Red Rock Crossing | Sedona, AZ | Take 2

Contrasting Moods

A couple of weeks ago I shared photos from my first visit to Red Rock Crossing in Sedona. It was a gorgeous sunny day, with big puffy white clouds, and a lot of other visitors.

My second visit, a couple of days later, was a completely different experience. There was a storm approaching, it was a good 20 degrees (or more) cooler, the sky was covered with clouds, threatening rain, and other visitors were scarce. As a result, my photographs depict a very different mood than those from my first visit.

A bit about the processing…

Last weekend I had the honor of leading a Topaz Workshop for my local camera club, Darkroomers. There are two aspects I really love about teaching photography and processing.

1. In the process of preparing for a workshop, or at times during the workshop, I ALWAYS learning something new. I inevitably walk away from the experience with a better grasp of the information I’m trying to pass on, which in turn, improves my personal work.
2. The AH-HA moment for my students. I get a tremendous rush in getting to be a part of that! Their excitement becomes my own and I can’t wait to see how they put their new skills to work.

Coming off the high of sharing Topaz plugins, I spent a lot of time, and had a lot of fun processing these photos. Most of them are HDRs and required several steps to achieve the finished look. In addition to Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix Pro; Topaz ReStyle, Clarity, and Simplify were also heavily used.

You can see why Red Rock Crossing, with Cathedral Rock in the background, is one of the most photographed locations in the Southwest! It is stunning, rain or shine. And speaking of rain, I stayed out that day until the rain started in earnest. I got back to my car, just as it started to pour – perfect timing for a nap and lunch. I did manage to get out a shoot a little later on that evening, after the rain stopped. Stay tuned for those photos!

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