{"id":2767,"date":"2012-12-03T10:45:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T18:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=2767"},"modified":"2019-11-29T10:26:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T18:26:17","slug":"making-photograph-clearing-storm-west-temple-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/03\/making-photograph-clearing-storm-west-temple-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making of a Photograph – Clearing Storm, West Temple 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I drive across the Mojave Desert late one Thursday night not long ago, heading north on I-15, I have a sense of harmony, of unity with the night, the highway, my car.\u00a0 The pavement ahead eases into the beam of my headlights, grows brighter as it draws closer and then slips back into darkness as it slides underneath.\u00a0 Nights like this are a joy.\u00a0 I\u2019m in a groove, a state of calm serenity and anticipation.\u00a0 Tomorrow I\u2019ll be returning to Zion National Park, something I always look forward to.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t notice the faint flashes of light.<\/p>\n

Powerful thunderstorms were roiling over eastern California and southern Nevada that night, The dark clouds glowed with flickers of light and precious water dropped on the parched desert.\u00a0 it was a huge storm and I was chasing it.\u00a0 Approaching the state line the casino lights of Prim were reflected, bright and shimmering, on what is normally a dry lake bed.\u00a0 A half hour later as Las Vegas finally came into view, the glitz and glamor of the gaudy hotels was dwarfed by the grandeur of bolts of lightning streaking for miles across the turbulent sky.<\/p>\n

The following morning workers were cleaning up after the storm but it hadn\u2019t fully passed.\u00a0 Storm clouds still blanketed the sky for the remainder of the journey to Zion.\u00a0 A detour to Kolob Terrace to check the aspens was, I suppose, inevitable.\u00a0 The falling snow up in the high country was a surprise.\u00a0 And a delight.\u00a0 Sunrise the next morning was looking promising.<\/p>\n

The best location in Zion that gets the full sunrise treatment is West Temple.\u00a0 I\u2019ve photographed it many times but never got anything that I was excited about.\u00a0 The most popular location to shoot from is the \u2018patio\u2019 behind the museum but on this morning I chose a less visited one \u2013 the 2nd switchback on Tunnel Road.\u00a0 The expectation of clearing storm clouds, the choice of shooting locations \u2013 everything worked out just right.<\/p>\n

\"west_temple_clearing_storm_121013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To say there was a lot happening up there that morning is an understatement.\u00a0 The cloud cover was thick when we first arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"zion_121013__SM33322\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The West Temple (on the far left) was completely socked in.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33325\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The wall directly in front of us looked very interesting the way the clouds were swirling around its peaks.\u00a0 It really captured my imagination.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33332\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eventually the sun started breaking through.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33339\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the West Temple was still socked in.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It was happening all around; everything was changing so fast.\u00a0 It was a busy time.\u00a0 In the midst of the action I snapped this one.\u00a0 The West Temple is peaking through the clouds and so is the Sundial to its right. But the Altar of Sacrifice with the vivid red stain dripping down its face is still obscured (on the far right).<\/p>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33353\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I got home and imported the files into Lightroom I started the selection process<\/a>.\u00a0 I must confess, I passed up this one on the first round.\u00a0 But a couple of weeks later I took another look and decided it may have some potential.\u00a0 It\u2019s often a good idea to put some time between the excitement of the moment when you\u2019re in the field and the more objective perspective that come later.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t like all the blue sky.\u00a0 Sure enough, it\u2019s not an empty blue sky that we try to avoid; there are clouds.\u00a0 But the sky was calling attention to itself and I didn\u2019t feel that that was what this image was about.\u00a0 It was about the massive wall with storm clouds swirling around it\u2019s shoulders and peaks.\u00a0 So I tried cropping it and ended up with this.<\/p>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33353-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That changed the entire mood of the image and made it energetic and powerful.\u00a0 It has a lot more drama now.<\/p>\n

I try very hard to be sensitive to my feelings and inspirations in the field and communicate them in the finished photograph.\u00a0 But sometimes the image itself has something it wants to say and then it becomes a collaboration between the image and the photographer.\u00a0 When events are happening so fast and there are so many interesting things that are calling for your attention, slowing down to experience the mood of the moment was not in the cards.\u00a0 However, in general, I was eager to capture the drama of the storm clouds.\u00a0 The image was saying it wanted all the viewer\u2019s attention to be focused on the wall and clouds.\u00a0 And it also wanted to convey the glory and warmth of the sunrise.<\/p>\n

The first adjustments are done in Lightroom and there are several qualities that a great photograph should have.\u00a0 First, there needs to be a black point.\u00a0 To draw attention to the cliffs I plan to make the foreground slopes silhouettes; that is, totally black.\u00a0 That way they will frame the subject and direct the eye to the action in the background.\u00a0 The Black adjustment does this.\u00a0 Another quality is to open up the shadows on the wall.\u00a0 Silhouettes don\u2019t have detail but the other shadows need detail\u00a0 So they need to be lightened up a little.\u00a0 The Shadow adjustment accomplished this.\u00a0 Thirdly, to convey the glory of sunrise I\u2019ll warm the image just a bit.\u00a0 Temperature and Tint are perfect for\u00a0 this.\u00a0 A dash of Clarity pulls out more detail in the wall and clouds.\u00a0 And a pinch of Vibrance gives the colors a bit of life.\u00a0 We end up with this.<\/p>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33353-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The foreground isn\u2019t silhouetted the way I want but that will get taken care of in Photoshop, which comes next.\u00a0 I have an action that I run on virtually all images that creates a mid-tone contrast mask.\u00a0 It makes the light look like velvet.\u00a0 It knocks down the overall contrast so I use a global Level layer to reestablish the black point and if necessary add more contrast.<\/p>\n

These adjustments added more detail to the foreground slopes.\u00a0 So I created another Levels layer and used it as a local adjustment to turn the foreground to a pure silhouette.\u00a0 A little dodging and burning was needed on the wall so I created a layer for that.\u00a0 And finally, there were blue hues in the shadows and parts of the cloud on the left that were distracting.\u00a0 So I warmed them up with a Color Balance layer.\u00a0 The final step was to vignette the four corners.\u00a0 I printed several proofs to get the image looking great on paper and here\u2019s the final result.<\/p>\n

\"west_temple_clearing_storm_121013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think this hits the mark, at least the mark that the image and I set.\u00a0 The golden light of the morning sun brings warmth and life to the canyon.\u00a0 The mighty walls stand tall with awesome strength and majesty.\u00a0 And the clouds, the soft, fleeting clouds bring the rains and snows that have, over the eons, carved this masterpiece.<\/p>\n

I can easily imagine a large print hanging in our home in the not too distant future.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the end of the morning.\u00a0 It continued to amaze us although towards the end the clouds had pretty much dissipated.\u00a0 So for a grand finale I grabbed this panorama\u2026<\/p>\n

\"zion_121013__SM33397_uncrop-Edit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a glorious morning.\u00a0 And this one might have to go on the wall too.<\/p>\n

\n

Join the conversation.\u00a0 Please feel free to share your comments, reactions and experiences.<\/p>\n

Also feel free to share this post on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn or email it to your friends.\u00a0 The links for this are at the top of the article.<\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/a><\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

(1896)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A clearing storm in beautiful Zion Naitonal Park contributes to an exciting photogrpah of the West Temple. Read how this photograph was created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,273,471,272],"tags":[199,93,14],"class_list":["post-2767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-articles","category-lightroom-how-to-articles-articles","category-making-a-photograph","category-photoshop-how-to-articles-articles","tag-photography-workshops","tag-workshop","tag-zion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-ID","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2767"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4697,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions\/4697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}