The White Place

[Cornflake]

The White Place is near Abiquiu, New Mexico. The painter Georgia O'Keefe lived nearby. At least one of her paintings was inspired by the place.



The White Place is on Geologic Time. You need to set your watch back a few million years to be in synch with the events that shaped it.

The White Place is nondenominational but it's on land that is now owned by a Muslim group that operates a retreat nearby. The man who runs the retreat, a Belgian named Michael de Klerk, told me that they leave the dirt road to the White Place open except during heavy rains. When there's rain, vehicles tear up the road and sometimes get stuck.



The White Place should be photographed at daybreak. The remarkable textures would be more evident. My only visit was at 2:00 PM on a mostly cloudy day. My memory took better pictures than my camera.

The White Place has no preference as between McCain and Obama.



The White Place is close to whatever is transcendent. If nothing is really transcendent, the White Place is more conducive to human delusions concerning transcendence than are most places. I found myself wondering why some places strike us as holy. I want to go back.

[billhammond]

Wow, that would be SUCH a bitchin' location for a White Castle!

Look at the parking room!

[sekhmet]

I really like the bottom shot! Did you mess with that sky?

See your email Mr Cornflake.

[Cornflake]

Saw my email--please say the same here.

No, I didn't mess with the sky. All of these were minimally processed. I adjusted the contrast, adjusted the white balance (incorrectly I now think), clarified slightly and sharpened slightly.

[sekhmet]

With Flake permission:

" noted that the top one of your photos on the forum seemed a little blue. I thought I would cheer it up and give it to you. Please see attached.

I didn't want to post this on the forum because even though I am an overbearing lioness goddess who talks too much, I don't want to appear to jump on everything and sundry. But I did. *sigh*

The problem here might be that cameras in general are sensitive to the blue in the spectrum. Many a good outdoor shot is bathed in the blue light reflected in the sky, which our brain filters out but the camera does not. I tweaked this in Lightroom. There are more complicated and boring ways to do it in Photoshop but I think the easy method is good enough. After all, if it looks right it probably is, right?
"

the photos, somewhat adjusted:

[Cornflake]

Lesson learned: the white balance setting in my software for "cloudy day" is overly blue.

[sekhmet]

Flake, usually the white balance auto settings are yukky. Even in Photoshop. I never use them.

[Cornflake]

The way the place really looked was somewhat warmer than mine and somewhat cooler than yours. Maybe I'll tinker.

And although I didn't fool with the sky in the third photo, I was using a polarizing filter. That probably accounts for what you observed that made you ask.

[sekhmet]

I wonder if your monitor might be a little warmer than it should be. By that I mean that one of the three colours might be dominating - this monitor is quite cool when it is zeroed to factory settings. When calibrated, which I do every month, the three colours are balanced and the output is reliable.

Our eyes are really adaptable. If we see a person standing beside a red wall which is lit up, that person's skin will be quite red. We don't see it unless it is over the top. We expect to see skin tone and we do. Cameras see red people.

People will say "my monitor is fine" when in fact it is green as can be - because they have adapted.

Now, "green as can be" is relative. I've been working with subtle changes in colour for years. I'm sensitive to them.