Mark Metternich wrote:
Very deep inside a remote and obscure canyon off limits to all but the natives of the area or extremely rarely those in whom they chose to take in.
Canon 5D MarkII
Canon 14mmL2
f/11
ISO 100
1 second
single exposure
Shot quite some years back...
Techie stuff for the Techie minded:
Having lived in the specific area for a couple of years (and not too far away for about 5 additional years) I have always gone out of my way to make friends with the Native Americans. This has, on a rare occasion, allowed me to places lessor seen. In fact last year I took my SW workshops into a couple of areas (NOT HERE) that they don't often allow people, but because I am friends with some key people (and support some of their local humanitarian causes) they were fine with us. This year I plan on taking some people to some places maybe never photographed! I highly respect the natives (read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and you will to, if you don't already!) and in certain places, sometimes I will take an offering from my group to give to certain native groups to help them with causes dear to their heart. I LOVE building bridges of relationships and healing this way! In fact I want to do more! People often ask me "how do I get into that place." I often say, make genuine friends with them, don't use them, help them and they might allow you... Most don't do it.
This camera position was radically hard to get my tripod to and took hours of ingenuity to do so. Also, I used some post processing "Perspective Blending" techniques to remove some distracting elements and to get an angle on the image that is a bit unique. "Perspective Blending" is a very generic word that can encompass many innovative ways of blending multi-perspectives into the same image (via different images taken at different angles) and, or perspective shifts and masking in Photoshop. That is a long desired Video Tutorial I have been wanting to make for about 4-5 years, but have not had the time to make. Yet!
Admittedly this will not be quite as sharp (for print) because of the perspective techniques, so a 96" Lumachrome HD (the BEST super gloss photo paper in the world today) print out of Nevada Art Printers (innovated by friend and print GURU of gurus Robert Park) will likely not go so well. But a moderate enlargement is certainly possible.
Last thing worth mentioning is how the slightest touch of grain simulation (a very specific type, amount and targeted into specific tones via the Photoshop Layer Style "Blend If" sliders) can sometimes be what I call "the great equalizer." What I mean is that it can help camouflage slightly softer areas in an image (to a point). It was used here (for web - before downsize) at an extremely, extremely low opacity (almost 0!) and a very fine amount to try to compliment web sharpness.
All the best to you, and Great Light to you! ...Show more →
Beautiful, Mark, and one of the best of its kind posted on this forum.
Mark Metternich wrote:
Very deep inside a remote and obscure canyon off limits to all but the natives of the area or extremely rarely those in whom they chose to take in.
I hate to be the one who gives the game away. But I know exactly where it was taken.
