Valley Of Fire
Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Terry Reinert in Photography
Heather and I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday afternoon to attend the Photoshop World conference that starts on Thursday morning. After getting checked into the hotel we piled into a car with Vanelli, Scott Larson, and Ron Pepper to go shoot at the Valley Of Fire State Park which is to the north east of Las Vegas.
We wanted to get there in time to get some sunset shots but, due to traffic, we got there just after the sun passed below the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Even though we missed the sun just over the horizon shots, there were still some good opportunities to get some nice evening sky photos, bracketed exposures for HDR images, and playing with flashes and flashlights.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-135mm L, 3 exposures at -2/0/+2, Photomatix Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop
Canon 5D, Cosina 19-35mm, 3 exposures at -2/0/+2, Photomatix Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop
A few lessons learned from this trip… well, technically I knew all these things prior to going out there but didn’t have the time to plan properly since we were racing the setting sun.
- When shooting in the desert, even at night, take some bottled water. It wasn’t very hot out but it was a little windy… so I ended up with a nice gritty taste in my mouth from the sand blowing around in the wind.
- When shooting in the desert at night, take a flashlight. Walking on rock formations and through fields of cactus is not very easy in low light conditions.
- Don’t wear white shoes when you’re shooting in a location with loose red sand. Your shoes won’t be nearly as white afterward as they were before.
- Don’t set your camera bag down in the loose red sand… especially with the part that rests against your back while your wearing it in the sand. When you pick your camera bag up and put it on, you will be surrounded by a cloud of red powder and your shirt will have a nice red racing stripe down the back!
Now some of those lessons learned are more for the humor effect. I actually did all those things but I was smart enough to brush off my camera bag before putting it on and technically it fell over into the sand. 
Related posts:
My Social Media
Advertisement
Additional comments powered by BackType