422 - La Cruz de Los Barriles
I'm not sure how to make a catchy intro for this post, but we shot at La Cruz de Los Barriles today. Also I just made that up, the hill doesn't have an "official" name... yet.
AllTrails came in clutch today again. This town we were in, Los Barriles, literally has nothing to do except kitesurfing and pickleball. I'm not kidding- there's a pickleball resort right down the street from where I'm writing this.
So I loaded up the ole' AllTrails app-eroo and guess what I found? A nice religious hike up to a cross, that just so happens to overlook the whole town.
But I didn't want a shot of a cross, or even the whole town for that matter. I just wanted to see more cacti. See, my cactus addiction is starting to get out of control. I even caught myself Googling cactus tattoos today. For some reason they draw me in like a bratwurst draws in a doberman. I can't get enough.
Needless to say, the hike looked perfect. Only about a mile to the top of the hill, and full of strange new cacti species yet to be discovered (by me.) Haley decided to opt out of this adventure, namely because she was asleep from a full morning of snorkeling at Playa Arbolito. I was tired too, but not tired enough to miss a day of shooting.
So I began the hike, ready for whatever.
Immediately upon starting, I realized the sun was setting, fast. It was still an hour until sunset, but there was a massive hill that was about to block out the light. To top it all of, the trail was on the OPPOSITE side of the sun, so I was hiking in the shadow.
I decided to book it up to the top, without stopping. After all, it was only a mile.
Shortly thereafter, I got to the cross, only to be greeted by three semi-hot chicks. One wouldn't stop smiling while filming herself on her iPhone. It was like someone sewed her cheeks up and she couldn't put them down. The other chicks greeted me in Spanish and I muttered a half-hearted "hola." I was more concerned about the rapidly depleting light than conversation at the moment.
As it turns out, the cross WASN'T at the actual top of the hill. From the AllTrails pics I thought it was, but there was still another 100 feet or so of elevation to the top. I decided to head there, because creepy smile chick kept running all over the place and I couldn't think properly.
The difficult thing about this place was that there were shrubs EVERYWHERE. And they weren't small shrubs. They were big boys that blocked the mountain view. The challenge was to find an open clearing to I could actually see the view.
A couple minutes later I did just that. Lucky for me, the sun had about 2 minutes until it disappeared behind the mountain, so I lined up a shot with what Los Barriles presented. My favorite subject was this dead tree with branches that looked like long, disturbing arms. I wasn't a cactus, but it would do. The sun was hitting it perfectly, and it was either that or a zoomed in shot of the mountains. Here's the photo:
“Duo Land”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 100 ~ 20mm ~ f/16 ~ 1/4s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Notice how I found a mountain layering in the top right corner? Finally found a use for one that didn't take up the whole goddamn shot.
In order to make that shot work, I really pulled out the glow with luminosity masks. I also shot the thing at f/4, which I didn't realize because I was in such a rush. That's why the front tree is so clear against the back mountains. It almost looked too clear at first.
To counter this, I added an Orton Effect to the front tree, to give it that daze that would help sync it with the out-of-focus backdrop better. That was my biggest realization today- I can use the Orton effect to blur subjects slightly if they look to sharp against out of focus backdrops.
I shot a bunch of other compositions with cacti, but that was the one that turned out best- the rest didn't have the benefit of the sunlight. I guess the cactus gods were playing hard to get today.
On the way down I couldn't help but notice the ocean backdrop that I didn't utilize at all. It almost felt like a sin with such a good view of it. So I looked for what interested me most- and it was this row of boat lined up. It almost looked like a congo line.
Here's the shot:
“Duo Land”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 100 ~ 20mm ~ f/16 ~ 1/4s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Long gone are the days where I give a fuck about a proper crop length. I never print anything, so I mind as well get creative. In this digital age, I always favor composition over popular crop dimensions. I'd rather have a great shot at a weird crop than a shitty shot at 2:3, 4:5, 9:16 or whatever else is popular nowadays.
And with that being said, I got back to my van and woke up Haley from her slumber. She smacked me.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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