Sun Tunnels - Part One

Last weekend, my buddy Rusty and I made a trek out to the Lucin Sun Tunnels with the hope of getting in some Milky Way shots.  I'll post those images later, for now, here's a collection of images from sunset and sunrise the following morning.

Sunrise in Black & White

I think this may be my favorite shot form sunrise at the Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley.

 

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/100 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 35 mm

Sunrise - Mesquite Dunes

While in Vegas recently for work, I had the opportunity to make a quick trip out to Death Valley.  This was my first visit there, and I can't wait to get back.  It is a truly amazing place.  We spent a couple of hours during sunrise at Mesquite Dunes.  I've always wanted to photograph dunes, and these were fantastic!

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/50 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 35 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/50 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 105 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/125 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 24 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/60 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 99 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/30 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 105 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/80 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 92 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/50 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 105 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/125 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 105 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/160 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 32 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/60 Sec - f/16 - ISO 100 - 105 mm

Morning Light

A couple of images from the other morning at the Lucin Sun Tunnels

Canon EOS-1D X - EF24mm f/1.4L II USM

1/2500 Sec - f/6.3 - ISO 400 - 24 mm

Canon EOS-1D X - EF24mm f/1.4L II USM

1/500 Sec - f/6.3 - ISO 400 - 24 mm

Valley Of Fire

Valley Of Fire is one of my favorite places to shoot.  It doesn't matter what time of day you visit, there are amazing images to be made everywhere.  On a recent trip to Vegas for work, one of my reps and I went in a day early so that we could spend a bit of time shooting.  I shot these images while Drew and I were checking out some new places to do light painting.  

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/2000 Sec - f/2.8 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/1600 Sec - f/2.8 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/400 Sec - f/2.8 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/250 Sec - f/2.8 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/1250 Sec - f/2.8 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon PowerShot S120 - 5.2-26.0 mm

1/2000 Sec - f/2 - ISO 80 - 5.2 mm

Canon EOS-1D X - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/160 Sec - f/8 - ISO 100 - 70 mm

Canon EOS-1D X - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/80 Sec - f/8 - ISO 100 - 24 mm

Canon EOS-1D X - EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

1/250 Sec - f/8 - ISO 100 - 28 mm

Canon EOS-1D X - EF17-40mm f/4L USM

1/13 Sec - f/22 - ISO 400 - 19 mm

Valley Of Fire Sunrise

I captured this the other morning in Valley Of Fire State Park.  This is a 9 image panorama, merged in Photoshop CC.
I dare you to click on the images to view them a little larger.

So, color or black and white?

To Clean or Not To Clean?

Gear is meant to be used.  Using your gear gets it dirty.  That's just the way it is.  Getting your gear cleaned occasionally is a good idea.

My Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS lens is probably my most used lens.  It travels with me almost everywhere.  It's light, has a great focal range, and produces sharp, clean images.  Like I said, it's one of my most used lenses.

Like I said before, using your gear gets it dirty.  Dirty gear needs to be cleaned.  This lens was long overdue for a good cleaning.  Long overdue.  This fact was brought to my attention the other day when I took this shot.

Before I explain further, let me tell you a little bit about this image.  This was shot the other morning in Valley of Fire State Park, just outside of Las Vegas, NV.  It was a fantastic morning and the warm sunrise light plays off of the red rocks beautifully.  One of the things I love about shooting a good sunrise is the starbursts that you can capture.  These happen when a point of light (the sun in this case) peeks over a hard edge (the rock in this case).  The points of the starburst are exaggerated when you use a small aperture with your lens.  For this shot, I was using f/22.  It worked beautifully, I got the results I was looking for.

Now, back to the original point of this post.  The down-side to shooting at f/22, is that every bit of dirt on your gear will show up in your image.  Don't believe me?  Check out what I had to do to this image in Lightroom.

 Use your gear.  Clean your gear.  It's that simple.

First Sunrise - Round Two

Second round of images from the first sunrise of 2014.

First Sunrise - 2014

A few weeks ago, Doug, Rusty, and I decided that Antelope Island would be a great spot to enjoy the first sunrise of 2014.  As you can imagine, it was a chilly morning and the sunrise wasn't spectacular, but there were still a few good images to be made.  When working on these in post, I found that I was intrigued by the simplicity of these scenes and I was really drawn to the black and white versions.  I've got a few more that I'll put into a second post in the next couple of days.