February 2009   Newsletter Links
Upcoming:  Photo Workshops and Photo Safaris
The Bottom Line:  Editing Your Images
Great Location:  Shooting the Beaver Dam Mountains
Photoshop Tricks:  Opening Closed Eyes in Portraits
Image Gallery:  Beaver Dam Mountains
Contact Information
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     There are places you go back to whether you have photographed them a million times or not.  Some locations just beg for return trips - different seasons, different animals,  or a different emphasis.  The top destination for me is Yellowstone National Park, but others rank high - such as Zion National Park, Grand Teton National Park, California Highway One, the Saguaro Desert in Arizona, and others.  These are big locations - lots of places to go within each one - so many, in fact, that after dozens of visits you can continue to see new things, find new subjects, and never grow tired of the experiences and images you are able to capture.

     But there are also small locations - areas that are special at a particular time of the year - and for a particular set of subjects.  One of these is the Beaver Dam Wilderness Area in Southern Utah.  This wilderness area straddles I-15 at the Virgin River Gorge - near the Utah/Arizona Border - and heads north into the Beaver Dam Mountains and out onto the Beaver Dam Slope - a Joshua Tree forest that straddles the Nevada, Arizona, and Utah border country.  This is desert - and during the summer can have some of the most inhospitable temperatures in North America.  But in late April and early May this wilderness area is alive with nesting birds, crawling snakes and desert tortoise, and blooming wild flowers and cacti. 

     For five years, from 1985 through 1990, I lived in St. George, Utah and 4-wheeled down every back road and trail I could find.  From the Lytle Ranch Preserve in the Beaver Dam Wash (on the border of Utah and Nevada) through the adjacent mountains south and east to the Virgin River Gorge (Arizona) I learned the roads to every cattle watering trough, hawk nest, owl cave, and desert tortoise den I could.  My favorite road is the easiest to find.  Exit I-15 in the middle of the Virgin River Gorge at the Cedar Pocket exit and head northwest on the dirt road.  A rough but passable road, it winds over the pass and leads west, descending from the mountains into the Joshua Tree Forest on the Beaver Dam Slope.  The dirt road ends at Highway 91 - left to Littlefield, Az and I-15, or right to St. George.

     Nearly every spring I spend time wandering these old dirt roads.  I like to think that I cut my teeth as a wildlife photographer in this area - I photographed snakes and lizards, cactus and wildflowers, Cooper's hawks and Great Horned owls, and a plethora of small bird life.  I learned how badly I needed to use a tripod, how to maneuver to keep the sun at my back, how to use my car as blind - and a great amount of photography field craft.  I was lucky that the editor of St. George Magazine enjoyed my images and featured them in the magazine often - for that I owe Lyman Hafen a debt I could never repay.  His use of my images rewarded my hard work in the field and encouraged me to do more.  I haven't seen Lyman in many years but I talked to him on the phone recently.  He is the executive director of the Zion Natural History Association in Zion National Park and I wasn't sure he would remember me after a couple of decades away from southern Utah - but he did.  We had a warm conversation that brought me back to those days in southern Utah when I was learning photography and showing him images for the next issue of the magazine.  The images in the gallery are from the Beaver Dam Wilderness Area - if you have a couple of extra days this spring - wander by.  BRP
 

Upcoming Events

Yosemite NP Workshop

Elephant Seal / Sea Otter Workshop

Bolsa Chica Bird Refuge Workshop

2 Day Southern Utah Photo Safari

$320

2 Day Zion and Bryce Photo Safari

9 Mile Canyon Workshop

$160

Brigham City, Utah

3 Day Yellowstone Photo Safari

The Bottom Line:  Editing Your Images

     Its never easy to edit out images that would other wise clutter up a stock image library.  The editing process doesn't necessarily reflect my ability as a photographer, more, it reflects the difficulty of the subject material and environmental conditions in which I took the images.  When I first edited my images I kept anything that was sharp, I kept images I had a emotional connection to, and I kept images that were the first of that species or location.  Not any more.  With hundreds of thousands of images in my library I can't afford to keep images that aren't publishable or couldn't be used as fine art, but especially images with any emotional attachment that are sub-standard.

     I edit my images 3 times before they go into my stock library.

     First, I do a basic edit for sharpness and image quality.  Is the image sharp and the exposure correct?  Was the image exposure correct or, if not, can it be fixed in post-production?  On a recent three day shoot to Bosque del Apache in New Mexico I shot 8000 images of snow geese and sandhill cranes.  I shot everything I saw of interest and used every technique I could think of, such as creative techniques in selective focus, applied motion creating shutter-speeds, fly by's, individuals and groups, etc.  I shot images before sunrise, during the day, and after dusk.  Everything.  In my first edit of the images I cut 6250 images.   Some were too light, washed out in direct sun (snow geese) while others were too blurry, or not quite sharp enough.

     Second, I did an edit for subject impact and composition.  I had thousands of bird fly-by's, birds singly or in groups passing by my position that I photographed.  My second edit cut 500 images that had no subject impact.  In some the birds were too far away, or some were composed or tracked poorly, part of the birds wings outside of the image border or heads covered by the wings of others.  In some images there were distracting power lines in the background or lens flares from the sun. 

     My third edit is always the most difficult because all the remaining images are good, having made the first two edits.  Now I look for intangible things in the remaining images that make them defective - and I probably have biases in doing this.  I noticed that some of the birds seemed awkward, either in wing or body position - they got cut.  I found some of the sandhill crane images were of immature birds (short beaks and small bodies), many of these I edited out.   I had lots of images of the snow geese landing in fields and ponds in the midst of hundreds of others - many of these the flying birds became lost in the landed flocks, again, many of these I edited out.  Duplicates, shot during high-speed motordrive sequences, gone.  And so it went until I finished with about 900 final images.

