#flickr idea

Utah Travel by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While at a roadside pullout along the Ely Highway (Utah State Route 21) with a view looking to the northwest and down a long stretch of highway leading up to Wah Wah Mountains. I've come across a few images over the past several years of with ideas similar to this one with a long stretch of highway, captured somewhere in the American West. I've have been similar settings in Utah heading down south to Moab or east of Death Valley National Park. All beautiful! Here I was heading out west to great basin national Park. I definitely had to stop to capture one here. My thoughts on composing this image was to get down low, using the LCD screen with LiveView on my Nikon D850 SLR camera. That would allow me to get closer to the road and use the LCD screen to line up and compose the image. I could capture a look across and down the highway and raise the horizon slightly higher into the image. I think that would bring out more of a sense of grandeur with those mountains off in the distance. The blue skies and clouds would be that color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image. I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation in DxO PhotoLab 5. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 5 where I added a Polarization and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured. One image I have saved that gave me the idea for this image was here (500px.com/photo/5654475/Vintage-Travel-by-David-Bouchat/).

A Panoramic Setting with a Road Ahead Leading to Santiago Peak by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: At a roadside pullout on US Hwy 385 with a view looking to the southwest just outside of Marathon, Texas, on a drive to Big Bend National Park. My thinking in composing this image was to use the centerline and road ahead as a leading line into the image with Santiago Peak as a focal point and distant destination. I used the swiveled out LCD screen and LiveView on my Nikon SLR camera to line up the image. I could then just touch that screen to focus and meter the image captured. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 4 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

On the Road Again with Baby Yoda by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: This was more of a fun type image to capture and obviously not to license, given the figure present :-) My thinking in composing this image was to take advantage of this long stretch of road present outside of Marathon, Texas, and have Baby Yoda in the center of the road. That road would be the leading line into the image with Santiago Peak off in the distance. I used the swiveled out LCD screen with LiveView to center up and align the image as well as picking a focus point on the figure.

Hand to Paw by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: An idea for an image I saw a few years ago but can't recall the site as a reference. I had thought about capturing this type of image using my SLR camera but realized that given the bulk and size it would probably be simpler and easier to maneuver an iPhone. The rest of the story with this image is having a patient, young golden retriever who allowed me to take my time in composing and lining up for this image. Her name is Princess Josie.