The Flickr Azimuth312 Image Generatr

In Joshua Tree National Park at a roadside pullout with a view looking to the northwest across this open desert plain with Joshua Trees.

A setting looking to the northwest while taking in views across a snow-covered, desert landscape present one afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park. This was at a roadside pulloff along the main park road. My thought on composing this image was to angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward and create a sweeping view across the snowy landscape leading up to more distant Joshua Trees. In my mind, the whiteness with the snow, covered sage brush and creosote bushes helped to draw the viewer into the image. The eyes would then be drawn to the Joshua Trees after the open area, and then have the more distant ridges and peaks with mostly cloudy skies as a backdrop.

While walking the Swiftcurrent Lake Trail with a view looking to the northwest beyond some nearby vegetation to the calm waters of Swiftcurrent Lake. This is in Glacier National Park. The mountainside off in the distance is of Mount Henkel as part of the Northern Lewis Range. What drew me into this image was the tranquil, calm feeling that I saw with this entire setting. Almost as if one could just be still and soak in the views while enjoying a vacation. Which is interesting as the Many Glacier Hotel is only about a quarter mile walk from this point, which is where I would be staying for the next few days. The rest was metering properly to not overexpose, given the bright skies from the mid afternoon haze of wildfires around the area. I was later able to work with DxO PhotoLab 6 to make adjustments for the highlights and bring out the shadowed areas with the colors and contrast that I had captured with this image.

A view looking to the northwest at a pullout along the Loop Drive in White Sands National Park. This was an idea I saw on a few Instagram posts and Flickr images in using the road of white sands as a leading line into the image. One of the things that's remarkable is how the white sands can appear to look so much like snow, giving a false idea of this landscape in southern New Mexico. With this image, I decided to get down low and capture a look across the road of white sands and have a leveled-on horizon. That would allow for a balance between the white sands in the lower portion of the image and the mountains with blue skies and clouds in the upper portion.

A view looking to the northwest while on the Fayette Station Bridge in New River Gorge National Park & Preserve. In composing this image, I used the New River flowing downstream as a leading line into the image. The ridgelines and hillsides covered with trees and a forest of greens and yellows would also help frame that setting. A little bit of blue skies above would be that color complement to the forested setting to my front.

A zoomed in view to have the waterfall fill most of the image in this landscape setting. From the overlook, this is looking to the northwest.

A view looking across Byers Lake to the northwest while walking along the shoreline and Byers Lake Trail in Denali State Park. What I wanted to capture with this image was a few things, some of them being obvious with a quick view. One was the balanced view of the world above with the reflections in the lake below. Another was the mountains, or rather that portion of the Alaska Range mountain peaks in the national park off in the distance. Another was a wider angle view that would allow for a more panoramic setting. Denali was in the image center mostly hidden in clouds, but the southern peak is still somewhat visible. The last thing, which might not be obvious, is that I was attempting to capture an image with the salmon coming to the surface. One can see two visible waves forming and moving out across the lake.

I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation while playing around as I learned how to work with DxO PhotoLabs 3 that I’d recently purchased after moving away from Capture NX2. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 4 where I added a Polarization and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured.

A view looking to the northwest while walking around the lodge area. What I wanted to capture with this view wasn't just the amazing view of mountains off in the distance, but kind of like a layered look where one would notice the nearby boat docks and then the eyes would be led further on to the lakeshore on the other side of Lake Chelan and then the mountains with the blue skies in wisps clouds above. In my mind it was the complete setting that I wanted to capture, not just the look of mountains.

Another image captured while walking around the lodge area at Stehekin. Here I used an Ink CEP filter and brought down the opacity for an older type effect as if from a postcard from years gone by. To complete the look, I added a film strip edge with Analog Efex Pro 2

I captured this at an small outcropping along the Stehekin Valley Rd while walking to the trailhead of the Imus Creek Loop. What I wanted to capture with this image was the look across the lake waters to the mountain peaks and ridges seemingly rising up. I later though cropped much of the foreground lake to bring out more of a panoramic feel to the final image...which I found better brought out a more prominent look to the mountain peaks.

A conversion to black & white using Silver Efex Pro 2 where I used some color filters to bring out a much richer tonal contrast for the final image.

After doing some initial post-processing in Capture NX2, working to adjust contrasts and hues, I finished up by adding a Reflector Effects CEP filter to bring out an early morning look for the hours after sunrise.

A view looking to the northwest while at the Saddle Pass Trailhead. Given the recent rains, it wasn't possible to do any walking without promptly slipping on the slick clay surface. This was a view looking to the height above where I'd be hiking along the Castle Trail...maybe another trip one year!

Ever since enjoying time with a painter and friend a few years ago, I've made a point to first notice and then enjoy a discussion with painters I've found while out hiking or walking the trails of national parks. Here I'd just finished walking the long loop around the Windows Section and noticed this one painter as he began his work of painting the North Window. While there were some cars easily seen behind him, I found moving too much didn't allow for the impressive backdrop of this setting with the Parade of Elephants and Elephant Butte.

A Postcard. I captured this image on my Nikon D800E while hiking the Imus and then Purple Creek Trail while staying at Stehekin in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, While most definitely beautiful in and of itself, it was the "postcard" look that really drew me into the image captured that day. I posted the original here on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/14723335@N05/36818952022/in/album-7...). I truly loved that view of mountains and trees!

In painting this image with Adobe Sketch, I focused on a few techniques and ideas. One was new brushes made available from Kyle Webster through the Adobe CC subscriptions. The hardest part was going through them all in order to figure out what I might want to do! Crosshatching ones really came in handy with the trees. That allowed me to better approximate the look with evergreen trees and the branches. I still used the same techniques previously learned with variation of colors and tones to show shapes and distances. For the clouds, I experimented with a few ideas on Kyle's dry media brushes with chalks and pastels. I like the feel, but I think they work better in other areas.

In the right foreground of the digital painting, you'll find that stick figure image of me "hiking" with my Cubbies hat, loving my time exploring the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park Service Complex...a beautiful spring day in the North Cascade mountains of Washington!