Here’s another image from Garrapata State Park, California, which I’m particularly pleased with. While exploring the park, I spotted these lichen-covered rocks, and was sure right away that I’d find some sort of composition to work with. And indeed I did!
My sense is that the image is a bit “different,” which is something I really wanted to achieve. (There are lots of photos of Garrapata! But none, I suspect, quite like this.)
Although the colors in the original image are beautiful (including the gentle greens of the lichens), I envisioned this image, from the start, as black and white. (Or, more accurately, monochromatic, as it’s a bit sepia-toned.) I think taking away the colors seems to emphasize the textures, and the shapes, which is what I was most interested in. (The black and white conversion was done with Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2, which is wonderful software.)
And I really wanted to have the full image in focus — from near to far. Which is doable with a wide angle lens (at 19 mm for this image), as long as the closest item is not too close. But in this case, to get this particular composition, the lens was very close to the nearest lichen and rocks (probably about 10 inches, I think). So, I took multiple images, focusing successively farther back for each one, and then used Helicon Focus software to blend the stack of images together. It does a good job, I think. I hope you enjoy giving it a look!
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