I've been away from the forums for a while now, due to the fact that an opportunity arose for me to take a vacation, so I was busy with a lot of planning and preparation (and then of course the trip itself!). This was the first photo vacation I've ever taken- actually it's the first vacation I've taken in years. As I'm a single guy, currently with no photography friends, this was a solo trip, which is great since I like solitude anyway
Thought I've culled many shots, I haven't done much editing yet. I'll probably just share the shots and accompanying brief stories as I go through editing things, rather than doing one big thread. To kick things off:
Mima Mounds Natural Area, Washington. Headed to this location for possible landscape shots, as well as the hope to get some wildlife (wildlife shots/story coming in future thread). This is a prairie, with unusual "mounds" of soil covered in moss, grass, and other things. The cause of the mounds is hotly debated by many people; some theories more plausible than others. One for a good laugh is the "giant gopher" theory
The day was challenging, with numerous rapid and extreme changes in weather. Suddenly a storm would roll in, completely blanketing the sky with a solid sheet of dark clouds, dumping buckets of rain, and with powerful winds blowing the rain sideways. Then the clouds would break, the sun would come out, and then shortly after that, it would begin sprinkling rain, then convert to blustery storm, and so on. Difficult conditions, to say the least. During a calm period between the madness, I managed to capture these images.
Let me say, one frustrating thing about this location is that your viewpoint for photos is mostly limited to the observation spot the park service put in. Unfortunately the angles don't lend themselves to a nice compositionHad I descended to the ground and explored on foot (which I did), the landscape options were not ideal, due to the low viewpoint which does not allow you to capture the expanses of mounds. I worked with what was available, and these are ok for me but the compositions could be much better had the observation deck been positioned differently.
When I got home with these photos, I decided to try some B&W conversions with a bit of dramatic post processing. I'm rather happy with the result. I like photo one for the expansive view and drama, showing a huge area and scale of the trees vs the mounds, and also the clouds high above. Overall a powerful photo for me, despite the somewhat "static" visual flow. Photo 2, I like the lines and visual flow slightly better, though I wish the largest mound was off to the side more. The sunburst and cloud is a nice bonus. I wish the positives of each of these photos could have been combined into one photo. Oh well.
C&C appreciated. Please let me know if you prefer photo one, or photo two, and why. Thank you. EDIT - now added image 3, which is the same shot as #1 but less cropped.
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3 - New!