Anza Borrego SoCo Photo Trip

These images are from a recent trip to the Anza Borrego Desert with the South Coast Photography MeetUp.  They are a great group of photographers and enthusiasts that  have a passion for photography and having a good time.  If you're in the Orange County area I suggest you check this group out.

The two landscapes are from Canyon Sin Nombre and the Mammoth Sculpture is from Borrego Springs.  All three images were shot in Manual mode on my Canon G9 PowerShot. I used in camera metering and utilized the histogram to calculate my exposure.

The first image above I took the highlights of the sand right to the edge of the histogram and backed off slightly to avoid clipping.  The cloud cover gave me enough latitude to capture the rest of the image.

In the image of the Mammoth/Elephant, I wanted to interpret the shot a little differently than an averaged metered Auto Exposure would. So, I walked up to the statue on the shadow side to get my meter reading. I locked in the exposure and recomposed to completely obliterating the background. There is some flare because on the second day in the desert I'm sure my lens had seen cleaner days but I was happy with the effect I got.  

The middle image of the red rock and the blue sky is a cheat. The sun was so bright at this point, the shadow and the highlights were beyond the latitude of the digital capture on my G9.  So, I capture it in two images with two different exposures shot hand held. The red rock was metered in the same way I metered the elephant and the sky was shot under exposed to pull in the color and not blow out the clouds. Basically, I laid the sky in the overexposed area of the red rock image. It's not much different than what we used to do in the B&W Darkroom days. Now it's done in PhotoShop instead. I'm sure there's easier ways to do it but I'm Ol' Skool. Haha! Ah... don't you just miss the smell of mixing fresh chemistry in the morning? Lol! Now go have fun!!!