Day: February 4, 2020

Bisti Wilderness, May 2019, Day 7, Sunrise

I am reluctant to get out of my sleeping bag this morning.  I linger there for 10 more minutes after the alarm, considering whether to sleep in or go out for a morning shoot.  Eventually, I convince myself to face the morning.  After all, this is my last morning to shoot here.

This morning I will make up for yesterday’s mistake.  In route to my planned destination, I stop to shoot a blue hour silhouette.  One that caught my eye yesterday morning;  but I hastened by then, mistakenly thinking I did not have time to linger.  I am a little later at this location today.  The scene does not look as good as it did yesterday.  Mistake made and likely to be repeated, even though I am reminding myself to take the shot, whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Guardian of the Pass.  Large Bisti Hoodoo at blue hour. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 60mm, f/16, 30s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

After shooting the silhouette, I proceed towards my intended destination, the place high up on a hill at the end of a canyon, where I shot under a heavily overcast, morning sky early in the week.  I am anticipating excellent sunrise light at that location this morning.  As I hike, I become concerned about getting there sufficiently early and I am not enthusiastic about my choice of location today, either.  The Conversing Hoodoos are along my route, so I decide to check those for possible morning shots, since I am not satisfied with the results of my sunset shoots of those features.

Arriving at the Conversing Hoodoos and looking around, I conclude that there is a high probability of excellent golden hour morning light on the most interesting features, so I abandon my original plan in favor of shooting here.

I plan several compositions, shooting test shots in the pre-sunrise light as I await the sunrise.  The sky is clear with no obstructions.  There are hills to the east, which may limit some light on the lower portions of my compositions and maybe block the very first sunrise rays from my subjects.  As the sunrise light strikes the hoodoos, I am elated  that my change of plan is working out well.

Conversing Hoodoos at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 32mm, f/16, 1/6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.
Conversing Hoodoos at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 34mm, f/16, 1/5s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

After the golden sunrise light passes, I continue shooting with fully lit subjects for a few minutes.  I am not excited by any of the pre-sunrise nor post sunrise shots, so I am not sharing those.

Finishing my early morning shoot, I walk at a leisurely pace back towards the parking lot, looking for other places to shoot along the way.  Maybe I chose an uninteresting route to the parking lot.  I’m not finding interesting compositions in the later morning light; but I take time to make a few images anyway, hoping something jumps out at me.   I decide that none of these attempts produce any interesting results.  My lack of energy this morning might be relevant to my failure to get interesting shots in the post sunrise hour.  Frame of mind matters in artistic pursuits.

This is my last day here.  I have one more sunset shoot, weather permitting.    Until then,

Ken

Indiana Covered Bridges – October 2019 – Bakers Camp

The third bridge that I photographed in the afternoon of my first day of seeking covered bridges in Indiana was the Bakers Camp Bridge.

Bakers Camp Covered Bridge. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 1250, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

I made use of a fairly new looking fence in a grassy area on one side of the bridge as a leading line to the bridge.

At the end of the fence line, near the bridge, I found a way down to the edge of the creek from which I made several photographs with reflections of the bridge in the creek, after removing some distracting litter along the near shore line.  It is not always possible to physically remove distracting objects, but whenever it is, I like to do so, since that is far easier than having to remove the objects later in post processing.

Bakers Camp Covered Bridge. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 22mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 1600, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

Walking back up to the front of the bridge, I made the usual frontal close up to get the bridge name and date into a photograph.

Bakers Camp Covered Bridge. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 1600, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

I then walked onto the bridge to attempt shooting inside.  I stood on one side in case of traffic, which is not usually heavy across these country bridges, but not unusual either.  In fact, one friendly lady, driving an SUV, stopped momentarily to ask if I was getting good photographs.

Bakers Camp Covered Bridge. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, multiple exposures, ISO 2500, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

Since it is dark inside these bridges, I used a high ISO and, due to the bright light at the end and from the top side vents, I made multiple exposures, combining them into an HDR image in post processing.

I walked on through and made other images from the opposite end.

Bakers Camp Covered Bridge. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 2500, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

More on Indiana covered bridges later,

Ken