In addition to being a neat little town, Spearfish is a great jumping-off place to many interesting sites: Devil’s Tower is 65 miles and an hour away; Mt. Rushmore is 66 miles and 1½ hours away; Custer State Park is 81 miles and 1 hour and 40 minutes away; and the Badlands National Park is 128 miles and about 2 hours away. All of these parks are well worth a visit.
Our first trek from Spearfish was to Devil’s Tower, which I learned before leaving home, is one of the places that our son has “always” wanted to visit. JD and I left early so that we could catch some of the early morning light and get back to Spearfish for “Arts in Park” in the afternoon (more about this tomorrow).
I had never visited Devil’s Tower and was not really sure whether I really wanted to visit it. I had seen movie “Third Encounters of the Close Kind” and thought that this big hunk of granite was something that Hollywood had dreamed-up. My first view of Devil’s Tower was almost breath-taking. You see this 1,100 foot, block of granite rising out of a hill. There is nothing else like it around. No explanation as to why it is there. I fully expected to see a spaceship come out of the clouds any second.
I was blessed with some great cloud formations as we approached the tower. Needless to say, I took many photos of the tower, both from a distance and close-up as we hiked around the base. I tried to get JD to climb it, but she had forgotten her climbing gear. Too bad, it would have been some great shots. So, just try to image, grandma dangling from a rope near the top.
I wanted this photo to be somewhat reflective of the movie with a menacing look to it. I thought that black and white did the trick.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, shot at ISO 200, f/13 and 1/60th of a second with a polarizing filter attached and on a tripod.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.
Photoshop—ran nik Color Silver Efex to convert photo to black and white and used onOne Photoframe to add boarder to image.
Bingo! I could see someone getting a different shot, but not a better one. Great mood on this one.
ReplyDeleteGreat dramatic shot Patrick!
ReplyDeleteI like your composition and post-processing (especially the black and white conversion) on this one a lot!
Well done!
Barry
Devil's Tower is definitely not like anything else. I personally found it very hard to photograph. There does not seem to be a good position from which you can really show how unusual it is. This the best photo I have seen of it. The only problem is that it does not show how massive it is. Good work.
ReplyDeleteAnne
I was told that some scientists believe that you are view the center of an old volcano. Did you take the steep path to the top?
ReplyDeleteI like the your composition, the use of B&W and your post processing except for the frame. It just does not seem to go with the overall image.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Larry,
ReplyDeleteI am shocked, shocked I say, that no one has noted that the movie was actually 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind". That said, this is a great photo, very Ansel Adamsish. I believe I would like to see a color version though.
Bob Dempsey