Nature – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

March 2025 Road Trip

It seems that my March road trips always involve some sort of drama. This year was no different. The first day of my trip was extremely windy. Driving through the Texas Panhandle towards Amarillo, I held my speed down to 55-65mph due to the strong, steady and gusting winds. In spite of my reduced speed, the headwinds resulted in the lowest fuel economy that I have experienced in my Sportsmobile, which does not get very good mileage to begin with. I saw 4 eighteen wheelers laying on their sides along the way and one other sizeable trailer of some sort on its side. The crosswind assist software in my vehicle kicked in at least once.

I made it to Amarillo, safely, where I stayed overnight.

The second day of my journey was better. It was still windy, but not so much as the day before. Although, I did drive through intermittent rain, sleet and snow.

The snow was heavy enough at times to reduce the visibility, but not to such an extent as to inhibit travel.

I-40 East of Albuquerque, NM, iPhone Photo

One of my favorite portions of I-40 west of Amarillo is that approaching Albuquerque, NM, with its gently rolling hills and scenic views. West of Albuquerque, near Grants and Gallup are attractive red rock outcrops which are another portion of this drive that I like.

I spent my second night in Gallup, NM, where the temperature got down to about 17 degrees overnight.

Travel the third day was much more pleasant, mostly sunny and clear. Although, from my overnight location, my directions took me along many miles of rough back roads on Native American lands, where the speed limit was 25mph for miles, before finally getting up to 35mph for many more miles. I felt like I was speeding, when I finally got into a 55mph zone.

Much of my travel on this third travel day in New Mexico and Arizona was through Native American lands, where the speed limits are often quite lower than elsewhere, but the scenery is often beautiful for mile after mile.

I know that I’ve driven this route previously, but maybe it has been so many years that I don’t recall the scenes. For many miles, I could see a big rock feature far in the distance. Sometimes as the road changed directions, I lost sight of it for miles; but eventually my route took me right past it. So of course, I had to stop, hike up a hillside to photograph it. I later learned that this feature is called “Church Rock” and the creek just west of it is “Church Creek”.

Sometimes the sky puts on a show with a display that has to be captured.

There are always so many sight in route that I would like to photograph, but if I stopped for everything I want to photograph, I would never make my destination in the time interval alloted for travel.

So this is it for my few photos in route.

Stay tuned for more landscape photos,

Ken

Charles C Deam Wilderness Fall 2024

The Charles C Deam Wilderness is southeast of Bloomington, Indiana and less than an hours drive via back roads from the cabin in which my wife and were staying for several weeks in the fall of 2024. I drove to the parking lot with the old fire lookout tower, where a trail into the wilderness begins, early one morning for a fall photo hike into the forest.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 4

This is the final portion of my fall photography using in camera multiple exposure.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 3

This is a continuation of my fall photography, using in camera multiple exposures.

“Hole in Log” surprised me. There was a leaf in a hole in an old log, which I photographed, then placed a leaf over that hole and photographed it. I expected to see at least part of the leaf in the hole showing through in the multiple exposure, but the blackness of the hole resulted in the pixels in the leaf over the hole taking precedence, resulting in a shape in the covering leaf in the shape of the hole.

To be continued,

Ken

Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 2

This is a continuation of my initial experimentation with in-camera multiple-exposure images.

To be continued,

Ken

Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 1

In addition to experimentation with a fisheye lens this fall, I also dabbled with in camera multiple exposure techniques, which offers many possibilities. My results were mixed, ranging from images that I liked to those that were total failures. It appears that I have much to learn about this photographic technique and I will continue working this.

I used only two images and an average of the pixels for all of these images, as that seemed to be a reasonable and simple starting point. More images can be used and there are other options of how the images are combined in camera.

In this series, I will share the images that I think worthy, even if some are not so appealing.

Before I ventured out for an intensive photo shoot, I began by making simple images around our cabin.

I began with the simplest of images, such as the one above with horizontal and vertical images.

Then I began to incorporate ICM (intentional Camera Movement) in at least one of the images.

Sometimes, I just moved the camera a little between shots, to get such images as Multiplying Leaves and Picasso Forest.

Another technique is to shoot the same scene with the first shot a simple, sharply focused image, then completely defocusing the image to a complete blur for the second image. I had most difficulty with this method, but still got a few good images.

The yellow and brown color around these leaves is created by the fully unfocused image of these leaves.

More multiple exposures to follow,

Ken

Road Trip Diversion

My wife and I made a road trip from our Indiana cabin lodging to Madison, Indiana, during our traditional fall stay in Indiana.

Madison is a picturesque, small city in Southern Indiana. There are a number of enticing antique and craft venues, favorite shopping for my wife, in Madison. A river runs through the area and one of the larger antique markets is located within sight of the river, maybe a block or two away, with open areas between that venue and the river and the park along the river. This provides me with an opportunity to walk around by the riverside, while my wife shops.

There were many of these trees with their red/yellow fall foliage along the streets and in the yards of homes in Madison and many fallen leaves beneath the trees and in the streets. This is probably a mundane fall event for those in this part of the country, but rare for one from Texas.

We were here a couple of days before Halloween. I noted natural features in the trees along the riverside that would make good Halloween photos. I captured images of a number of these features, but did not get the images processed in time for a Halloween post.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 3

This is the final part of my fall photo hike series with images shot with a fisheye lens.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 2

This is a continuation of my second fall photo hike with a fisheye lens.

To be continued,

Ken

Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 1

In the fall of 2024, I began to experiment with using a 16mm fisheye lens for forest photography. This blog series contains images from my second woodland hike with this lens.

The old, mossy log in this image gets its curved shape from the fisheye lens, making it appear to be embracing the small tree with its yellow leaves of fall.

Below the Dam – At Strahl Lake, Brown County State Park, Indiana

To be continued,

Ken

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Category: Nature

March 2025 Road Trip

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Charles C Deam Wilderness Fall 2024

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Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 4

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Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 3

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Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 2

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Multiple Exposure Fall – Part 1

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Road Trip Diversion

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Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 3

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Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 2

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Fish Walk 2 – A Fall Photo Hike with a Fisheye Lens – Part 1

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