Cathedral Rock Fire Tower (podcast)
Cathedral Rock Fire Tower
Hiked July 17th 2021
In this podcast we hike up the Cathedral Rock Fire Tower trail. we talk about
the memories that something as simple as smell can bring on, and why its
important to take time to enjoy your family. Hiking up the Cathedral Rock
trail is something I've been looking forward to for some time, unfortunately,
due to closures I wasn't able to do it till now. The trail is about 1 mile in,
and 1 mile out, with an incline of about 200 feet from the bottom to
top. I hope you enjoy the photos we made along the way.
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| 22mm, f/5.6, 1/100sec, ISO 250 Buy Print |
Seeing a boardwalk through the forest was a pleasant surprise for me. It provided a great leading line to bring the viewer right into the dark mysterious forest
that laid beyond. though it wasn't quite that dark in reality I wanted this photo to evoke a little wonder, and curiosity.
For the edit, I lowered the shadows and lifted some highlights, then I just made some minor color adjustments to the lighter greens in the center, and the warmer tones of the boardwalk.
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| 22mm, f/5.6, 1/100sec, ISO 250 |
This is the same location as the previous photo I opted for a portrait orientation and stepped to the right. I feel like this gives the photo a little more feeling of being there.
I have a bit of an affinity for a shadowy image with lifted blacks and I
think that's really shown in this photos and additional photos in this
collection.
For the edit I lowered the shadows and raised the
highlights but, I also raised the highlights on the lightest green colors in
the center to brighten up center where the light was shining through.
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| Shot on Pixel 3 (phone) |
Now here's an image that I think requires a little explaining.
Its not immediately apparent, but there are trees growing on top of that rock.
I suppose if you think about it, there's not anything special about that, as
all trees are growing on top of a rock in some way or another, but in this
case we get to see the rock.
I see this as a great example of what time can do, at one point the top of
that rock may have been bare, but over time the collection of pine needles,
dirt, and vegetation, grew allowing enough soil, or soil like substance for
these trees to grow.
It makes me think about what my kitchen floor might look like if I didn't
sweep it for 1000 years, sure, its just a little dust on the floor now, but given time, nature takes over all things.
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| 22mm, f/11, 1/100sec, ISO 800 |
When I first started this hike I noted the types of settings I'd like to see
that may offer a good photo opportunity, a clearing was one of them, this
clearing however wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but we made the best of
it.
A trend you might be noticing in my editing style is the dark mystery in the
distance, and lifted blacks, and that's how I edited this photo as well.
The editing process for this image started with a Lightroom preset, I usually
cycle through the presets for inspiration, and ideas.
I started with the preset "VN07", which makes adjustments mostly in the HSL
panel, warming the greens, and desaturating everything slightly. I lowered
shadows, highlights, added gradient filters, and lowered the exposure, then I reset it
all, and started over.
Editing for me is a process of trial, and error, fortunately, in the world of
digital photography we have the luxury of "undo" because without it I might
still be working on this photo.
in the end I settled on the preset Matte, which usually does the trick in
giving me the lifted blacks look I so enjoy. From there it was a matter of raising the highlights in the greens, and lowing the highlights everywhere else.
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| 50mm, f/11, 1/125sec, ISO 200 |
The view from the plateau was a bit of a mixed bag. As you can see it was
obstructed by the trees down hill. As much as I would have loved a big grand
view of the mountain ranges in the distance I'd prefer not to chop down the
forest in the way, besides, I think the trees add a bit of balance.
I shot this photo as a 3 photo panoramic, a technique I often forget about, and wish I would use more often, mainly for larger photos. Lightroom can
stitch together photos from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, or
from any direction. I just have to remember to get the photos.
Editing this photo was a bit more involved. Starting with my favorite
preset, Matte, I then went a little crazy. I actually don't remember much of
the editing process, but while writing this I'm looking at the history in
Lightroom, and I don't know where to start.