     These final 900 images encompass the very best images of this 3 day photo safari.  Each image can stand on its own in sharpness, exposure, subject impact, composition, and artistry.  Each image could be published, some as fine art, but all with a knowledge that they have something to offer by staying in my image library.  Every trip to Bosque del Apache brings different images, different light and conditions, different patterns and activities - and each trip narrows my editing even further.
 

 
     As I spoke at the beginning of this newsletter, the Beaver Dam Wilderness Area that is located near the borders of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada is one of the most unique areas I return to regularly to photograph.  The map below shows the general boundaries of the 17,500 acre wilderness area as well as the encompassing Joshua Tree forest.
 

        Maps are available through different government agencies that detail the roads and area names.  From the Lytle Ranch Preserve located in the Beaver Dam Wash (which leads down to the town of Beaver Dam), south and east across the Beaver Dam Slope and its Joshua Tree forest to the Beaver Dam Mountains (north of I-15).  Most of the wilderness area is located in Arizona, but much of the Joshua Tree forest is located in Utah.  Both areas contain an abundance of bird life, reptiles, cactus, wildflowers, and some bighorn sheep.  The map below shows my favorite road through the area.  Leaving I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge at the Cedar Pockets off-ramp and heading north, the dirt road crosses a pass and leads down through the Beaver Dam Mountains and onto the Beaver Dam Slope, crossing creek washes along the way.

 

     I'm not sure how far this dirt road runs from I-15 before reconnecting with US 91, maybe 10-12 miles or so.  It is passable in good weather with a car, though I recommend a SUV or higher riding truck.  Rocky outcroppings and the constant grinding and vibrations on this washboard dirt road requires good tires - and a spare.  Within a couple of hundred yards from leaving the overpass and heading north, an amazing garden of flora and fauna begins to come into view.

     Late April and early May are the times I suggest shooting the Beaver Dam Wilderness and the surrounding areas.  Warm spring days have brought out a plethora of wildflowers, butterflies, lizards, snakes, migratory songbirds, flowering cactus, etc.  Kit fox, coyotes, golden eagles, falcons, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls, and desert bighorn are but a few of the species that call this area home. 

     You can stay in either St. George (Utah) or Mesquite (Nevada) where accommodations are plentiful.  Having lived in St. George I know they have nicer hotels and better restaurants.  Also, if you decide to spend more time in this area, St. George offers access to Zion National Park, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Arizona Strip country, and to the Pine Valley Mountains.  Images I shot from this area are featured in the Image Gallery.
 

 
     As a professional portrait photographer, understanding how to correctly perform simple retouching to the face of a client is an important skill to master.  Since the eyes of a subject are the most important element in a portrait, fixing either the fully closed or partially closed eyes is mandatory - and either way, it is done the same if you have two similar images to work from.  While a copy of good eyes seems obvious, there are tricks to making it look perfect.
 

Squinting Eyes to Replace

Image with Good Eyes

      Once you have found a replacement set of eyes from a different image, the steps to follow are easy.
 

1).  Select the Image with the good eyes. Using the Lasso Tool (with the feather set to 0) draw a line around both eyes, as seen here.  I highlighted the line with red so you can see it more clearly in this small image.  2).  Once you have drawn the line, copy it.  On a PC like mine the command is CTRL-C, or click on the appropriate icon on your computer to copy.
3).  Select the Image with the bad eyes we need to replace.  With the Rulers selected (CTRL-R) click inside the ruler area at the horizontal edge of the image and drag out a Guide Line until it is centered on the left eye.  Drag out a second Guide Line until it is centered on the right eye.  From the Vertical (top) Ruler drag down a third Guide Line so that it crosses both eyes as closely to center as possible. These guides will enable you to exactly duplicate the size and location of the eyes without guessing.
4).  Paste in the new eyes (CTRL-V), and bring up the Free Transform Box (CTRL-T) located in the edit menu, or use the shortcut shown.  Hold down the Shift Key (to maintain proportions) and use the Free Transform Box corner guides to scale and rotate the eyes as necessary until they line up with the crossing Guide Lines.  Use the Arrow Keys to Nudge the image into the right position.
5)  Click the "Eye" Icon in the Layers Palette of the Background Layer so that only the copied eyes (called Layer 1) are seen.  As in this example. 6)  Select the Eraser Tool and lower its Opacity setting to 18%.  Choose a brush size a little bigger than the actual eye in the image.
7).  With the Eraser tool selected begin to erase around the outside of the eyes - never actually touching the eyes or the area immediately around it.  Your job here is to blend out the unneeded area of the copied eyes, including the sharp edge.  You don't have to completely erase it, just feather the areas out so they blend with the original image of the bad eyes.  Don't erase over the good eyes.
8).  Click the "Eye" of the Background Layer on and off to see how your work is progressing.  After erasing out the areas not needed by blending the edges, leave the "Eye" of the Background Layer on and finishing erasing as needed.  When you are finished, clicking the Layer 1 (new eyes) "Eye" on and off should result in a perfect "blink" effect, with no changes to hair, nose, eyebrows, etc.
New Eyes fully retouched	Old Photo of squinting eyes
As in most portrait retouching, going slowly, at low opacity settings, allows you to fine tune the corrections as you go.  These corrections were done using Photoshop CS 2 and take me about 1-2 minutes to perform.

Image Gallery

Purple Torch Cactus in the Beaver Dam Wilderness Area

Desert Checkerspot Butterfly in the Beaver Dam Wash

Contact Information

Brent Russell Paull
American West Photography
460 E. Estate Drive
Tulare, California  93274
559-909-5208
brentrpaull@hotmail.com
www.amwestphoto.com