Painted Hills, Oregon

I’ve resisted the urge of HDR photography for quite some time believing that I don’t need to resort to Photoshop trickery to make my photography better.

But this picture practically begs for it. After a long drive to the geographic center of Oregon near Mitchell, we arrived mere minutes before Sunset. The low light level left the colors washed out and dull compared to the real thing, so HDR was used to up the colors a bit.

The Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are the result of geologic pressures. This caused variations in colors of the rock. There are apparently a lot of fossilized plants through here and the occasional smaller animal bones. These aren’t dinosaur type fossils, but instead are more recent then that. Early horses are one of the most numerous types found.

What really makes these hills so beautiful is the green of the sage brush clashing with the reds and yellows of the hills. The color contrasts are very stunning.