Before
After
I originally planned to post my favorite image from 2013 as the first image of the year but I am getting bored with best ofs and recaps and 2013 in general so I decided to move forward and start with something new. (If you really want to see my pick for best of 2013 go to http://jeannehoadley.com/gallery.html). Besides, after a month of cold weather, roof repairs and holidays I needed to get out of the house. So I headed on over to Las Vegas (the one in New Mexico) National Wildlife Refuge to see what I could find. Now, I have to say that one of my best wildlife photography days ever was my first visit to LVNWR back in January of 2008. I’m not sure what is going on but the last few trips I have come up completely empty handed.
So, I decided this trip that if the wildlife weren’t showing up (and they weren’t) I would just be open to seeing what else I could find to photograph. I did see a couple of hawks roosting in trees but they were not in places I could easily pull over and set up without scaring them away.
I had taken an interest in this old cottonwood tree the last time I was there but, intent on photographing raptors, I passed it by. Unfortunately, this time it was about a half mile down a road behind a locked gate. Fortunately, there was a hole in the fence big enough to shoot through with my telephoto lens.
When I got the image home the first thing I did was crop in to get more tree and less road in the picture. The clear blue sky didn’t really suit the mood I wanted to portray so I decided to go with a sepia toned monochrome. I used the Wet Rocks filter in Silver Efex Pro and added some contrast and structure. I have to admit I didn’t really notice the tumbleweed in the road when I made the shot and I think it tends to overbalance the image on the right side. But there really wasn’t much I could do about it given the locked gate and technical limitations (or maybe I should say economic since I just can’t afford a 600mm lens). Anyway, I do rather like the shadow it casts into the road.
I added a lens falloff vignette which really helped to focus attention on the tree. I can never resist the frames in Silver Efex Pro though I do have some concerns about how to make them work with a window mat but I’ll deal with that when the time comes.