Next stop: Oregon!
Some thoughts and photos from a late summer trip to Oregon, as well as some upcoming plans for a return visit.
We are heading back to Oregon, where we will spend the week of Thanksgiving. I’m so excited!
I have loved Oregon since my first visit, which was back in 2001. Since then, I have been probably 10 times, maybe more. Some business, some pleasure - but it’s always enjoyable, camera or not. This time, I will be taking a camera and will get some time to photograph Portland as well as along the coast a bit.
I’m really looking forward to spending some time walking the streets of Portland with my camera. Despite many visits, I’ve never really had much time to photograph the city. Then after that I will be along the coast, where I have taken a LOT of photos - and of course I will be getting more on this trip. The Oregon coastline is my favorite place in the US - it’s just so beautiful and peaceful there. Oh, and it’s photogenic too, of course.
Today’s post contains a number of shots I captured on my last visit to the Oregon coast, which was back in August of this year. I’m not sure if I will get the same vibrant and beautiful light on this trip, since I haven’t been there during this time of year before. But of course I am hopeful. And regardless, it’s beautiful even if it’s a bit drab and overcast. I will find out soon enough!
Sunset next to Haystack Rock, at Cannon Beach
This was sunrise one morning - so glad I got up!
Lovely light to end another day on Cannon Beach
Renewing my interest in mobile photography!
I’m just back from Portland, OR where I shot only with my iPhone 12 Pro. Even in lower light, this camera is delivering some stellar images. Check them out!
I’m just back from a quick trip up to Portland, OR - and all I had was my iPhone!
Years ago, I shot with my iPhone all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME. I loved it. I always had it with me, of course, so I shot away with it. Eventually I ended up with an iPhone 7, which at the time I thought was great (this was 4+ years ago when I got the iPhone 7). After a while though, I just felt like the image quality was not up to par for me, unless it was in pretty great lighting. Time after time, I would look at the images, zoom in, and be disappointed. Eventually I just quit shooting with it altogether.
A few months ago, I upgraded to the iPhone 12 Pro (yes, I know the 13 just came out, but I had to get a new phone at the time, and couldn’t wait). I had read so much about the advancements in the camera, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s just so much better than what I had (granted, it’s several years worth of advancements, but still). I have been pretty much blown away with how good the camera is.
So when this trip to Portland came up - and knowing I had limited free time to go shoot - I decided to forego my usual Sony stuff and just shoot on the go with my iPhone. It also happened to be peak Fall season, so there were lots of amazing colors in the trees, and additionally we were able to visit several different parts of town, so I ended up shooting quite a bit!
The thing that impressed me the most is how well it performs in low light. Now to be clear, it doesn’t compare to my full frame Sony in that regard, but still it does a pretty darn good job. The images look amazingly crisp to my eyes, and I am quite happy about that! And of course, this has renewed my interest in mobile photography, which is great fun! I’ve missed it. It’s good to be back at it! And now I will be using my iPhone much more often when I am out shooting!
And as far as editing goes, I edited all of these photos in Luminar AI. Just a few quick adjustments is all it takes!
Luminar Neo: A Few More Insights
Skylum is back with more news on Luminar Neo. Dive into this post and accompanying video to see what it’s all about!
Skylum is out with another press release today, detailing a few more insights into the upcoming Luminar Neo. Let’s dive in and see what they are talking about!
Today’s press release adds a little more color to 4 upcoming features, which I will detail down below.
Dust Removal AI
Line Removal AI
Overlays
Luminar Share
If you have’t yet placed your preorder, you can do that here: https://bit.ly/3hbDXEP
And of course, I made a video about all of these features as well, which is below:
Dust Removal AI
This feature looks amazing, and it certainly going to be a time saver for me (and probably everyone else, too). It will automatically remove dust and lens spots from your photos for you. I can’t tell you how great of a use of AI this will be. I think of AI as being a useful way to do complex things more quickly, and honestly removing dust spots is menial and boring. The fact that it will be automated is amazing!
Line Removal AI
Add this to the same category as Dust Removal AI - it will automatically remove power lines from your photos. Once again, an amazing and creative use of AI. You can now quickly and easily clean up those annoying powerlines in your city photos, and get back to the fun part of editing photos. This is another big one for me, as I am always shooting in cities, and frankly sometimes powerlines are just difficult to remove. I can’t wait to try this!
