Here is the first of many images that I captured at the inexplicable landscape of White Pocket, in Arizona. There are literally endless compositions to shoot here, and I hardly scratched the surface after only being here 2 days. One thing that surprised me as usual, is how large some of these formations are compared to how they look in photos. Each "tile" you see in images is a couple feet across, instead of the inches I thought they would be prior to visiting.
As for the technicals...To get this unique angle down inside one of the large cracks leading up the formation, I contorted my tripod and body down as low as I could, and used a 12 shot focus blend to render the scene perfectly sharp. I also used some phone "sky map" applications to plan if and when the moon would be rising above. Luckily it aligned just as the dawn glow started to hit the formations.
Thanks for checking it out, and make sure to look at it on black to see all the shadow detail. Have a good weekend
Excellent composition, cloud detail, tones and overall palette! I'm a huge fan of well-done blue/blue-green tones. Your shot would have been great even without the moon. Including it really adds something special. I'm glad you have the patience for focus stacking. I may have to give it another go and see how pissed off I get at the process again.
We're inching closer to monsoon season and I'm really hoping to make it out to White Pocket this season. I'm still deciding if I need to hop-up our Xterra before tackling the sand. Although last time I took it through nasty Lake Powell beach sand, it did just fine.
Slabshaft wrote:
We're inching closer to monsoon season and I'm really hoping to make it out to White Pocket this season. I'm still deciding if I need to hop-up our Xterra before tackling the sand. Although last time I took it through nasty Lake Powell beach sand, it did just fine.
I've been at WP in may with a rented xterra and it went through the sand like through butter. No problems at all to get there. IMO it's one of the best standard SUVs for offroad driving. Nonetheless I personally didn't find that the White Pocket was that spectacular as I had expected.
Hey Justin!
I like the composition and detail, not to mention all the effort you put into this, the bottom looks a little dark to me though, still a good capture!
Thanks for the compliments guys. The image is supposed to be quite dark, since there wasn't much light to begin with during the capture. It is definitely important to have your display calibrated and to look at this on a dark background. There is plenty of detail in the shadows on my computer and iPhone.
parsons wrote:
sweet,
shame about the moon distortion tho
Thanks. I actually overlooked the moon distortion. I'll probably clone in a more head-on moon shot that I took slightly after since you mentioned it.
Slabshaft wrote:
Excellent composition, cloud detail, tones and overall palette! I'm a huge fan of well-done blue/blue-green tones. Your shot would have been great even without the moon. Including it really adds something special. I'm glad you have the patience for focus stacking. I may have to give it another go and see how pissed off I get at the process again.
We're inching closer to monsoon season and I'm really hoping to make it out to White Pocket this season. I'm still deciding if I need to hop-up our Xterra before tackling the sand. Although last time I took it through nasty Lake Powell beach sand, it did just fine....Show more →
Thanks bud. The drive was pretty sketchy in sections for us, but that was because we were is one of the smallest SUVs you would want to try this road with. You should be fine in the Xterra.
Stacking is easier the you think. This image is a cake walk compared to the one I'm working on today My stacking method only adds 5-10 minutes of work to my processing, but completely kills it with the details it brings out.
The shadows are definitely NOT too dark. The image makes it quite obvious that it's supposed to be low-key with strong darks. Looks fine on my monitor. You certainly won't do any damage to the image by putting in a less-distorted moon . . .
I do think getting way up close and stacking opens up a lot of compositional opportunities that I'm missing out on by being stubborn. I'll be in the San Juans in CO in a couple weeks, so I should probably give it another go.
Fantastic composition. I think it would work extremely well even without the moon. I love the blue tones in the clouds and great colors of the rock formations.
Once I got over the disappointment of this not really being the Temple of the Moon, I liked your creativity. I am thinking though a 4:5 crop losing off the bottom though. It seems too long and a bit too dark down there.
