Finally.......a backdrop for Glenwood Springs

Today I finished trimming the backdrop prints and got them put up behind Glenwood Springs.  I was not happy with the photos I had taken a while ago at the real Glenwood Springs CO - just not consistent in color and exposure as well as pretty boring.  Thinking where I could go to get a decent backdrop shop and thought of Fort Lewis College, on a mesa on the east side of Durango.  Went up there with my little Sony and my tripod and took a series of photos - about 180 degrees - looking west.

The backdrop is that scene.  Took several pieces of 19 inch photo paper to print but I like the outcome.  Can't do anything with the window in the middle so there is a shadow line on each side.  But sitting in front of it, they do not bother me.  Of course - the photo is NOT of Glenwood Springs, but frankly this scene is much more interesting to me.  It is the western view from Durango.

Glued the photos to 1/8" foam core, trimmed to exactly fit the outline. Then used velcro to attach the long piece of foamcore with photos to the painted walls.  Before printing, I did a lot of work in Photoshop Elements for some blending and color/exposure correction.  Once I got the hang of it no problem.  Until that happened however, I was thinking very bad thoughts about Adobe.

Perhaps hundreds of years from now some explorer will find this wall and wonder why someone had painted a sky blue strip around three walls.
Oh - the extra is how it will look sitting in front of the layout.  I still have to add ground foliage, bushes, and finally trees to ease the line between layout and photo.  But you get the idea.

The other backdrop, behind Craig on the adjoining wall will need a reshoot as well, but now I got the hang of it. That is next, then I can make some trees.