How I Made ‘Turbines at the Bonneville Dam’

Today’s Post by Mark Toal

I don’t know about you, but my family was the type that never stopped at cool places on road trips. This has either cursed me or blessed me with having to stop whenever I see a sign that says Visitor Center, Historic Downtown or the dreaded Gift Shop.

Last week I was driving through the Columbia River Gorge east of where I live in Portland, Oregon when I saw the arrow pointing to the Visitor Center for the Bonneville Dam. I made a quick turn and found myself on and in this amazing structure.

Entering the turbine viewing room I was struck by the repeating patterns and my favorite color combination, yellow and blue. I pressed my mirrorless camera against the glass to reduce the reflections and tried to line up the turbines in a row to emphasize the pattern and snapped a quick couple of shots with the camera in Program mode.

In Adobe Lightroom I increased the contrast and saturation a little and made a dark vignette around the edges to draw the viewers eye to the center of the image.