Red Rocks at Sunrise

Living in Sedona is quite a blessing. When I want to experiment there is no lack of obvious subject matter. The red rocks all have different shapes and appear different at differing times of day and night leading to a veritable plethora of images that can be photographed with additional techniques and shared.

On Sunday morning I was up just before the sun made its appearance for the day. I grabbed my tripod. Well, if I must tell the truth, I grabbed my camera (lumixG9) and some lenses, rushed out the door, jumped into the car and headed off to catch the rising sun and quickly coloring clouds. Then I turned the car around and went BACK for the tripod wasting beautiful light in the process. But that’s why we are considered pros. We can come back from a less than perfect situation and still have some nice images. ( or… I guess a real pro would have had the tripod to begin with. But, I digress)

I took a different road than usual. I made a five exposure bracket with the camera on a tripod. I used three of the images processed in *Aurora HDR 2018. This angle made the red rocks feel rather majestic.

Today’s savior was the ability to bracket images and extend the range of light the image can show. Without HDR and the processing software in my tool-bag I would have had a pretty bland results. As it was I found some interesting angles and areas that in which I don’t often shoot.

Another not so frequented road let me see this rock formation with trees issuing forth.  Again processed with Aurora HDR software from a three exposure bracket.

The back side of Cathedrlal Rock with the rock outcrop. Three exposure HDR with one stop oveand one stop under.

Without the hdr system the trees which were in shadow would have been very blocked up and noisy. Making multiple exposure allows the photo to repliatewhat the eye sees. The eye constantly is changing ‘exposure’ with the pupil opening and closing depending upon the brightness of the scene.

In a couple days I’ll show you the hero shots of the backside of Cathedral Rock.

Yours in Creative Photography,     Bob

PS – I was using the Lumix 12-60mm LUMIX G LEICA DG VARIO-ELMARIT PROFESSIONAL LENS

This lens has a great range from wide angle to medium zoom and covers a lot of my needs. There is also a kit lens with this range that is not as fast.

* Save $10 with the coupon code ‘COATES’ on AUrora HDR or other Skylum software