Overlays
Taking advantage of the Layers capability, Luminar Neo will include a library of overlay content so you can quickly and easily make your own creative vision for an image come to life. This is a welcome addition to Luminar, especially for those of us that like to experiment with various creative outcomes.
Luminar Share
This mobile companion app will allow us to quickly sync images from our mobile device to Neo, and then sync back the edited image for social sharing. This will save me a lot of time for sure, because today I have to email a photo to myself, download it from email, add to Luminar, edit, then email back to myself, save on my mobile, and then share on Instagram (for instance). This automates that process and it sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to try it!
That sums it up for now. If you have any questions, just let me know, and thanks!
4 New Features Coming to Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo will include these 4 new features, and this post outlines all the details. Relight AI, Layers, Mask AI, and Portrait Background Removal AI are all coming - check it out!
Luminar Neo Will Include Layers, Relight AI, Mask AI, and Portrait Background Removal AI
If you have seen my previous videos about Luminar Neo, then you already know that I am excited about what is coming. But today Skylum put out a press release, detailing 4 new features that are coming in this new product, and it’s really exciting stuff.
Preorder Luminar Neo: https://bit.ly/3hbDXEP
Here is my video outlining all these features:
Relight AI
This new lighting tool uses 3D depth mapping to identify both planes (foreground and background) as well as elements (people, buildings, skies, etc) in a photo. Then you can creatively adjust the light in a photo. You can position the light as needed, adjusting the foreground and background separately. Effectively we are now going to be able to fix problematic light in any image, blend it seamlessly between foreground and background, and get amazing results.
Layers
The layers function in Neo will allow you to combine multiple images, even raw files, for endless creative outcomes. Take advantage of blend modes, opacity, masking and more to get the results you want. They will include built in overlays and an object library to give us some creative options right at our fingertips. It will accept textures, PNG with transparency, and more. Plus it will be easy to move, rotate, flip, transform and even reorder the layers as needed.
Mask AI
Now THIS is going to be awesome! This is AI-powered, context-aware masking. So it will automagically identify lots of different items in your photos: people skies, water, mountains, and more. That way you can target specifically where your edits will go without having go through any manual masking processes, which are tedious and prone to error. Note that this capability will not be available at launch this winter, but rather it is coming in a free update in early 2022.
Portrait Background Removal AI
This will isolate your subject and remove the background with one click. Pretty amazing, and certainly very useful as well. Initially this is focused on portraits, but they are also exploring other uses for this tool. And like Mask AI, it will not be available at launch but instead will come in a free update in early 2022.
Thanks for checking this out, and hope this information is helpful. Be back soon with more info, as soon as I have it!
On1 Announces Photo RAW 2022!
On1 Announces Photo RAW 2022 - and it looks amazing! Check out these new features!
This product looks like it’s going to be amazing!
I have been using On1 Photo RAW 2021 throughout this entire year, and have really grown to both appreciate all of its advanced capabilities, and just plain love the use of it. It gives me so much power and flexibility in my editing. Now, On1 has just announced the latest version which is coming soon - and I am really excited about all the new tools it will have!
Preorder On1 Photo RAW 2022 here: https://bit.ly/3BC1BlS
It will be available around the end of September, and will sell for $99.99 for a perpetual license (new user), and if you have an older version the upgrade cost is $79.99. They will also offer a free 14 day trial at launch.
The product is not out yet, so I don’t yet have a copy. But when I get it, you can rest assured that I will be sharing some tips and tricks on my YouTube channel, showing it in action. Until then, let’s take a quick look at all the new stuff that is coming!
Sky Swap AI - automatic sky replacement, including giving you full access to the mask that is automatically created, so you can reuse it for other parts of your edit
Time-Lapse Creation - quickly create time-lapse videos from still photo sequences
Integration of NoNoise AI - their amazing noise reduction is now integrated into your raw workflow
Photoshop Plugin Host - run your other plugins inside of Photo RAW
Line Masking - quickly create masks using straight lines
And more, such as a retooled Export menu, backup and restore options, Apple Silicon support and the list goes on!
Click the link above to reserve your copy! Demo videos are coming soon!
And of course, I prepared a pre-release analysis video talking about this release as well. Check it out below!
Here are some screenshots that they provided me, showing the UI of some of these new tools. I really think this is going to be a fantastic product, and continue to be a powerful and flexible all-in-one editor.
