Last year, 2014 for them reading this in the distant future, we took a drive to Montrose. It was a scouting trip for a potential move there. That was a bust, but we did finally visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. 

You already saw the rocks and dead trees on my last post. Here come some wildflowers.

Once again, you can click on the photos to open a larger version in a separate window or tab. There is also a SmugMug gallery for these HERE. In SmugMug, you can see the photos in their native resolution.

Sometimes the photos do not need a lot of work. Here is a shot right out of the camera without any processing.

Still, I put it through my usual basic process.

The basic Lightroom tweaks gives me this:

Here are the Basic Lightroom adjustments after getting the file back from onOne.

However, I want it a tad brighter . . . I could just increase the exposure, but I take a different approach so I can maintain details.

You can see that I moved around a lot of sliders. I actually reduce the exposure and bump up shadows and blacks, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. This is what I end up with:

Here is a neat cactus flower.

Here is my crop of the photo (eliminating all the extra noise, as it were.)

And here is the finished product after I play with onOne and Lightroom.

And, here’s another interesting flower . . . and a bug as an added bonus.

Here is a flower from one of my recent posts . . . first, the cropped as-is shot.

This is the basic processing, and what I showed on the other post.

I can also apply the more involved processing (the one I used on the rocks) and get this:

Some people like the basic process and some like the above, showing more contrast and “popping” the flowers out a bit more.

That same processing also works for these flowers . . .

OK, this is where some people will get bored . . . maybe.

Here is the more involved processing . . .

Now, I could do a few things to bring the flowers out a bit more. All of the following are accomplished by moving sliders in Lightroom.

Here is a similar photo and a few more variations.

I think I’m partial to this version . . .

Let me take yet another photo (I know; they all look alike) . . .

Processed with higher contrast and more aggressive showing of reds.

Adding a slight vignette brings out the flowers a little more.

I could also remove most of the green to further isolate the flowers . . .

This, on the other hand, does not work as well . . .

Here are another set of flowers using the basic processing . . .

Here are the same shots but with the more involved and darker processing.

So, which processing do you prefer?

Let me speak a bit about composition . . .

Here is a scene I liked for the various elements; flowers, trees, rocks, sky . . .

What if I change the orientation?

Which has more impact? Obviously, one is larger on the screen because it’s taller – ignore that.

Another another pair of the same scene but different compositions.

Finally, I happen to have a photo of some interesting rocks processed in different but subtle ways.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Astute persons might have noticed these doodles, and correctly surmised they hold some significance for me, and perhaps for humanity at large.  

If you click on the doodle, and nothing happens, this is the link it’s supposed to go to: https://disperser.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/palm-vx-and-i/.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

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. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.