© 2020 Romi Boon All Rights Reserved
One late fall afternoon in Sedona, I noticed some strange cloud formations begin to roll in and wondered if they’d stick around and lead to yet another one of Arizona’s famous sunsets. In anticipation, I grabbed my camera, my 200-600mm len and got everything set and ready to go on my tripod, just in case. Sure enough, as the sun began to sink behind the Misgus mountain range those clouds came alive with colour. "Wow" I enthusiastically thought, "The entire sky is filled with colour". I took a few shots before I reviewing them and in so doing I noticed that the colours were not true to what I saw; obviously my camera was auto correcting the colour. What I saw behind the clouds was the brilliant blue sky however because I had my camera set to auto white balance, that sky was yellow. Quickly, before the sun sank, I flipped through the colour balance choices until of found the one that was true in colour and I immediately gave a mental thanks to the gentleman whom years ago that taught me that. I continued then to snap quite a few more, until I thought I had what I wanted and I packed everything up. A few moments later however I looked again and the sky was even more magnificent so I again set everything up and shot a few more, until I thought I had what I wanted and I packed everything up. Wouldn’t you know it, a few moments later I repeated the entire process but it was so worth the effort! "Captivating", as I named this photo, was one of my last photos I took and I chose it as my favourite because of the range in colours and densities throughout the entire photograph. While travelling, I’ve witnessed a number of sunsets however none have been as spectacular, nor as frequent, as those I’ve seen in Arizona.
The Grand Canyon is most definitely "Mighty" and it's likely one of the most photographed (and sought after) locations in the world. This photo was taken at the "Desert View Watchtower" (located at the eastern entrance to the canyon) were we spent 4 hours (taking photos) as we waited for the golden hour (sunset). We knew that the warm casting light from the sunset would make the canyon colors come alive, and it did! I love the photographic elements in this photograph. That said, I must give thanks to the many professional artists whom have all openly shared their artistic principles with me; including flow, composition and contrast. All of which, I applied to this photograph.
The world of photography has changed significantly since leaving (a previous) photographic career. Now in retirement not only do I recognize the importance of continual, mindful and spiritual growth I also recognize my need for day to day stimuli and connectivity; hence this, my photographic journey 😊 When I left my photographic career, we used 35mm cameras and (we all) had to wait to see the end results (after the negative had been processed, printed and corrected/adjusted). That said however, I was fortunate to own a photo lab and I could tweak my photographic processing to fit my vision; it was a long process! Who would have thought that I can do all of my pre-editing (processing) on my computer, at home and see it immediately..... AND then share it with you! What an amazing world! Anyways, where I’m going with this is that I’m now trying to master the digital end of the photographic world and I’ve tried 5 different photography editing sites and I think I’ve chosen this one; it gives me the ability to save crisp photos for web applications. About this photo; I had taken a number of photos of the Rio Chama River (in Abiquiu county, New Mexico) and although I usually prefer to include a sky (to add linear perspective) I felt this chosen photo had so many colorful layers of interest, the sky wasn't needed. Together (the foreground weeds, the field, the lower ridges, the middle ridges and the distant mountain) create the perspective I wanted. Yay.... I love this photo! *Full format of this photo is also available.
