The color image below recently won its place in a local calendar competition. I’m having success in photography contests this year. The contests seem to have a lot in common…they were free to enter, they were local – within 100 miles, and they gave me free exposure.
My luck in part was due to the numerous storms we had in New Mexico from August to late September. I not going to keep relying on luck though. I am expanding my storms series by learning as much as I can about night photography, about adjusting dark images and printing dark images. Storms and sunsets have a particular adjustment problem.. the foreground usually being too dark or solid black. When I have gone into Photoshop to adjust the foreground it often became washed out. I found some amazing videos on You Tube that teach Photoshop adjustments just for this problem and they worked on most of my images. I’m very pleased. If you want to know more about it write a request on this blog or to me directly at ruth@mydigitalphotographytips.com I’m fishing to see how much interest is out there and get a little interaction going from my readers.
Okay, here is the image which made it into the Eldorado Community Association 2009 Calendar.
here it is in black and white:
Can you see how the black and white image has more detail in the foreground?
I worked in layers using masks and filters and then adjusted the filter layer. That’s the technique.
My passion is the thrill of running outside in the storm and the mud. On this photo-shoot day I got soaked three times. When this storm disappeared I ran east just a block and a half away and caught more sheets of rain heading towards me. I’ll post that image in my next entry. There is something about a rain soaked muddy road with dramatic clouds above that fires me up. The scene isn’t somewhere in the distance. It right here enveloping me. I think I just have to capture this moment forever.. the pelting rains, the filtered light of low slung clouds. You might of missed it, but I was there and I can show you it was breathtaking.
What fires you up?
