Pete Scifres, PPSA, GPSA
October 2026 - Red Rocks Vegas
About the Image(s)
On my last night at PSA's annual festival I stepped out of the hotel for a few hours and drove to nearby Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area. Internet research said as long as you stay out of the Wilderness Areas on the north and south ends drones are allowed. There was very little wind and some fantastic clouds over what are called the Calico Hills, and I launched right on front of them. I shot from several angles and elevations -- I liked this image (about 250 feet up) the best. I wanted to put the strung out cloud in a compositionally optimal place over the cliffs.
Single exposure with very little post -- set levels, added some curves in LR, and then used NIK to add Structure and vignetting.
Question for the team. This is uncropped in the original 1080x1920 aspect ratio. What do you think about cropping in from the left into a more traditional 3x2 aspect ratio?
3 comments posted
As far as cropping, I like it just the way it is, but then... I've been partial to 16X9 lately. And I don't think cropping would give you much. If anything, I'd say crop in from the right to put the rounded peak right in the center, but then you lose some of those beautiful diagonals in the rocks (that crop does accentuate the criss-cross pattern between the lines in the rocks on the shadow area in the lower left corner, though) Posted: 10/13/2026 21:27:33