Petrified forest

[Martin G.]

My wife and I went for a short vacation in New Mexico and Arizona, we really loved the place!

Here are a few shots I took at the Petrified Forest Park, this place was amazing.

I am happy with my pictures, but I have no experience in landscape photography, I usually shoot macro.

All shots with the Canon 10-22 mm

I hope you like them and any comments are welcomed.

Martin

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg85/tarantulacanada/IMG_0417_8_9_tonemapped.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg85/tarantulacanada/IMG_0402_3_4_tonemapped.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg85/tarantulacanada/IMG_0414_5_6_tonemapped.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg85/tarantulacanada/IMG_0476_7_8_tonemapped.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg85/tarantulacanada/IMG_0479_80_81_tonemapped.jpg

[Picture North Carolina]

They're nice shots, and it's a beautiful place. Horizon's a little off on some, especially the first. Are they HDR? Not sure if you noticed it, but they are posted in the forum usually used for HDRs.

[Martin G.]

yes, I noticed I struggled with the horizon.

Yes, they are all HDR, I wanted to try to get a natural look as much as possible.

Thank you for the comments

Martin

[sapearl]

Very pleasant shots Martin - thanks for sharing.

I was there with my family back in 1963..... a couple of years ago :D. At that time I seem to recall more "tree trunks and stumps." This looked pretty devoid of that. Have things been severely picked over and looted in the past 46 years, or was this just a fairly empty area? - Stu

[Picture North Carolina]

yes, I noticed I struggled with the horizon.

Yes, they are all HDR, I wanted to try to get a natural look as much as possible.

Thank you for the comments

Martin

Well, if you were utilizing HDR to achieve natural results, you did a very good job. They all look very natural. Good work.

[Martin G.]

Very pleasant shots Martin - thanks for sharing.

I was there with my family back in 1963..... a couple of years ago :D. At that time I seem to recall more "tree trunks and stumps." This looked pretty devoid of that. Have things been severely picked over and looted in the past 46 years, or was this just a fairly empty area? - Stu

Stu,

There were some zones that had quite a few, mainly the trails around the visitor center, but as you said, I would not be surprised if some have been smuggled out of the park.

Take care and thanks to you two for the nice comments

Martin

[sapearl]

Likely that has been the case. It amazed me back then how many shops had such large inventories of huge items while the casual tourist was admonished for picking up the both miniscule piece. Something was going on there....:rolleyes:

The 4th one reminds me of our trip to the Badlands in 2002. And I think that #2 would be a great candidate for a b/w interpretation. You've got great tonal range, high contrast, detail and a lot of interest. Printed on a nice velvet fine art paper could result in a beautiful matted, frame print. Just my .02.

Stu,

There were some zones that had quite a few, mainly the trails around the visitor center, but as you said, I would not be surprised if some have been smuggled out of the park.

Take care and thanks to you two for the nice comments

Martin

[tmcman]

You can see the benefit hdr brings in the form of micro contrast to bring out texture, particularly in 2 and 4.
Thanks for sharing.

[lunasicc]

i like all of these..
but #2 is just flat out amazing..looks like it came straight out of national geographic.
nice shots

[Electric Shepherd]

Very natural looking shots Martin, well done. Care to share the settings you used?

[FlyingPhotog]

Steller job on getting natural looking images.

#4 is especially strong. Maybe crop it to more of a Pano format though for just a tad less sky...

[Martin G.]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments and the tips.

Electric Shepherd, I would love to tell you, I am just not sure how I can do that, you mean the settings on all the options? Does that save anywhere once you have processed the picture? I really went by what my eye liked, there was no science behind it. To tell the truth, I am just starting to understand a bit more what every slider does to the image after playing with it, but I cannot say that I have a true understanding of the whole process, I fiddle with the options until I get something I like!

Martin

[Electric Shepherd]

Sounds about right Martin, that's what I generally do! I just wondered if you could vaguely remember what settings you applied but it's no biggy.

[1cowboys]

#4 is fascinating, well done!