The Lighthouse

Cool! Ive driven past there many times, never stopped--guess i should next time! The highlights in the center fg look a tad bright, otherwise this looks good to me.

Rick, I live in Amarillo. I think you have a nice composition here. I find it hard to find a strong foreground in Palo Duro Canyon but I think you succeeded. The contrast here is a bit too strong for my tastes as you had difficult light to work with (although the light on the Lighthouse itself is nice). It would be worth trying this composition in better light (it's also cooler during the "magic hour" times--this can be a brutal hike even in late morning in the summer). I think from this angle this would be a sunrise location. Thanks for sharing. It's nice to see some images close to home.

The hike to and from is brutal in the summer. I hiked alone with about 30 lbs . of gear I did not need, a tripod and not enough water. By the time I got to the Lighthouse, I was almost out of water, threw up and had to cool down a bit before the final vertical climb to the position I shot from. I was in trouble with the heat and made it out only after the Rangers came looking for me and brought me out the last mile in the motor mule. They told me no rain for over a year and the temp was 125. There are few who perish and I consider myself lucky. Be careful, don't hike alone and take at least a gallon of water per person. August is not the time to go. Keep on shooting.

Rick,

The composition works pretty well with the trees and towers balancing each other out pretty well. While I can't disagree about the hard light, I think you did well to mitigate it. To me, this smaller version seems a little over sharpened to me, especially in tree and brush on the left. Also, the quality of the large version drops off quite a bit with some jpg compression. Did you simply upsize your original web version? That's kinda what it looks like to me. Not sure how you processed them, but if you're not, I would recommend resizing for the larger version as a separate process and from your original, working master file.

Thanks for posting!

Lon

Rick, I'm glad to hear you made it out ok. The heat last year was extraordinary and the drought conditions compounded the problem. We set an all-time record high of 111F (and it is always hotter in the canyon). We also had a period of about 50 consecutive days over 100F while Childress had a streak of over 90 days I believe (I don't remember the exact numbers but it was unbelievable). If I remember correctly there were two people who died last year while hiking in Palo Duro due to the heat.

I have learned to go early or late and to avoid the heat of the day - it's better for photography anyway (and much better for me)!! I didn't even go down to the canyon last year - it just wasn't worth it. I'm hoping for a much cooler summer this year.