Archives For sunset

Havasu Falls, Arizona

Varina Patel —  May 17, 2013

Coloring Book

Map: Havasu Falls, Arizona

Havasu Falls is incredible. The waterfall and its turquoise pool are highlighted against a backdrop of rich orange sandstone. On this particular evening, the sunset painted the sky in shades of pink, purple, and blue. The colors feel as thought they could have been chosen from a box of crayons by a child who didn’t care about the “real” color of things… so I titled this one “Coloring Book”. But it isn’t imaginary. It’s quite real. And truly beautiful.

Getting here is tough. You won’t be driving to the campgrounds. The nearest road ends 11 miles from the village of Supai, so you have three options. You can hike, go on horseback, or take a helicopter. We carried our packs down into the canyon via a series of rough switchbacks. It’s a difficult path, but once you reach the bottom, you can follow the canyon towards the village. You’ll need a permit to camp here, and you can get all the information you need at: http://www.havasupaifalls.net/

We stayed for three nights before packing up and heading back home. Keep in mind that you’ll be making that final climb after a long hike, so be sure to bring enough water and conserve your energy for the final push. The website offers this advice…

“The hike is a moderate difficulty hike, 11 miles from Hilltop to Campground. Temperatures in the summer can exceed 110 degrees, and there is no water available on the trail until you reach Supai at about 8.5 miles. Know what your body can handle, and pack accordingly.”

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Pine Glades Lake

Varina Patel —  August 28, 2012

This is a shot I took at sunrise from the shores of Pine Glades Lake in the Florida’s Everglades National Park. I needed an eight-second exposure to capture the fading light – and to smooth the surface of the water in order to showcase the beautiful reflections on the water. As is often the case, my goal was to create a minimalist image. I chose a pano crop to accentuate the width of the scene. A wide-angle lens let me show a wider portion of the lake and the brilliant sunset colors fading into the deep blue of the sky.

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Ke’e Beach

Varina Patel —  August 21, 2012


This is a shot of the sunset at Ke’e Beach on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. The water was so incredibly smooth here, and the reflections made me feel as though I was standing in the sky. I used a reflected cloud as a “foreground object”, and framed my image so that everything pointed towards the sun. I wanted an extremely simple image, so I restricted my composition to avoid the other people on the beach. I used a GND filter to reduce the brightness of the sky and the water in the distance.

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Coloring Book

Varina Patel —  August 14, 2012

This is Havasu Falls in Arizona. The colors are real… but doesn’t it look like something out of a child’s wild imagination? I guess they used just about all the prettiest crayons in the box for this one. Brilliant turquoise water. Orange sandstone cliffs. And pink clouds against such a beautiful blue sky. This shot is all about color.

I really wanted to get a shot of the falls under a brilliant sky, but I wasn’t convinced we’d have any really good color. I waited anyway. The color didn’t last long, but I was in the just the right place to capture it. The canyon was in shade, so the light was pretty even. I used a circular polarizer to minimize glare off the water, and I reduced the brightness of the sky just a bit in post-processing to get the exposure exactly right. Over or under exposure will make the colors feel dull and lifeless… but the correct exposure really makes the colors pop.

What do you think? Should I convert to black and white? ;)   (Just kidding, of course.)

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