Skylum Announces Luminar Neo!
Skylum just announced Luminar Neo, a new app coming late this year. Check out all the details and my video in this exclusive preview!
My good friends over at Skylum Software have just announced that their newest product is coming later this year. It’s called Luminar Neo, and preorders start today!
Preorders start today - use this link to save some serious $: https://bit.ly/3tfOmnL
No, I do not yet have the product. This is what I describe as a pre-announcement. The product is coming, but an exact date is not yet available. It is expected later this year, so I would estimate that it will be a winter release. As soon as I have it, and can share some more details, you can rest assured that I will do so. The best way to stay up to date on this is via my Newsletter (sign up here), and on my YouTube channel.
I am busy trying to get all the details for you, and this blog post and my accompanying video contain just about everything I know so far.
Preorder Pricing: Starts: September 9 (8am New York Time) - Ends: September 19 (8am New York Time)
Preorder today and get the best deal: https://bit.ly/3tfOmnL
For old Skylum app users:
$34 for 1-seat license for Luminar Neo
$49 for 2-seats license for Luminar Neo
$63 for 1-seat license for Luminar AI+Neo
$88 for 2-seats license for Luminar AI+Neo
For new users:
$54 for 1-seat license for Luminar Neo
$59 for 2-seats license for Luminar Neo
$83 for 1-seat license for Luminar AI+Neo
$98 for 2-seats license for Luminar AI+Neo
Remember: you have a 30 day money back guarantee, from the date you receive it. So you can order now, get the very best price, and then decide later if you are going to keep it or not. It’s completely risk free!
Be sure and check out my preview analysis video about Luminar Neo. In the video I provide a bit more background and context for this release than I do here on the blog.
New Features
Now, let’s get into some of the amazing new features that are coming, along with some screenshots that Skylum was kind enough to provide for my readers. Here are the key new features that I am currently aware of:
Image layers!
Apply any tool, to any layer, in any order, even multiple times
Unique masking, per layer and per tool
Portrait background replacement
Remove distracting elements: dust spots, power lines
Advanced image relight, with a single slider
I will be back with more information, as soon as I have it. Sign up for my newsletter to make sure you are in the loop on everything that I share about this exciting new product!
Oregon - Still my Favorite State
I’m just back from a trip to Oregon, and I captured some beautiful shots while I was there. This is a little teaser of coming attractions - all shot with my new iPhone 12 Pro!
I just love Oregon, and can’t seem to get enough of it.
Arriving into PDX during a stunning sunset
We just returned from a trip to Oregon. It was part business and part fun, so it wasn’t entirely a photo trip, but of course I was able to squeeze in a little camera time here and there. Although we spent a fair amount of time in Portland, I didn’t really shoot there. I enjoy that city, but for me the main draw to Oregon, photographically speaking, is the coastline and the waterfalls. Basically, nature itself. I am often in cities, and I love to shoot them, but when I get a chance to spend time in nature and photograph it, I’m in.
We spent a few days down in Cannon Beach in the early part of the trip, along the northern coastline. This is my favorite spot in the entire United States. I find the rocky coastline and tide pools essentially irresistible. Every time I visit, regardless of the weather, I come home with some beautiful photographs. Add in the sense of serenity and calm from wandering along the coast, and it just can’t be beat. That was on the front end of the trip.
Sunrise in Arch Cape, just south of Cannon Beach
Sunrise on Cannon Beach
Tidepools are just awesome!!
Then, we were in Portland the rest of the time, but did spend one long afternoon/early evening hiking and shooting along the Columbia River Gorge, east of Portland. This is home to a long list of beautiful waterfalls - something I love to shoot - and is well worth a visit if you have the time (it’s about 45 minutes from downtown Portland).
A view over the Columbia River Gorge
I haven’t had time to really dig into my photos yet, so all of these were taken with my newest camera - the iPhone 12 Pro. My old iPhone 7 was really falling apart (I had it for over 4 years), so right before this trip I upgraded to the 12 Pro and WOW what a difference in that camera. I can’t believe I waited this long to upgrade, but I am glad that I finally did. I will be sorting through my “real” photos (taken with my Sony gear) here soon, and those will start appearing on my Flickr page and likely in some YouTube videos, but for now I leave you with a few iPhone shots.
Thanks for stopping by and see you again soon!
