Unprocessed Sunday: LM108

One of the issues with digital photography is simple and obvious:  what does one do with too many images?  I have decided to create a new series focusing on an image (or set of images) that I haven’t previously processed in Adobe Lightroom.  This is…Unprocessed Sunday.

The Image:  LM108

Thoughts On LM108

I created this image from one of my favorite locations in San Diego County, Kwaaymii Point.  The “Point” is a misnomer.  The location is the former road bed of Sunrise Highway before it was bypassed.  The old road is also the walkway of a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Kwaaymii Point is the location of what is probably my favorite personal image of all-time:  Kwaaymii Point Monsoon.

This area is one of the windiest spots in San Diego County.  It can sometimes be a challenge to just stand upright.  Although I never got around to processing this photograph for close to a year, I distinctly remember my Ford Escape shaking while parked.

Storms that are powerful enough to blow over Laguna Crest and into the desert are a real treat.  I waited several minutes trying to get a full rainbow.  Light was to my back, and I was looking down.  However, a full bow never materialized, not least because the clouds to the South were letting loose rain into lower Anza-Borrego.  County Highway S-2 (Imperial Highway) runs through this area, and I am sure there were a number of washes that made parts of the road un-passable.

This image had to be taken dark.  As you can see in the storm clouds, some were quite bright.  Keeping with the idea of exposing to the right, I made sure to keep those areas from blowing out.  I left much of the foreground dark, simply because those areas were dark.  I did up the shadows as a local adjustment in those areas.

I think LM108 is a good start in the quest to get more images processed or culled.

Unprocessed Sundays

This blog series came about for a couple reasons.  The first is that I have too many images I haven’t touched, going back 15 years!  As I struggle to corral an image catalog that is busting at the seams and filling my backup hard drives, I find images worth keeping that I haven’t done anything with.

Speaking with some friends, several of whom have found interesting ways to write regularly about photography, I wanted to find a workflow for going through old work.  I picked Sunday for reasons of practicality.  I work during the week, and Sunday is the day I am usually getting ready for the next week.

I can’t guarantee I will blog every single Sunday, but I hope to be more productive and write more.

Further Viewing

San Diego’s Easy County Photography Portfolio

Laguna Mountains Photography Portfolio

Print On Demand Website

tmschultze

T.M. Schultze is a San Diego-based photographer, traveller, and writer. He writes, photographs, and draws things of the outdoors that have inspired humans for thousands of years. He co-authored the Photographer’s Guide to Joshua Tree Park which can be purchased here.