Best of 2022

[Rick Nantais]

Wow ! What a gret exercice ! I loved it. Choose 10 out of thousands great pictures (They should be great because I kept them lol). Was vey difficult to do. All these pictures represent something for me, or a souvenir, or a technical challenge, or just something new ! No favorite order, just ordered them by date.
1- The 3 old cowboys, Dynamite Arena, Cave Creek Arizona.

2- The old Jerome fire truck. Behind bars, in a museum...

#3 The Grand Canyon, thir visit, new pictures process...

#4 Rosie the riveter, Remote shoot in a garage with a beginner model.

#5, The Sonora desert near cave Creek, the sky attracted me first.

#6 Suzie and Mya, my two old girls, first pictures with the Z9...

#7 Starla and Whisper. A nude shoot outside with horses. More difficult than I tought.

#8 Quebec City. Been there dozens of times. Tried something new (sky replacement in Toshop)

#9 Fall leaves in front of a waterfall. How to make a long exposure and have the leaves sharp ?

#10 The cowgirl, Scottsdale rodeo,

#11 I know i cheat but could not resist. No title. Same idea as the leaves, long exposure with a model

Thank you for having me do this retrospection this morning.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Great work Rick, 2 is my fav.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Rick, it is a really fun exercise. I am not sure how you got it down to 10. I had to do several runs at it. My first run through got me down to 80, my next run through I got it down to 24. And my third time through I got it down to 10.

My favorites are #1, 4 and 11. I do some model shoots, or maybe should say that I have done some as it's been a while. The posing is what always takes me a bit to get into the flow. So I like how you have her posed in #11, a little different but really effective I think.

Your question about how to get sharp leaves with a slow shutter speed to get the milky water in the background? 2 images, 1 taken with a slow shutter speed for the water, and 1 taken with a faster shutter speed to freeze the leaves in place. Blend together with a layer mask, stir, and you have moving water and sharp leaves!

 

[AlanLichty]

Great set Rick. I know the feeling of needing to delete something in order to get the list down to 10 images. It took me quite a few passes as well. I like #5. Not a lot of the area around Cave Creek still looks like that. The road to Bartlett Lake used to look like that when I was first driving around in that desert in the 1960's.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Very interesting set. I'll have to spend some time on a larger screen with these. 4 and 7 get my initial reactions. Nicely executed on both.

 

[Rick Nantais]

Hey Rick, it is a really fun exercise. I am not sure how you got it down to 10. I had to do several runs at it. My first run through got me down to 80, my next run through I got it down to 24. And my third time through I got it down to 10.

My favorites are #1, 4 and 11. I do some model shoots, or maybe should say that I have done some as it's been a while. The posing is what always takes me a bit to get into the flow. So I like how you have her posed in #11, a little different but really effective I think.

Your question about how to get sharp leaves with a slow shutter speed to get the milky water in the background? 2 images, 1 taken with a slow shutter speed for the water, and 1 taken with a faster shutter speed to freeze the leaves in place. Blend together with a layer mask, stir, and you have moving water and sharp leaves!

Thanks for the input. Maybe we could do a photoshoot in AZ ?

 

[Rick Nantais]

Great set Rick. I know the feeling of needing to delete something in order to get the list down to 10 images. It took me quite a few passes as well. I like #5. Not a lot of the area around Cave Creek still looks like that. The road to Bartlett Lake used to look like that when I was first driving around in that desert in the 1960's.

Thanks for the feedback, The number 5 was taken in a place called Browns ranch, you know it ?

 

[AlanLichty]

Thanks for the feedback, The number 5 was taken in a place called Browns ranch, you know it ?

Nope - but that whole desert around Cave Creek and Carefree used to look like that.

 

[BlackRockArt]

Rick, many creative shots, love the #7.

Oliver

 

[Sunny Sra]

Rick,
Very cool!! #9 is my fav here. Thanks for sharing these

Have a healthy and adventurous 2023!