Introducing Memorable Moments - my Luminar AI Signature Template Pack!
I have just released my first Signature Template pack for Luminar AI. Entitled “Memorable Moments”, it’s a dozen templates for making quick and powerful adjustments to your photos, in Luminar AI. Read the details in this article, see the demo video, and check out some sample before & after photos, too!
Now available in the Skylum Marketplace - Memorable Moments - my new Signature Template Pack for Luminar AI!
Ever since Luminar AI first came out about a year ago, I have been asked if I was going to create a template pack for it. After all, Luminar AI is my favorite product, I use it all the time and make countless videos about it, and I made similar things for previous Luminar versions. But for various reasons, I was distracted and never put a lot of time into actually crafting something for the marketplace. Sure, I made some templates that I used, but I never really dug in, refined them, and crafted something of value that was worth sharing with a broad audience. Until now.
Now that I have refined and tested these on a lot of images, they are available in the Luminar Marketplace, right here: https://skylum.com/luminar/marketplace/signature-presets/memorable-moments
It is a set of 12 templates that sells for $19. There are 10 templates for color work, and 2 pretty dramatic monochrome templates as well.
These templates were inspired by my travels, and the feelings that I encounter when I am out shooting in some foreign place. They were built and tested on various cityscapes and landscapes, so I wanted to be clear that they were not made with portrait photos in mind.
I recently released a demo video, showing some of these templates at work on some of my photos. Check it out for a good look at what these templates do to my images. They work great across various times of day and lighting conditions, and of course as is typical of my style, they involve some good degree of light and color adjustment.
And if the video isn’t enough, feel free to check out the sample photos below, showing a comparison of the original photo and the photo with the template applied. I hope this gives you a good idea of what these templates can do. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email by clicking CONTACT on the upper right sidebar here on my website.
Thank you!
Luminar AI Update 4 - now with Portrait Bokeh AI!
Luminar AI just got a free update to include Portrait Bokeh AI. It automatically creates a mask for any human in the photo and then allows you to control how much blur the background gets. It’s amazing! Check out my summary here and my First Look video on YouTube.
Well friends, we finally get the long-awaited bokeh AI tool in Luminar AI, which was first promised when the product was originally launched, late last year. Was it worth the wait? See sample screenshots below, and check out my full demo video as well!
My opinion? It’s quite good, and it will be really useful too!
Now, when it was first announced last year, it was just called Bokeh AI. But now it is Portrait Bokeh AI. So keep that in mind. In other words, it is designed for portraits, and not just any photo. It uses AI to recognize humans in an image - even groups of them - and automatically creates a mask over them. Then you can adjust the bokeh for the background, as well as quite a few other things: brightness, temperature and more!
I love when new products or new features come out, and even though this isn’t exactly something I need all the time (if you follow my work, you know that taking portraits is not my thing). But I do feel that with this update, they have done the impossible - they’ve made me interested in portraits! LOL
Honestly though, I am having a lot of fun with it and think you will too.
Check out my full First Look video here:
Here are some sample screenshots, showing how the mask looks over this photo. Keep in mind, this mask was AUTOMATIC and was done in a couple of seconds. It’s amazingly fast and accurate too. Of course, if you need to adjust the mask, you can do so with the brush in the Portrait Bokeh AI tool. You can paint over parts of the photo to either add focus to them, or blur them. It’s quite ingenious and of course all you portrait photographers out there are going to love it.
Unedited photo on the left. Photo showing mask in the middle. Final edit (with new sky, too!) on the right.
Click any image to enlarge.
Now here is the other thing I want to point out about this tool. This is the FIRST TIME that Skylum has actually shown us the mask with their AI tools. Take Sky AI (automatic sky replacement) for example. Sure, the sky goes in automatically and looks great, but you never actually see the mask. It’s not hard to figure out, of course, but I think this is a big deal because in the past these things have been obscured. So I think this is a positive development.
And as I said, it will also handle group portraits with ease. Here is a sample group shot. You can see the mask, which is 95%+ accurate. I think that is pretty amazing all around.
If you want to see more of this tool in action, I recommend watching my YouTube video about it. I will also be back soon with even more videos about this tool.
