lens. The rest was making adjustments to the ISO and shutter speed so that I could capture an image in about 15 seconds time and minimize any star trails. I later used NX Studio that Nikon provides to make basic adjustments and then exported a TIFF image to Viveza 3 for final adjustments.

[thorsenmark]

Under the Milky Way in Cuba, New Mexico by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While staying at a bed and breakfast location in the Cuba, New Mexico, area with a view looking to the south-southwest at the Milky Way in the skies above. The story behind this image is one that goes back over 3 years to when I had planned to visit Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde as part of a trip a month before the start of the Covid pandemic. I had to wait for several years obviously, but this trip had been one I had wanted to see all those sites and enjoy some dark skies. So when I knew that dark enough, I grabbed my Nikon SLR camera, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED Lens, remote shutter and tripod and headed outside. The skies did not disappoint! After some practice working on focusing and exposure, this was the last image I captured that evening, and one that shows much of the Milky Way stretching above me in the night skies. As for post-processing, I used DxO PhotoLab 7, which I had recently upgraded to, and worked with temperature settings, contrast, and control points to bring out what I wanted for the final image.

[thorsenmark]

Premium Outdoor Experiences at Carlsbad Caverns National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the southwest while taking in views across mountain desert landscape at a roadside pullout along the Walnut Canyon Desert Drive in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. My thinking in composing this iMessage was to use the high ground that I was located and angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward to capture a more sweeping view across the hillsides leading up to the mountains off in the distance. Angling my Nikon SLR camera would also bring those mountains higher into the image and minimize what I felt was a more negative space with the blue skies.