Daniel McKee Photography

Daniel McKee Photography Landscape Photography

I live at 7,000 feet (2,100 meters), so the wildflowers are getting to their peak in the area where I live. This is abou...
05/31/2026

I live at 7,000 feet (2,100 meters), so the wildflowers are getting to their peak in the area where I live. This is about a 5-minute walk from my home and is filled with several varieties of flowers and grasses.

Thunderbirds at the US Air Force Academy graduation 5.28.2025
05/29/2026

Thunderbirds at the US Air Force Academy graduation 5.28.2025

Another view, south, from Grouse Mountain overlook
05/28/2026

Another view, south, from Grouse Mountain overlook

Grouse Mountain overlook - Mueller State Park - Colorado 5.23.2026This photo came out better than I thought, since I was...
05/24/2026

Grouse Mountain overlook - Mueller State Park - Colorado 5.23.2026

This photo came out better than I thought, since I was aimed into the sun, I waited until the sun was behind the cloud layer. I took 10 photos at different shutter speeds and did exposure blending with Lightroom’s HDR tool, then added several masks, and the final edit was done in Photoshop using Lumenzia. I was especially pleased with the layers (the middle to lower part of the photo), which turned out better than I thought they would.

Devil's Garden at Arches National Park
05/19/2026

Devil's Garden at Arches National Park

Scouting out the San Juan mountains after a fresh snow fall last night and this morning.
05/19/2026

Scouting out the San Juan mountains after a fresh snow fall last night and this morning.

Skyline arch in Arches National Park
05/18/2026

Skyline arch in Arches National Park

Before and After…I haven’t been out doing any photography for 2 months, but today, winter came back to Colorado, and it ...
04/18/2026

Before and After…

I haven’t been out doing any photography for 2 months, but today, winter came back to Colorado, and it snowed for a few hours, and we received 2 to 3 inches of snow. So, that motivated me to venture out to a favorite area that I’ve captured many times over the years. Although there wasn’t very much snow in the area, I still saw there was potential to capture a good shot and waited for the conditions to improve.

It was pretty much overcast, but the sun did peak through enough to give some light on the surrounding area, highlighting the trees and the rock formations without the sunlight being too harsh.

Later on at home, I looked over the 44 photos I captured and decided on a couple of shots that I liked and started the post-processing. The 2 photos I decided on, I took one for the highlights and the other for the shadows, and then did an HDR blend within LightRoom.

From there, if I have used a higher ISO than 64 (it was 250), I’ll do a Denoise before doing any adjustments. The first were very small Global adjustments (exposure: -.45, shadows: +31, and a bit of Hue for the reds, oranges, and greens).

Next, masking. My favorite tool for masking is the “Color Range.” With this tool, I was able to isolate just the sunlight that was highlighting the tree leaves. As it turned out, the mask was able to find all the matching colors on all the trees in the foreground. I repeated the same process with the rock formations and the sky. In total, I used 6 masks.

So, I’ve included in this post the raw and finished photos to demonstrate how effective masking can be with your photos versus doing all Global adjustments.

What's new in my camera bag? 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ!
04/17/2026

What's new in my camera bag? 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ!

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1805 N 30th St
Colorado Springs, CO
80904

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