David's Images of the Day Photoblog
The Road Scholar/Elderhostel “Photography in the Southwest” workshop was based at Kelly Place B&B just outside of Cortez Colorado. This is a great location in McElmo Canyon, quiet and remote. It borders Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. The following images were taken in and around Hovenweep National Monument in Utah.
There is an underground Kiva at Kelly Place in Cortez, Colorado. On our second day of the Road Scholar/Elderhostel workshop the owner of Kelly Place allowed us to enter the Kiva for a photo session. He burned some sage to create smoke to create this image. The first image was converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro 2. The second image is the original RAW image processed with Capture One Pro 6. Lighting for this image is sunlight coming in through the roof entry and a gold reflector.
I was the last person to occupy this cabin in Curry Village while attending the Nikonians ANPAT 8 (Annual Nikonians Photo Adventure Trip) in October of 2008 — Led by Michael Mariant. On that day, just after lunch we heard a loud noise. It first sounded like thunder or a very loud freight train, but the noise continued and kept getting louder. The sky was clear when we were at lunch so I knew it couldn’t be a freak winter thunderstorm. Michael in the cabin next to me yelled “rock slide, run”. The next thing we knew, Yosemite Valley was enveloped in a cloud of rock dust. Eighteen months later, the cabin still exists but stands empty in a closed area of Curry Village.
