To get an overall feeling of the Painted Hills, I decided to try to take some hand-held panos. I used my left elbow as a pivot point to rotate the camera around my body. I used Lightroom’s pano function to merge the individual images. They did not turned out too bad.
Just turn around and see a whole different world. The last 3 posts looking West showed peaceful images without a cloud in the sky. Looking East was a totally different story. These clouds were just flying across the sky along the eastern horizon. I was intrigued by the wispiness of the clouds. There must have been quite a high jet stream up there. B&W provided the sharp contrast between the clouds and the bright blue sky.
These steep vertical spires of Smith Rocks separated the view between the images on my previous two posts. Looking at these massive rocks jutting out of the landscape makes me realize just how amazing Nature is. I attempted to use black and white to emphasize the drama of these spires. An early morning sunrise will make this image spectacular. I can’t wait to go back!
This is another image that I will use as a reference for coming back to Smith Rocks for a Sunset photo shoot. A sunset over Mt. Bachelor and the Crooked River should be interesting. In this image I tried to line up the Crooked River so it would lead to Mt. Bachelor in the distance.
We visited Smith Rocks (near Bend, OR) with a couple of great friends in early July at mid-day. Not the best time for great breath-taking images. So I focused on finding good compositions that I can come back to during another trip, at sunrise. This image frames Broken Top between two spires of Smith Rocks. The round boulder in the middle provides a little interest. I removed houses that were located along the tree-lined ridge in Photoshop. If you look close you can still see a few remnants.