A summer morning in the Cascade mountains.

Tags:   sunrise daybreak dawn landscape nature mist reflection lake Cascade Mountains Mt. Hood National Forest summer July Pacific Northwest Gary Grossman Photography

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Last shot from East Sooke Park. The short, steep trail up to the lookout at Creyke Point is always rewarding, with amazing views along the way. A 5-minute spur off the main coast trail. Or half an hour if you stop to photograph every flower, interesting tree, or view of the shoreline bordering Juan de Fuca Strait.

I photographed this Arbutus tree - "Pacific Madrone" to my American friends - many times over the 20-years I lived on Vancouver Island. So... an old friend. I love how the curve of its branches parallels the curve of the rock. It was just starting to rain when I made this shot, so I got off that rounded summit with its wet moss, lichen, and fern growth, back down to the sheltering forest.

Tomorrow: a favourite mountain location in BC - last stop on this extended tour of our western-most province. After that, back to the prairie where I now make my home.

Photographed in East Sooke Regional Park, Vancouver Island, BC (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2008 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   landscape tree coast coastal Pacific Madrone Arbutus menziesii rocky rugged viewpoint wild nature beautiful Creyke Point East Sooke Regional Park Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2008

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Well, if I need to be 100% honest; this place is not exactly at Wadi Rum. It is rather 40 minutes drive from Wadi Rum. Our local Bedouin friend Saleh keep on reminding that to me. Avisekh; please understand it is not in Wadi Rum, it is Jebel Kharaz. Completely different place. 😇

This image is kind of fresh from the oven. I just came back from Jordan last week. Due to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, the region is now hot and my 4 hours flight turned into a 30 hours fight coming back. But the memories of Jordan is still fantastic. Yes it is becoming a bit more crowded than expected. Yes some people would still like to get some more bucks out of you.

However, it still have amazing places, lovely people, delicious food and historic culture. Overall it was really special experience. As good as how we felt in our 2017 trip.

Tell me in how many places people would invite for a dinner if you ask them for direction while they are having a BBQ. And when you are shy and politely excuse yourselves, few packed BBQ chicken comes in a plate. Amazing gesture. I have never seen this in my all these time of travelling

Now coming back to this picture. Wadi Rum is a popular place in Jordan and now a days due to many camps have been build all around the wadi, there are lots of tourists. But thank god; there are only few travellers. This rock arch gets busy. I mean really busy if you think of its remote location. You would see 20 people crawling around it all day long. Not really an expected situation in such remote location. But social media made this place famous.

However, there are not many who can avoid the temptation of a cozy bed, hot shower and good food. On top, so far the mobile phones don't do that well after the sun goes down. Thank god. So just before sunset, everyone left. So I had this place for me during the best light. Sunset, Night and Sunrise. So I have no complain about this being crowded. Anyway; I wouldn't have taken a single picture of it during the harsh sunlight.

Saleh being a local, he knows all these places from childhood. So he found a lovely location nearby for our camping. It was windy, so we needed a place that is not completely exposed. We had to cook, so we needed to stay a bit away from the exact location to not flood it with light. And he found exactly that. 5 Minutes walking from here and hidden between high rocks. And his wife made delicious fresh local meal. We had a large tent, sleeping mats and thick blankets. Plus we slept on soft sand. So I wouldn't say our experience was any way less luxury that any of those permanent luxury camps.

But we had the experience that Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence had 100 years back and that can't be found in any of those permanent camps.

After dinner Saleh helped me setting up the camp on this rock bridge. As it was super windy we added some large rocks inside near the poles of the tent so that it doesn't move much. I illuminated it with my trusted red torch. And wow, it was beautiful.

I know some of your would like to know the technical details. So here are they. But more than this image; the experience of being there is more important for me. I just had a debate on Facebook where I said that I don't think much of post processing when I am close to nature as being out is like a therapy to me and I don't want to bother my head about what I will do with that picture on a computer. Seems people disagree to that, but I guess everyone approaches things differently. I started photography to document my travel and adventure and not other way around. Unfortunately it seems many people now pick up the camera only because they need fame in social media. What a pity. I am glad that I started all these before the craziness social media.

Anyway; let's come back to the image.

Foreground -
H-Alpha Modified Nikon D850
Sigma 14MM F1.8 Art
F4, ISO 400 230 Seconds
2 images stacked for a bit better signal to noise ratio

Sky (captured just from in front of the arch from the open area carefully keeping the alignment in mind) -
H-Alpha Modified Nikon D850
Nikon 20MM F1.8
F2.8, ISO 800, 2 Minutes
The stars were slightly out of focus intentionally to have a thicker trail and no gap. Kept 1 second delay between two images.
360 Images stacked in photoshop using 100 image set and incremental opacity method.
Later the trail was taken into Affinity Pro 2 to add 3% radial blur.

Later the foreground and trail have been blended with simple selection tool and layer mask in photoshop.

If you have already read till here; you might be interested in watching a short film that we have compiled about our experience at the Kingdom of Time. Click here to get amazed with the beauty of this special place.

Please have a look at my website www.avisekhphotography.com for all my recent works.

Have a nice weekend.

Hope you will enjoy the picture.

Any suggestions or criticisms are always welcome.

Tags:   jordan wadi rum jebel kharaz middle east desert landscape rock arch arabian dream intimate with nature dark sky dark night star trail www.avisekhphotography.com nikon d850 sigma sigma 14mm f1.8 art nikon d850 rrs really right stuff tripod

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Unreal foregrounds at the famous Vestrahorn mountain in Iceland

Tags:   Iceland vestrahorn alien textures 10mm Albert dros

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Big Creek Trail, Olympic National Forest, Washington


Confluence
...of creeks
...of thoughts
...of all the disparate pieces of life

Tags:   creek stream water moss rocks bridge Big Creek Trail Olympic National Forest Pacific Northwest Washington confluence flow nature hiking trail outside Spring green

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