And just to make sure that Portrait Bokeh AI doesn’t overshadow the other big updates, I wanted to share them here. The Sky AI tool has been improved and simplified. A new on-screen tool makes it even easier to get a new sky in the right position. They replace 3 separate sliders with a new Horizon Position tool, which operates a little like an adjustable gradient. It’s quick and easy, and I cover that in the video too.
And lastly, the Texture tool was updated to include visual previews of textures. This is great because many times the name of the texture might not be very clear, so this visual preview helps a lot! There are two new sets of textures included, and you can even load your own folders of textures and get a visual preview of them, too. It’s awesome!
There are also a lot of bug fixes and performance updates to round out Luminar AI Update 4. Keep in mind this is a FREE UPDATE for current customers, so it’s no cost to you my friends. Get it and have fun editing!
Aurora HDR - Still a Good Option in 2021?
In this video and blog post, I dive back into Aurora HDR. It was the first app that I really got into deeply, and sort of put me on the path I am now on. But I haven’t used it in a while, and was curious if it held up to today’s standards. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!
I have used Aurora HDR since the first version came out years ago. But it hasn’t been upgraded in a couple of years. In this video, I dive back into it and see if it still holds up to today’s standards. Enjoy!
Here’s the image from the video. Fully edited in Aurora HDR, and I have to admit I really like the result, even though I have gotten away from processing HDR photos. Interiors like this always look good in HDR, in my opinion.
Back in the “old days” of just a few short years ago, I basically shot brackets every time I went out with the camera, and I edited nearly every single image as an HDR. It was what I loved to do, and I did it. A lot.
But in the last few years, I have drifted away from both shooting brackets and processing images as HDRs. I now mostly shoot single exposures, and am quite happy doing so. But on my recent trip to New England, I ended up shooting a few brackets and thought it would be fun to dive back into Aurora HDR and try my hand at processing some images as HDRs. Now, the image in this video wasn’t actually shot on my trip - it’s an older image from a trip to Dublin, Ireland years ago. It was just the recent trip to New England that inspired me to try HDR again.
And mostly I was curious as to how well Aurora HDR would hold up compared to the sort of things you can do with apps these days. You see, Aurora HDR has long been my favorite HDR processing software, but it has not been upgraded with new features in a couple of years. So I asked Skylum about it, and they said they felt it could still hold its own against other HDR editors.
And while this video is not a feature comparison between Aurora HDR and other HDR editing apps, I do fully edit the image in Aurora HDR here, and check out the various features (many of which I had forgotten about) and see how well I can manage an image here, vs having to start here and finish elsewhere (like in Luminar AI, for instance).
Spoiler Alert: The end result is that I am still impressed with Aurora HDR, and having rediscovered it, I may begin to use it again with other photos. I had forgotten that it support LUTs (something I am really into these days), has Lens Correction and Transform tools (which work great), and although I did not forget that it has a Layers function, it was good to be reminded of that. They can come in really handy!
Hope you enjoy the workflow video and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
If you are interested in a getting a copy of Aurora HDR, you can get it here: https://bit.ly/2N3av7b
Use coupon code JIMNIX to save $10 while you are at it!
On1 Releases NoNoise AI - and it's AMAZING!
On1 has just released NoNoise AI and it is amazing. Check out these sample shots and my first look video too!
On1 has just released their new, AI-based noise reduction software, called NoNoise AI. I have had the pleasure of using it for a few days now, and have to say it is pretty amazing.
I have been a fan of On1 for a long time, and in the last few months have really dove deep into using it and trying to get my skills with it much higher. I’m getting there, and having fun along the way. Recently On1 announced that they were going to release NoNoise AI, a new AI-powered noise reduction software product, which of course piqued my interest. I was eager to try it out, and was lucky enough that they sent me a copy of it prior to release.
You can watch my First Look and demo video below.
While the video covers it pretty well, and in more depth than I can do here, I did want to share a few screenshots of it in action. You can see really clearly just how powerful NoNoise AI really is. It has done a wonderful job removing the noise in these images, without sacrificing any detail whatsoever. In fact, in all of my tests, I was able to actually recover better detail after using it!
You can get your copy of NoNoise AI at the On1 website here: https://bit.ly/2xy9Ss2 and use coupon code JIMNIX to save 20%!
New England - Beautiful, as Expected!
I’m just back from a trip to New England. We checked out Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont - so fun! Here’s a few pics from the trip, along with a little summary of it!
We just got back from a trip to New England, and it’s beautiful up there!