I started by cropping it down, making sure the tree in the middle was
sufficiently in the middle, so as to block the view properly. I then proceeded
to mask out the brightest parts of the nearest trees by hand, and lightened
them slightly to really make them pop, and stand out.
I then made global adjustments to the highlights, and shadows, before masking
out everything except for the cloudy sky in the distance, and adjusting color
temperature.
At this point you may be thinking, do these images even represent the scene as
it appeared in real life?
and the answer to that is yes, but no, its complicated. I believe how an
individual sees a scene is subjective, the panoramic image above isn't far
removed from what I saw before me as I made the photo, but the images before
that were edited in a style the represents the emotion that I felt in that
moment. No, the forest that laid beyond the boardwalk or the trail wasn't a
pitch black void, but it felt like it was, and at the end of the day this is
art, we can create it how ever we like.
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| 50mm, f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 100 |
I wasn't expecting to see this plaque at the top of the trail, and normally if
I did I wouldn't bring it up.
My intentions are to keep the podcast upbeat, informative, and fun, this is
obviously none of those things, but I felt inclined to include it as I was
thinking how wonderful it would be to bring my wife, and kids to this trail
just as I approached it.
I didn't take much time editing this photo as I didn't think it was
appropriate to make art of it. I through a preset on it so it felt more in
place with the rest of the photos from the trip, and that's it.
Still, I think the photo does a wonderful job of standing out, and speaking for
it's self without much editing.
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| 50mm, f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 100 |
The camp fire, and bench at the plateau was set up almost as some kind of set, or example, I don't think it was ever intended to be lit, nor the bench to be
sat on as it was quite unsecure just resting on a couple of rocks.
I considered placing myself in the photo, on the bench, and looking back maybe
I should have, I do need a profile picture after all.
To edit this photo I only used a Lightroom built in preset, VN07. That may
seem lazy, but the fact of the matter is, it literally just did what I would
have done, but in a lot fewer clicks.
The preset makes adjustments to the black levels, and adjusts colors in the HSL
panel. I honestly can't think of anything I would have done in addition to
this photo. there's always the possibility of going with a completely
different style of edit all together, but my goal is to keep some continuity
between all the images from this trip.
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| 22mm, f/11, 1/40sec, ISO 100 Buy Print |
After blending the 3 images in photoshop I took the photo back into
Lightroom.
The first thing I had to do was straighten the image. The limited space I had
meant my tripod was in a bit of an odd, and uncomfortable position, this made
it difficult to get straight lines in the window, fortunately, Lightroom does a
great job with these types of transformative edits, unfortunately, though,
these types of transformations often come at the cost of severe cropping, this
however, was not a problem as the parts of the image cropped away from the
original added little to the overall image in way detail, mostly the wall
below the window, and the ceiling above it.
Editing this photo took some time to bring out the details.
I masked out each layer to edit it separately as I wanted the photo to have a
lot of dynamic range. I brought down the highlights in the background to show
the texture in the clouds.
I brought up the highlights and color in the trees to make them stand out, and
I brought up the exposure in the window to bring context to the
surroundings.
My initial thoughts on this photo were pretty grim, the unedited version is a
pretty stark difference from the finished product, but as the previous photos
may have been edited to reflect the emotion I felt at the time, or the
artistic vision I had in mind for it, this photo is actually closer to the
real life setting than what initially came out of the camera. although a
single photo can't fully capture the experience of being in the tower, I hope
the podcast can. If you didn't already know the photos in this collection were
all captured while recording audio for my podcast. you can listen along as I
do my best to bring you with me through audio.
Music for the podcast was provided by artists at
uppbeat.io
All Good Folks - Fly
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/fly
License code: 9HXYR8OYIFYUDIPT
Caleb Fincher - Looking Forward
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/caleb-fincher/looking-forward
License code: OXTVOPTWLYRWPCGU
And by
Production Crate -
Heartfelt
Addition music provided by the Youtube Audio Library
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