I’m sure I’ve said this before, but Venice is by far one of the coolest cities I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. There are so many streets and alleys to explore, and you never know what you’ll find around the next bend. If you haven’t been, you should put Venice on your must see list.
Although I still love processing HDR photographs (and probably always will), lately I’ve been finding a lot of enjoyment in processing single exposures. There are many times when the limited dynamic range of a camera can make a scene more compelling than if the full range of light were exploited. If you’re an HDR enthusiast, experiment with two versions of an image: one tonemapped from a set of brackets and one single exposure from the set. See if all that dynamic range is really necessary to convey your photographic message. It’s easy to fall into the trap of shooting brackets and processing for HDR all the time…make sure you inspect your bracket sets before tonemapping to really see if you need to expand the dynamic range.
Don’t be afraid to try new (or old) things, it’s good for you, and you may just fall in love with this wonderful hobby all over again.
One thing I learned during my trip to this area is that you never know what location will provide you with amazing photographic opportunities. I spent a good amount of time looking through photos of the Salton Sea on Flickr before I left, and the one place I was most excited about visiting was Bombay Beach. While I did get some great shots there, I found quite a few other unexpected locations that yielded some pretty amazing photographs. So make sure you don’t have blinders on when visiting a new location. Keep your eyes open because you never know what hidden gems can be found if you just take your time.
This is a shot from Bombay Beach, home of this shot. While I was there, I ran into a former local who lived in the area as a child. She had fond memories of playing on the beach and swimming in the sea all summer long. Looking at this beach now, it’s hard to believe that people once enjoyed it as a recreation area.
Now, I apologize in advance if anyone is grossed out by the image below, but this is a common scene on the shores of the Salton Sea. As the salinity in the lake has risen over the years, a number of species of fish have started to die off. The result is what you see below…shorelines absolutely littered with dead and decaying fish. It’s really quite sad.
Despite the desolate feel of the area, the Salton Sea still seems to be a relatively popular destination for RV travellers. There were at least 5 or 6 camped out at this particular park, and I saw even more at some other locations along the western shore. Aside from the apparently amazing bird watching, I’m not sure what else one would do while camping out along the Salton Sea. From the few beaches I visited, I’d say swimming is an absolute no-no due to the obscene amount of dead and rotting fish that line the shore and shallows, and despite the warm weather I experienced, I don’t think boating is popular this time of year. Not a place I’d want to camp, but to each their own.
A quick processing note: The three photos that make up this series thus far are all single exposures edited in onOne’s PhotoTools. I stacked about 6 effects to create the warm, vintage look for this series, and then saved the filter stack as a preset…an awesome feature in PhotoTools. This way, for each new image, I can just run my saved preset and cut out a whole lot of editing time. From there, I perform some minor edits back in Lightroom.
