Took a walk this past Sunday along the Red Fox Meadows nature trail. Mostly cloudy day but so enjoyable and much needed time in nature to clear the thinking. It also provides the exercise my body and spirit need. I find it fascinating when scenes appear that catch my attention and become an image for me. I feel like a child discovering something new. Processed this image with one of the presets in Silver EFEX Pro. Made a tone curve adjustment then posted it.
“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond…” Wendell Barry
This is from a trip I made to San Francisco back in October 2005. I flew out and stayed in a hostel in San Francisco and walked the streets. I processed this image using Silver EFEX Pro 2.
This image was taken in 2004 just after the massive fires in Glacier National Park.
Back in 2004 I made a road trip on my motorcycle to the west coast. During the 3 week trip I road 4200 miles. I drove down the northwest coast of Washington into Oregon, ate seafood in Seattle and tried to cover as many National Parks as I could fit into the schedule. I camped along the road except for 4 four nights, setting up camp primarily in National Parks.
I only scheduled one afternoon and night in Glacier National Park which is not near enough time to really see the park. I setup camp in one of the campgrounds near Lake McDonald but for the life of me can’t remember which one. The previous year was one of the worst seasons of fire in Glacier National Park. A 136,00 acres were burned that year. One of the largest fires was the Roberts Fire, which burned 57,570 acres, that is near the lake. I could see the barren and naked landscape across the lake. There was a fire burning nearby, causing a haze to settle into the lower valleys of the park.
It’s cold outside this evening so I’m going through my archives and found this image that caused me to remember the trip. I wrote about this trip before and have a color image or the lake, if you care to check it out. I converted this image to black and white with Silver Efex Pro using one of the presets then making a few simple adjustments in Lightroom 4.
A final thought : I have in the past wished we had more respect for nature but I think I would rather we understood that “we are nature.”
I’ve liked what I’ve seen done with Chris Klug’s black and white images. If you’ve not been over there for a visit I suggest spending a few minutes over there. I like the results He gets from Silver Efex Pro in his post processing. So, I bought it knowing it would make me a better photographer, like him. About a year later I received an email offering a free NIK software package that included Analog Efex 3, Color Efex Pro 4, Dfine 2, Sharpener Pro 3 and Viveza and an upgrade to Silver Efex Pro. I took it. Needless to say, I’m not any better photographer because of these software tools and I have done almost nothing with any of them except Silver Efex Pro.
I’m finding there are a ton of options available in Silver Efex and I’ve touched very few of them. There are helpful tutorials in the internet in using this software. I just have to dig into it.
All of us at times go back and work on images with the intent of improving or learning something new. A couple days ago I converted an image to black and white because of an article I’d read. This is a second image I worked on. It is an HDR image. I’ve cropped the rocks out and run it through Silver Efex Pro 2. When finished I asked a couple of friends which one they liked. One immediately jumped all over the color version while the second one took time to study them, choosing the black and white version. It was at that moment I realized it was unnecessary to compare. Each version would stand on its own. Each will be liked or dislike for a thousand reasons. There was no need to compare.
On my way to the Old Market area for a bite to eat I noticed this young man waiting for the bus. I stopped, took one image and walked on while he waited. Dinner was good, also. Processed with Silver Efex Pro.
