#azimuth 109

Under Blue Skies in Chaco Culture National Historical Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While walking and exploring the Pueblo del Arroyo area with a view looking to the southeast across walls and ruins present in this part of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. My thought on composing this image was to use the backdrop of blue skies and clouds as a color contrast to complement the earth-tones present in the foreground and lower portion of the image. The rest was aligning myself so that I could bring out the most interesting shapes and patterns present with the ruins to my front.

An Evening with the Moon Brightly Shining (Black & White) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: An image captured during a partial lunar eclipse in mid September from a parking garage view in Austin, Texas. The view is looking to the east-southeast. The moon is seen above a nearby condo building that had scaffolding on the top portions of one area. Some clouds that were moving in and out of the image and at other times, partially obscuring, the moon itself. One can see the partial lunar eclipse in the upper portion of the moon. In metering the image, I used the LCD screen on my Nikon Z8 Mirrorless Camera, dialing down the exposure so that I could bring out more details on the surface. It was as I later worked on the image that I remembered the building side and worked with DxO PhotoLab 8 to bring out those shadowed area. I found that the colors were very off and there was a lot of processing that I had to overcome to bring it out properly. I chose to perform a conversion to black & white, along with some grain in locations to minimize banding artifacts. As for the composition, what drew me into this image was the feeling like I had seen something like this in a Hollywood movie before some horror or scary setting was about to happen. That's what I worked for the look in the two software programs I used.

Looking to the High Peaks While Hiking the Juniper Canyon Loop (Pinnacles National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the southeast while taking in views across eroded volcanic formations present in the High Peaks in this part of Pinnacles National Park. I captured this image as I was heading out to hike the Juniper Canyon Loop.

Exploration at Mexican Hat Rock by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: At a pullout along U.S. Route 163 with a view looking to the east-southeast to the namesake formation. My thought on composing the image was to zoom in with the focal length and center as best I could the formation itself, while using the backdrop of the Raplee Ridge (Navajo Indian Reservation) off in the distance. I liked the backdrop of blue skies above as I felt it acted as a color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image.

Under Blue Skies in Chaco Culture National Historical Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While walking and exploring the Pueblo del Arroyo area with a view looking to the southeast across walls and ruins present in this part of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. My thought on composing this image was to use the backdrop of blue skies and clouds as a color contrast to complement the earth-tones present in the foreground and lower portion of the image. The rest was aligning myself so that I could bring out the most interesting shapes and patterns present with the ruins to my front.