I thought I would share some shots from Valley of the Gods. It's an awesome valley in SE Utah, much like Monument Valley, but scaled down and BLM managed. I thought the sandstone terraces on the cliffs would offer some good vistas, so we camped up top. With the GPS and lots bushwacking, I found a couple of spots that appeared to be completely untouched. The sandstone was fantastic as were the views. I think every spot along the rim had 1000' shear drops, so scrambling around before sunrise was a bit nerve racking. Anyway, the crazy wind last weekend kicked up tons of dust which turned out to be key to getting good atmosphere without real storms. This place is high on the monsoon season to-do list. I look forward to exploring/scrambling around up there again.
All shot with Nikon D600 w/ Nikon lenses and Rokinon 14mm.
Nice shots from a really interesting looking place. I like the amount of shadow detail in the first one along with the compression of the various mountain layers in the shot. I also like the third a lot, but was wondering if you could bring out just a bit more shadow detail in the first layer of buttes (middle right portion of the image). Cool colors throughout.
Very cool shots here. We don't see too many good shots from the Valley of the Gods, but these are really cool. #1 and 3 are my favorites here. Though I do like how you worked the foreground lines in both #2 and 4. Good work.
Boom! As a European I sometimes get a bit disinterest in the 'Icon' shots from the USA that you see so often on this forum (good as they tend to be), but these are really cool. What an awesome landscape and perspective. Love the foreground in #2, even if it does split the image a little too neatly in half.
The whole series is very nice. It makes me want to get into my car and call in sick for the next 3 weeks and go shoot western landscapes. No 2 is my favorite. I like how you lined up the nodule with feature in the background. Additionally I like that you have interest features in the foreground as well.
Kevin.
Mar 19, 2014 at 07:25 PM
Jonathan Huynh Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Thanks for all the comments. I did end up bringing out some shadow detail in #3.
I encourage anyone visiting the deserts here to get out and explore. Being out in these landscapes feels like an epic adventure (even though I was only 4 hours from home) and I tried to capture that feeling with these.
If I may, I will go out on a limb and break the rules to post one more, only because I'd like some comments on the blue-er color palette I went with here. I shot this earlier than the others, so it seemed to lend itself to the cooler tones.
