The Furious Arch

New Journal 49 – Goodnight Seattle: Hello London!

As we await our boarding call, I’m looking around at a familiar sight. We’ve never been to Seattle’s airport before today, but airports around the world have that same apprehensive/exciting atmosphere. For us, we’re leaving a country that has given us an incredible 6 weeks. We’re reluctant to leave.

That reluctance is mixed with a dose of both excitement and apprehension. We’re returning home to our friends and family. We have short term plans and projects that we’re looking forward to. But, as always, we haven’t made any decisions on long term plans or goals.

We’re waiting to create that next adventure, riding on the wave to God knows where, in search of God knows what. Most of our long term readers will know that’s how we usually do things, for better or worse.

Looking at the past 3 months, my imagery has taken an entirely different turn, and the increase in both followers and readers is a reflection of that, I believe. I’m committed to improvement and learning. By the same token, I’m a teacher by nature – hence the educational aspect of my blog.

I have a series of online workshops planned for the end of this year which will allow me to add that interactive element to my teaching that I can’t offer in my HDR video tutorial.

Without thinking too far ahead, I want to say a big thank you to the awesomeness of all those we met on the road in the Americas. Whether in the wilderness of Patagonia or the dryness of the Atacama desert, we always made friends with fascinating, positive people. And in the US, I’ve met talented photographer after talented photographer who inspired me in some way or another. 

Seamus, our Irish host in NYC set us up for a great trip. And from Chris Smith to Dave Morrow, we’ve been shown some awesome shooting spots and spoiled with great company. Not to mention the great time we had with our new friends Beboy and Sabine in both Chicago and San Francisco.

Although our American adventure is coming to an end soon, the connections we’ve made will continue to get stronger. And I have a better portfolio that holds as much financial value as it does sentimental value.

This trip, although the most expensive we’ve ever invested in, has been worth every single penny. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, and for those of you who have followed along, thank you for your encouragement and support. I hope you enjoyed the journey with us.

See you on the other side of the pond.

Today’s Photo – A fiery sunrise at Mesa Arch

Using Luminance Masks, I blended the three exposures with the intention of bringing as much detail as possible into the rocky foreground. Using Nik’s detail extraction, I enhanced the textures in that area. I used Luminance Masks again to target the detail enhancement on the rocks only.

I applied a vignette Lightroom. However, since I didn’t want dark vignetting in the sky, I masked out the LR changes, leaving vignetting in the foreground only.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing