Interesting Cloud Texture

Not a big post today, but here is a picture with an interesting cloud texture. It was completely overcast and then these clouds rolled over. Then it was overcast again. Kinda weird, but cool!

Claretcup Cactus Closeup

The Claretcup Cactus is in full bloom right now, and even though it adds a great splash of color to landscape pictures, it's even more beautiful closeup. 

A Cloudy Morning in Zion

A couple of Friday's pictures from Zion. It was super cloudy and sadly, jammed packed with tourists, so I didn't do too much picture taking. I think my days of hiking the main trails in the park are over for the year. Time to hit the backcountry trails, away from the crowds!

 West Temple and the Alter of Sacrifice receiving a small dose of sunshine.

 A little closer of the Alter of Sacrifice. This mountain is one of my favorites in the Park. I love the streaks of "blood" red.

 An Indian Paintbrush. This flower becomes very common this time of year, and if you know where to go, you can sometimes find fields of this flower mixed with the wild grass. 

Another shot, from another angle, of the Temple of Sinawava. 

Toquerville Arches' Springtime Flowers

Scarlet and I went Jeeping and hiking out at the Toquerville Arches today and though it was overcast about the whole time, the springtime flowers were in bloom and I made it a point to photograph every different kind that I found. I don't know the names of all of them and do not in any way claim to be great at photographing flowers, but they were so beautiful, I could not pass up the opportunity! 

(WARNING! Seven (7) pictures long!)

 Claretcup Cactus in Bloom with the beautiful landscape behind

 Pale Evening Primrose

 Cliffrose

 Utah Serviceberry (Maybe?)

 Desert Sage

 Wild Rhubarb

Don't know what this one is called, but its one of my favorites!

I am sure there will be lots more in bloom the next few weeks, so I may do another post of just flowers :)

JPEG, RAW and Processed

Well I said that I would post up some examples of JPEG, RAW, and Processed to show the differences. It takes some time figuring out the settings, but I am thinking the Processed looks best, because you don't have all the blown out detail. I would love to hear what you guys think though!

 The pillar at the Temple of Sinawava in Zion- JPEG (straight out of the camera with its settings) 

 The pillar at the Temple of Sinawava in Zion- RAW (straight out of the camera, without any special settings). As you can see, it is a very bland picture, with no contrast or real color!

 The pillar at the Temple of Sinawava in Zion- Processed (A little work done with Picasa). Auto contrast, brightened fill light, shadow and highlight adjustments. 

 Angels Landing from a cottonwood covered floodplain- JPEG

 Angels Landing from a cottonwood covered floodplain- RAW

Angels Landing from a cottonwood covered floodplain- Processed

Hope this helps you guys see what the difference is between the three. It sure helped me! Looking forward to input...

Trying out Picasa with Zion Pictures

Well, I was recommended to download and do all of my photograph work through Picasa. So here I am, and some pictures I took today. Now with these pictures, they were all taken in RAW Format, still 100% in manual mode, but the camera only records what it sees, no extra color settings or anything. So the pictures are actually fairly "ugly" when they pull up on the screen. So there is some processing, which I am not a fan of, required in order to get an attractive picture. 

 Bridge Mountain, West Temple, and East Temple, blanketed by cloud cover. 

 Not too sure what this mountain is called (I am sure it has a name), but I thought it was one good lookin Butte!

 The drainage of the slickrock bowl which I hiked to today.

A black and white of the famous hoodoo located near Keyhole Canyon. I will have to get a colored picture, but I was thinking it looked better B&W with the cloud cover.

Tomorrow, I will have to post a series of pictures showing a JPEG created by the camera, an unprocessed RAW, and a processed RAW converted to JPEG. Just to show ya'll what that's all about.

Zion's Riverside Walk Trail

I am trying to fit in as much Zion as possible the next couple weeks, so Scarlet and I went for a casual hike on the Riverside Walk Trail. Got a few pictures, but here is my favorite one.

This is toward the beginning of the trail with Telephone Canyon Falls in the background.