Last weekend I had taken a cruise in the Porsche Cayman out in the west desert and turned off at Faust, an old Pony Express Stop, for a quick break. I also took a couple of quick photos. The afternoon light was really fantastic, especially looking eastward toward the Wasatch Mountains, but I had included the car in all of my shots.

It was one of those times when later I was thinking, “Why didn’t I just take a little more time and get some shots without the car with that beautiful sky and light? Argh!!”

So, I decided to take a drive out there again in my truck yesterday. That way I could actually drive out on the Faust Road in case I saw some good shots on the way out. The Faust Road is not paved anymore except for about a mile and a half starting on the east end at Utah 36 and eastward just past the railroad tracks.

As a historical side note here, Faust was a stop along the old Pony Express Route. There is nothing left in Faust now other than a couple of farm houses. But the Faust Road actually follows the original Pony Express Route. It’s a cool drive, but not in a very low, high performance car. It’s definitely a truck road.

We have a nasty high pressure ridge parked right over the Great Basin, due to a la niña condition in the Pacific Ocean. That high pressure makes for lots of air pollution here in Utah, especially anywhere near the Wasatch Front where the population is.

We live right near the Wasatch range on the bench, and earlier in the day, the sky looked pretty clear. So, I decided that I would make the drive out to Faust yesterday afternoon to catch that wonderful light.

I got out to Faust just when I wanted, but the air was horrible. Looking back eastward toward the Wasatch there was this awful brown haze. I really bummed me out, and it definitely messed up the photo opportunity. I got this photograph, and I think it is really good. But I wanted to have that rich, late afternoon color. After seeing the original color photographs, I decided that this day’s work would be in black and white. It seemed to help disguise the brown haze.

The monotone still shows those wonderfully rich afternoon tones, especially the lighter tones that just glow. I converted my color shots to black and white using the Adobe black and white converter, which allows you to alter the red, blue and green tones as well as the overall contrast. I started with the infrared settings which tend to pull down the blue a lot as well as the reds somewhat. I cut the green down a fair amount from the default settings.

Overall, I am quite pleased with my photographs, even though the pollution was enough to make one gag. Looking back toward the Wasatch, I cannot believe we breathe that gunk on a regular basis. Here is the original color photo of the tree as comparison.

Thank you for taking time to check out my blog, and especially this post. I hope the little photo workup of Faust brightens your day. Have fun and stay safe out there.