In Alaska, it seems there are glaciers just about everywhere you look. Here’s another one (at midday- yikes!):
Revisited
I haven’t been doing much shooting lately- so thank goodness there are dozens of unprocessed photos to go through. Here’s a photo from last summer of the Matanuska River in Alaska.
Ocean to Ocean
This is a view of the Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge from the park where yesterday’s photo was taken. As I took this, I counted the garbage cans I would have to clone out for my photo group- and groaned. I only took out the one that was right in the middle of the sand and left the others. This photo will not be taken to class!
Besides garbage cans, you can also see park visitors, Castle Dome, and birds flying overhead.
Castle Dome from Afar
Here’s a view of Castle Dome from under the bridge spanning the Colorado River crossing.
Outside through the Inside
Another shot taken at Castle Dome
Overpass
When we were in Yuma a couple weeks ago, we walked along the Colorado River during the golden hour. This was taken looking up at the freeway overpass.
We Were Warned . . .
Despite the warning, we entered anyway- and found lots of delightful items to photograph!
Vulture Mine
Another outing with my photo group- this time close to home!
We visited the Vulture Mine outside Wickenberg and enjoyed wandering around the old ghost town taking photos. Gold was discovered there in 1863 by Henry Wickenberg, who started the mining operation. Eventually a town of 5,000 grew up around the mine, which became the most productive gold mine in Arizona history. It was shut down in 1942 by the government, but is now owned by a private corporation and is open for tours.
It sleeps six. . .
A look inside and outside a cell- pretty grim.
3:10 to Yuma
The 3:10 to Yuma was headed to the Yuma Territorial Prison, as were we the day after we toured Castle Dome. It is now a museum- a good one. You can see the cells and learn about the notable prisoners and administrators- and gain insights into Arizona history.
An archway leading into the locked area:
At first it almost looks like a church window- but it’s a view through a cell. In person, there are NO similarities to a church!
Luminarista
Over the years I have bought quite a few plug-ins for Photoshop, which I use fairly often- but not without a lot of tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop as well. In our photo class, it is not uncommon to use well over twenty layers to craft the final image. I jumped right in when I joined- and have become used to this style of editing.
But. . . I have been having some arm and shoulder issues since August, and have been told by the chiropractor and doctor to cut back on the computer (I haven’t mentioned to them how much time I spend texting. . .). Since my two retirement hobbies (genealogy as well as photography) involve LOTS of computer time (like all day long. . .), I have tried to change my habits. I discovered propping my laptop or tablet against my legs and RECLINING is a fairly pain-free way to do go through family trees and compare DNA matches and that texting via voice works well- but nothing was working for photo editing.
Then I started playing with Luminar, which I had but had not really used much until recently. For the last month, I have been editing at my computer using Lightroom, then going into Photoshop if I need to clone something out- and then going into Luminar for the rest. I love their presets, which I can modify with sliders- and then I’m done! I’ve upgraded to their 2018 version, which is even better!
The photo below was taken at Castle Dome. I just loved this little tableau- the aprons hung by the counter. It reminds me of Lonnie’s grandmother’s farmhouse. I spent longer than I’ve been doing in Photoshop- I had to clone some blown out areas in the curtains (only 5-10 minutes). But then I took it into Luminar and used one of their presets as a basis for this edit. What took the most time was deciding which preset to use.
And because I can’t leave well enough alone, here’s a toned black and white (just done in Lightroom with a one click preset I created years ago) for another look.
Every picture tells a story . . .
Wonder what happened here?
The Tiny House
Tiny houses are certainly a big deal now- but who knew they were a big deal in the 1870’s? I don’t know the story behind this little building in Castle Dome, but it certainly caught my eye!
Castle Dome
Here’s a view of Castle Dome with the old buildings in the foreground.
Desert Dust
Castle Dome Road seems longer than it is, especially for us city slickers in our shiny cars! Every time a car drove by as we were pulled over taking photos, a dust cloud lingered long after the car disappeared. On the way back out to the main highway, I decided it was a photo op and shot this through the windshield.
melinda anderson photography 