Lichen on Rock

After shooting the small waterfall at Lake Bailey Dam, I made the short drive to the Turtle Rocks formation. I wanted to photograph the abstract patterns formed by the lichen growing on the rocks.  I had been to this location a couple of months earlier and made some nice images.

Arriving at the area, the sky remained overcast and provided soft, even lighting. Such lighting is perfect for the photographs I was planning to make.  A lot of people think a bright, sunny day is perfect for photography.  However, in many instances, that kind of lighting is very harsh, creates too much contrast, and often bleaches out the colors in the scene.

As I walked around the formation, I noticed this interesting section of rock. It not only had some colorful lichen and but also very nice texture.

Maintaining sharpness throughout the frame is almost always necessary in this kind of photograph. This requires sufficient depth of field, which is accomplished through the position of the camera and the aperture chosen.  By very carefully positioning the back my camera so it would be parallel with the angle of the rock and selecting the smallest lens aperture, I ensured maximum depth of field.  While the small aperture required a relatively long shutter speed, that wasn’t a concern since the subject wasn’t moving.

Opening the file in Lightroom, I increased the overall exposure and contrast of the image, adjusted the highlights and shadows slightly to further boost contrast, and added vibrance and saturation to bring out the colors. I then took the picture into Photoshop and applied Nik’s Tonal Contrast filter which further enhanced the contrast and colors in the scene.

I really like the abstract nature of this image. Had I had a clear blue sky with bright sunlight, I could not have captured this kind of image very easily.  Photographically, I am always thankful for cloudy days whenever I can take advantage of them.

Settings:  70mm, 1/8 sec, f/22, ISO 400