"This photo was taken on an October morning in 2018 in the Utah Badlands, right after a night of heavy downpour. The following morning, we saw fog settling in the valley - a rare occurrence I was told. To this day, I still remember the dark and mysterious feeling, when we approached the cliff well before dawn and saw the ghostly fog slowly creeping into the valley.
Utah badlands are a magical place, but also a complex landscape, filled with intricate details and textures that offer countless photo opportunities. But figuring out cohesive and unique compositions proved challenging. It was frustrating initially, and I had to remind myself to slow down and fully immerse in the moment. After taking a few shots from the classic vantage point, I started wandering around, taking my time to observe, and carefully following up with each feature that caught my eye and sparked interest. Eventually, this turned out to be one of my most productive outings, resulting in several of my favorite photos from that memorable morning - this image being one of them.
This photo is also one of my favorite examples of using postprocessing to enhance mood and improve simplicity. The composition in the original raw file was great but the overall contrast was very flat, not fully conveying the intended mood. So, through postprocessing I was able to bring that out. I used techniques such as curve, burning and dodging, path blur, Silver Efex Pro, and a few others. I softened the contrast and texture for the majority part of the image, while enhancing the texture and the interesting small details along the top of the main ridge. Overall, compared to how it started, the final image was able to guide viewers' eyes more clearly, improved simplicity, and most importantly, conveyed the mood. "
