Mitchell Mesa, right image with uncorrected tint captured by Z 8 / Z24-70f2.8II w/Breakthrough Mag CPL
Tint can and does play havoc with B&W, especially in certain situations. Those are when there is a preponderance of red or green. In Monument Valley, there is plenty of red. So if your B&W appears “flat,” you might have a tint issue and didn’t even know it. Simply go into ACR and lower the tint and watch your image. You will quickly see for yourself tint in B&W.
Ft Benton, MT captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II
It’s heading down! The pedal was to the metal as we headed down the highway. A dirt road to the north gave us access to the vast landscape. It was a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. It was so remote, a local, who saw us pull over came out to make sure we were OK (I love Montanans!). The Z 8 w/Z70-200f2.8II were quickly pulled out. WB set to 10k, exp comp to -1/3. Grid screen turned on, and the sun placed dead center. I watched as the sun set, and just before I thought it would kiss the horizon, I started to fire and continued until it was no longer a full circle. It was only then that I saw the God beams. It was a great evening enjoying the day and celebrating it with the sun heading down.
The Great Falls, MT 3 image pano captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II
In 1805, Lewis & Clark came upon the Great Falls and its surrounding 450′ bluffs and knew the going was going to be tough. What they thought would be a one-day portage turned out to be three weeks. The volume of water was monstrous, so much so that Lewis named the first of the five falls, Great Falls.
Went to Ryan Island to see what Lewis saw. While the rocks haven’t changed much, the falls have had a dramatic change. You can see what I saw in the second pano. I wanted to see what Lewis saw so I grabbed the time machine and rolled the dice.
The Great Falls, MT 3 image pano captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II
While I was standing there seeing the water come over the spillway, I was mesmerized. The B&W is in the camera, Z 8 magic. The trip back in time, that’s Photoshop AI. This was my first venture into using AI, so I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen. Ya, I’ve used AI for Masking in ACR, but going back in time, this was a first. In Ps, I selected the spillway, clicked on Generative fill, and typed in, “historically accurate Great Falls 1805.” Dang, on the first click, you see the results. Then I tried it on a single image, not a pano of the whole falls, and while it’s darn close, it’s not the same as the pano. That got me to thinking. It’s no replacement for standing there in 1805, but the camera and computer did put me there, and I can visit it anytime I want now, like when I read Undaunted Courage. It’s my own, personal, time machine.
The Great Falls, MT captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II
Tower Rock, MT captured by Z 8 / Z24-20f2.8II
At our feet is the Missouri River as we stand on Tower Rock. This is the same spot Lewis & Clark were in 1805 on their momentous journey west. We’d been following their footsteps, using their journey as our photographic inspiration. The country is quite gorgeous, and all around us are formations that Lewis wrote about in his journal. Then this afternoon at Tower Rock, the light and, sadly, wildfire smoke, brought to life another famous old adventurer of the west, Thomas Moran. His paintings have long been an inspiration with their “heavenly light” and great visual depth. The only thing missing from the photo above is the snow-covered peak in the background. Even if there were one, it wouldn’t have been visible through the smoke. But it was great fun, looking for Lewis, finding Moran.
Rainbow Falls, Great Falls MT captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II
This wall of rock, one of five on the Missouri River in 1805, brought the Lewis & Clark expedition to a halt as they figured out how they were going to get passed them. After a couple of weeks and countless man-hours of struggle, they portage their dugouts around the mighty Great Falls. Four of the five falls remain today, all damned to produce electricity. I used the Remove Tool in ACR to take out a sliver of cement in the top left corner of the frame to go back in time to Lewis & Clark’s travels. I was reflecting back.
DuPont Point captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC
The telephoto, in this case 600mm, is not your typical lens for a landscape. With not clean white and barely a touch of black, it’s not your typical successful black and white. What provides the foundation of possible photographic success is all the layers, all the shades of gray. These help the mind’s eye travel through the photograph, each time a little more appears, and more shades of gray appear. It’s then that the clouds in the middle of the frame break up the layers, and the surprise intrigues the traveler. All that wraps up the image into a simple click, the camera doing all the lifting. It’s the power of the layers of shades of gray.