Usery Park Sunrise - Arizona

[ShaneS]

On my recent trip to Arizona I had the pleasure of visiting Usery Mountain Park on the recommendation of Mike Buckley. It wasn't disappointing in anything but the number of keepers that I managed to capture on my early morning visit.

This is my first attempt at combining two images to capture the beautiful colors in the sky and the detail in the foreground. I used luminosity masks to accomplish this and I am pretty happy with the result but I have looked at it too long and am seeing all sorts of things that I might have done differently from A-Z.

At this point I will toss out to you wise folks to see what you think...any and all critique or commentary welcome as I am always striving to improve.



Besides the image you might get a kick about how the morning went. I headed out very early and had no problem finding the park in the dark (read pitch black) but I arrived before the gate opened so I pulled into the visitors area and stepped out of the car to all sorts of unfamiliar desert sounds and some unexpectedly chilly temperatures that I really wasn't dressed for! I had forgotten how much the temperature varies from day to night in Arizona but won't soon make that mistake again.

Now the sounds had me a bit concerned, the birds chirping were fine but I thought I heard some Javelina (wild board) rustling about and some coyotes howling off the not to far distance. Then while the goose bumps were forming I started thinking about rattle snakes...

It turns out I saw some rabbits and that was about it besides a lot of walkers, hikers and cyclists taking advantage of an array of well kept trails and some lovely desert scenery.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[RichardTaylor]

Beautiful. Well worth while getting up early.

[Kyle]

Fantastic photo. The colour is great.

[ShaneS]

Thank you John, Richard and Kyle. It was worth getting up early for!

[IzzieK]

Wonderful shot, Shane...gotta love you for taking the time to shoot in uncomfortable weather like that...

[Brownbear]

Beautiful image! Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed your story, too.

[terrib]

Shane, I absolutely love this image. I like the composition and the beautiful light and your choice to include all that sky. So please believe me when I note a very minor thing to consider in future compositions. I wish the Saguaro cactus on the left did not end right at the hilltop. Again, minor. I really like it.

I also get surprised by the range of temps in the desert. Definitely different than Hawaii and my part of Texas!

[teokf]

I like the composition. Love the scenery and wish I was there. Personally, I would love to have a greater contrast in the foreground.

[Stagecoach]

Very cool Shane, I too like the excess of sky here, it works well.

Grahame

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image Shane, I like the composition, colours and light

[Mike Buckley]

Very well done, Shane. I especially like the slight bit of yellow rim lighting on the cactus on the left.

Though I agree with Chritina's comment about the position of that cactus relative to the distant ridge line including her emphasis that it's only a minor issue, I also appreciate that good users of our parks follow the instructions to stay on the trails. When we do that, we simply don't have control over such minor details.

Were you on the Pass Mountain Trail? If so and if I remember correctly where the fence is that you included in your shot, you walked quite a distance in the dark.

[Mike Buckley]

As for those rattlesnakes you thought you heard, I captured this one not far from Usery Mountain Park in the exact same kind of area.

[ShaneS]

Thank you Izzie, Christina, Terri, Steven, Binnur, Grahame and Mike.

Terri, we don't get much of the yellows and oranges that seem to make the sky appear on 'fire' in Arizona. In Hawaii we tend to get more of the pink and red. Both you and Mike mentioned the cactus and the background mountain and I agree that is a bit of an issue with the image and something that I missed at the time. I was freezing and it was still pretty dark

Mike, I took the three mile Blevins trail from the staging area of the park. I wasn't up for a 7 mile trek starting in the dark with all my gear and those strange animal noises around. We did see a snake on the trip but it wasn't in a wilderness area. In fact, quite the opposite, we were have a girls lunch at Tonto Bar and Grill at the Manana Resort and this guy slithered across our path (bad iPhone shot as I wasn't about to get any closer, although my girlfriend did!).



By the way, I recommend the restaurant highly to anyone visiting the area.

Steven, I did play with the foreground contrast quite a bit but increased contrast tended to make the area look too bright and not in keeping with the early morning light. If I was more skilled in PP I might have been able to figure out how to correct that. Feel free to pass along any tips on that conundrum.

Thanks again to everyone who commented.