I had never been to New England prior to this trip. I had been as far as Boston (a few times), but never beyond it. This trip was all about the core New England experience. We flew into Portland, ME and then after a night there, we spent a couple of days in Bar Harbor, ME to check out Acadia National Park. That place is gorgeous.
To be clear, this was not a full-on photo trip. While I did take a fair amount of photos, the trip was not about that. But let me tell you, this entire area (New England) is worthy of a photo trip for sure. I could shoot for days and days up there. I will have to go back. Acadia National Park alone could take several solid days of shooting!
Anyways, after a few days in Maine, we drove on to New Hampshire and Vermont. All 3 of these states were “first time visits” for me, which I love to do. I plan to get to all 50 states at some point, and only have a few more to go after this trip (although I visited many of them prior to taking up photography, so I guess I will have revisit a lot of them and take some shots!). We hiked and checked out all the natural scenery. All of it is lovely, and it just seems so peaceful up there. It really is a different way of life than I am used to, which is nice.
Oh, and coming from Texas, it’s so nice to drive for a little while and cross into a new state! Texas is just so large that you can drive all day and barely get to the next state over. So it was fun to feel like I was jumping from state to state in no time at all. 😁
All together this was a week long adventure across the area, and I came home with quite a few images that I really like, a few of which are below. You will see more of these images appearing on my Flickr account, as well as being subjects of some future videos on my YouTube channel. Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the photos!
Luke’s Lobster - portland, maine
pemaquid point lighthouse - bristol, maine
a waterfall in the white mountains of new hampshire
sunset in waterbury, vermont
Topaz Denoise AI - Getting Better and Better!
Topaz Denoise AI gets better and better with every release. Check out these videos where I show just how powerful this app really is!
Topaz Denoise AI - update 3.1 brings even more power and control to this excellent app!
I have been a Topaz user for many years, starting with Topaz Adjust way back in 2010 or so. Since that time, Topaz has developed quite a few products, and lately there has been a huge emphasis on their AI based products: Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI. They are all great products and do a fantastic job at their specific tasks.
Denoise AI is of particular interest to me, primarily because I do not like noise or grain in my images. There is nothing wrong with it, of course, and many people like the look. It just so happens that I do not. So I am usually looking for a way to remove noise and smooth out the pixels in noisy areas. Enter Denoise AI.
I have used this product over the last several years, and find it has gotten better and better in that time. Their latest update, to version 3.1 with the new “Severe Noise” model, is working particularly well for me. So much in fact that I have been using it almost exclusively since getting the update.
So of course I have crafted a few videos about it as well, showing how I am using it, and explaining why, and all that. I have included them down below. In short, it has a really powerful and versatile denoise engine that is working wonders on my images. Check out the videos below for details, and thanks!
If you want a copy of Denoise AI for yourself, you can use this link (affiliate link) and my coupon code JIMNIX to save an extra 15% off! Enjoy the video demonstrations!
Luminar AI Update 3 - Now Available!
Luminar AI Update 3 is out today! Check out my video preview and all the new features and enhancements!
My friends over at Skylum have done it again. This time, they have updated Luminar AI with some great new features and enhancements. Check out my full video summary below!
Here are the top new features and enhancements:
Better sky detection
Better reflections
Better relighting
Apple M1 Support
HEIC Support
Augmented Sky enhanced
Dodge & Burn enhanced
Check the video out to see these in action!
Want a copy of Luminar AI? Get it here: https://bit.ly/3lKOZl7 ( and use Coupon code JIMNIX to saves $10)
Those Colorado sunsets
Sunsets in the Western US always seem better to me. Here’s a pair from a trip to Colorado last year. Those high altitude sunsets can be beautiful!
I don’t know what it is about Colorado and New Mexico, but each time I am in either place, there always seems to be an interesting sunset or two. Not sure if it’s the weather patterns, or the mountains, or just some happy coincidences, but the light just seems better out West.
These two shots are from last summer. We took a week-long trip up to Durango, CO to hang out in nature. Due to all the Covid stuff, it wasn’t really possible to go anywhere on a plane (or at least to feel comfortable doing so), so that left us with finding a place we could drive to.
Coming from Austin, and driving to Durango - that is a LONG day. Like 16 hours, door to door. But, we were able to get it all done in a single day, and enjoy the great outdoors (and some nice sunsets) for a week!