Half a dozen miles south of our cabin in the Wind River Canyon is Boysen Reservoir.  The lake extends beyond Shoshoni, which is fifteen miles away!  It's a large, deep lake that is a popular Wyoming boating and recreational area.  The dam was built from 1947 to 1952 and flooded part of the canyon, and controlled yearly flooding problems to the north; the Wind River/Big Horn River flows north.  This massive lake, in an otherwise dry area, has affected local weather; fog is thick as glue when seasons change.  

     Boysen Lake is an interesting place to photograph a beautiful, large body of water in an ecosystem that's as diverse as the Wind River Canyon.  It has enticed water birds, that would not otherwise be here, to nest in the area.  Over forty years I've wasted a lot of film out there, and sunscreen, too.  

     Two weeks ago, I was on my way to a wedding early in the morning.  Forest-fire smoke was making fascinating shades of orange, and the wind was howling-mad.  When we got to the lake it had white-capped waves, the kind that make boating impossible.  With all the smoke and wind the reservoir was a rare beast to photograph.  I shot off seven random frames in RAW with daylight settings; nothing added in-camera.  It really was a miserable place to do anything outside our vehicle, but I knew that these dull-grey images could be made to dance.

     When we finally got home I uploaded the files into my computer, and started the job of making these landscapes mine.  I'll tell you in all honesty, if you were standing next to me on that nasty morning, you'd wonder when I'd gotten the amazing photograph of the lake.  Now the lecture part----

     After you press the shutter the picture is yours.  It's your job to make the photograph sing and dance, or disappear into obscurity.  You can make your photo into fine art, or ready for file number 13.  And to make a photograph your work-of-art takes a little vision, and sometimes a lot of guts.  You may be encouraged by others to keep the picture "just the way it was."  I'd like to suggest you never do that.  

     The greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries never created works that were ordinary; you couldn't see a Renoir or a Monet out your window.  The world's greatest works of art are those that take the viewer beyond their experience, and transports the individual somewhere the artist desires you to be emotionally.  I encourage you to take a few chances, and have some vision for your photography.  And to that end here is my latest attempt at a Wyoming Landscape, again.   Boysen Reservoir - Wind River Canyon, WyomingBoysen Reservoir on the south end of the Wind River Canyon.      In Canon's supplied software I worked the RAW file by adding lots of saturation, contrast, and brought the shadows down to darken the water nearer the viewer.  The forest-fire smoke was bright and obscured the interesting mountains, so I toned down the brightness, which make the mountains appear more distinct.  The hazy mountains in the far background are the Wind River Mountains, and are over forty miles away!  With a tone-curve adjustment and auto-lighting optimizer checked, we're off to Lightroom.

     In Lightroom I sharpened the saved Tiff-file landscape to tighten up the mountains nearer to us, and clicked the punch button and medium contrast curve to add even more contrast and saturation than the camera's software could.  I boosted the red in the mountains and the aqua in the distant lake.  The cliffs were still hazy, so I took down the light tones a bit, and the mountains now looked cool and popped.  Total fix time----twenty minutes.  Time needed to decide what I wanted to do with this scenic landscape?  Like a week and a half!

     I do suppose if you stood by the lake long enough it would look like this eventually, or maybe not, who cares?  It was my intention to make a picture of this Wyoming lake into something that stimulates the eye and mind; something out of the everyday experience; something my doctor would want to hang on his wall.  You should try to think of your work as fine art, and don't be afraid to push the proverbial envelope....please.

Digital darkroom, photography and blog by Michael John Balog - Hogbats Photography, Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.  Thank you for reading my Wind River Canyon Blog.