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Currant Creek Reservoir - Wolf Creek exploration

CobraNutt

CobraNutt

Active Member
Location
Salt Lake City
Saturday, I took off for a day-long trip to scout out some new camping areas that I might want to drag my trailer to. I started out at Strawberry Reservoir and followed dirt roads over three mountain passes and had a very enjoyable drive. Here's the PRIMARY ROUTE (UPDATED 7-14-14) info.

Lots of beautiful country up there, and the temperature was in the low 70's...perfect! :)
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An old, but still in use (kinda) barn near Currant Creek. It's open range area, so the local cattle use it for shelter now and then.
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I don't like shooting mid-day...but sometimes I just have no choice.
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Currant Creek Reservoir...20 second exposure with a 10-stop filter...not bad...
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A stare-down with one of the locals...I call him Tripod. lol!
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From Currant Creek, I ventured over a couple valleys to an area I've been a couple times before. There's a small pond and campsite, and I've thought about camping there. Yesterday, the mosquitoes were HORRIBLE!! So I think that may be a spot for cold weather camping. But...I did see a little friend on my way by!
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From there, I took a little jeep trail down to a place called Heart Lake. Nice little ride! I had my GoPro on the Jeep and caught a young elk buck running off through the foliage in my way to the lake. I'll get it on YouTube later and embed it here.
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The sun was going down, so I hustled back up to the ridge to catch the sunset. I caught a glimpse of this little guy before he headed over the ridgeline...

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I wanted to get some better shots of him, but the sun was going down fast, so I had to get over to the area I had i mind to catch it from...I made it...and I was not disappointed...
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Quite possibly my favorite shot of the day...
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Oh...and then the moon made an appearance a few minutes later as I was packing up my gear. It was cloudy and I didn't think I'd get to see it before I had to head back home...but alas...

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I decided to see if I could catch some detail. I failed to adjust my ISO correctly (DOH!!) ,so not at good as I had hoped. Oh well.
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Until Next time.... :cool:
 
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sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
Great prics and TR. I love that area.

Thardy said:
Dang, I love those pics!! I wish I knew how to use my camera! I have a Nikon 5100 and can't figure out how to take good pics!!
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Knowing how to use a camera is very important, but 99% of the good photos you see have been touched up in software after they've been taken. That being said, you need to start with a good picture first, but don't expect your pics to come straight out the any camera looking quite like these.
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
Most of these shots could totally have been done entirely in camera (shooting jpeg with appropriate settings). There's no exotic processing here. This is just good composition and good exposure.

That said, I'd bet they were shot in RAW though. Just because RAW allows the most control and flexibility and is just smart to shoot in. But that of course means they do need to be processed.

But these are just well done. Period. Processing images like these is mostly just moving a couple sliders around then copying and pasting the settings to the rest of the batch, maybe a crop here and there before outputting to jpeg. Nothing like "photoshopping".

- DAA
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
I didn't mean to insult cobranut and imply that he is compensating with software. He's 100x the photographer I'll ever be, these are some fantastic shots.
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
sixstringsteve said:
I didn't mean to insult cobranut and imply that he is compensating with software. He's 100x the photographer I'll ever be, these are some fantastic shots.
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And I didn't mean to imply you were. I know you weren't.

It's just that I disagree with your statement, that's all. Landscape shots like most of these really are doable straight out of the camera. Especially for someone who knows how to use filters, which Gary obviously does. There are an awful lot of settings, choices you can make in the camera, that effect tonality, contrast, saturation, color balance etc., you can do all that before the shot, if you want the camera to do the processing to jpeg for you.

But, I also completely agree with you that 99% of the shots you see posted have at least been touched - they have to be - because they were shot in RAW.

I dunno... Letting a pet peeve of mine show, I guess. Anytime anyone tells a great photographer either that "your camera takes really good pictures!", or, implies it's all in the processing (which I KNOW you did not mean), it irritates me. My bad. Sorry about that.

Sorry about the side track too.

- DAA
 
CobraNutt

CobraNutt

Active Member
Location
Salt Lake City
sixstringsteve said:
Great prics and TR. I love that area.



Knowing how to use a camera is very important, but 99% of the good photos you see have been touched up in software after they've been taken. That being said, you need to start with a good picture first, but don't expect your pics to come straight out the any camera looking quite like these.
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Thanks for the props! It's one of my favorite areas as well. Decent roads, lots of them, and some great places to camp!

...and actually there are quite a few pics that I post that are SOOC with only the addition of my watermark. For instance, one of the shots of the lake posted above was shot at ~20 second exposure, using a 10-stop ND filter...and no post process needed. The last two of the moon are both SOOC. Dave is correct in that most good shots are the result of good composition and perhaps use of camera settings and filters. I have a few custom presets that I have saved on-camera to avoid the use of much post-processing since I shoot both JPG and RAW. I'll go in and do full edits on particular RAW files if/when I get the time, or if I want to print anything. The JPG files are quick and easy, so I can post and share them right away. I am very much a beginner when it comes to post-process work because I want to focus on my camera and composition skills...and i have a LOT of work to do! I do very little post process, because, honestly, I'm new to LR and I suck at it. You know what they say about teaching old dogs new tricks... :)


Kevin B. said:
That three legged cow is totally fake.
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Funny you say that, because the 4th leg is actually there if you look for it. No photoshop there. :)
 
CobraNutt

CobraNutt

Active Member
Location
Salt Lake City
jeep-N-montero said:
Do you by chance have a more exact location for that barn and know if that's all private property, I see a spot I should go fish.
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Here's a link to the updated map: CLICK HERE! The barn is located at the GREEN thumbtack marker on the map. I can' t answer the property ownership question, but since there are no gates to open or close, I assume it's BLM/open range land. Yes, there are cows in the vicinity. There were a couple guys fishing the stream that you have to cross to get to the barn, but not sure how their luck was. :)

P.S. I tried sending you a PM with this info earlier...but your box is full, so I posted it here.
 
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