After my sunrise shoot, I hiked a short distance along the north side of Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park, Indiana getting a few fall images.
That’s it for this morning’s shoot. Until next time,
Ken
Even though I’m usually sleeping well in the early morning hours, I force myself out of a warm, comfortable bed, because my favorite time for photography is in the early morning hours, especially in popular places, because the normal tourist don’t usually get out early and one doesn’t have to worry about people getting in the way of ones photography.
When I pulled into the parking lot at Ogle Lake, I was the only one there. As I prepared my camera and tripod, a lady drove into the lot and stopped to ask me about the best place for sunrise here in the park. She and her husband were staying in the park lodge, but they had apparently not had time to scout places for sunrise photos. I told her I did not know what place was best, but it might be good here and it was too late for her to get to another good place before sunrise. I suggested that she might photograph from the dam or from the north side of the lake for the best sunrise views.
She commented upon my camera, thinking it had an unusual lens. I was using my large 14-24mm wide angle lens with a Progrey filter holder mounted on it. Due to the bulbous 14-24mm lens, it is not possible to use screws in filters, requiring a bulky filter holder attachment. It is the filter holder that makes it look unusual.
I headed for the dam, where I thought I might have some fall foliage for foreground and good reflection on the lake, leaving the lady behind in the parking lot.
It was a cloudy morning, the sky color was spectacular. Sometimes we get lucky.
The morning color came on quickly and disappeared as quickly as it came, but the clouds in the sky still made it possible to get interesting photos after the color faded.
After finishing my shoot from the dam area, I decided to take a short walk along the lake shore. There is a hiking trail that goes all around the lake, which I’ve done in previous visits here. I knew the south side might not have the best views this morning and it was probably muddy in portions, so I headed for the north side.
As I approached the trail head, I encountered the lady from the parking lot again. We chatted for a few minutes. She was thrilled with her sunrise experience. She was shooting with a Canon R6, which she had not had for long. She is a retired portrait photographer, previously from California, living in Kentucky with her husband. I’m assuming her husband is not into photography or else he would have accompanied her this morning. She asked about my filters and I explained why I used these for my landscape work. I was surprised, when she revealed that she had not previously known anything about this subject. I never thought that a professional photographer of any speciality would not know about the use of these specialty filters. However, I have observed professional portrait photographers shooting in the outdoors without any filters. I’ve also noted the over exposed backgrounds in many such portrait photographs. I suppose some filters might be difficult to use for people subjects, but it can still be possible to compose outdoor photos and avoid overexposed backgrounds, unless one is doing that purposely.
Photos from my short hike around Ogle Lake next,
Ken
This is a continuation of a late day shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, March 2023.
My oldest son (on top of the peak in the lower right) shot the storm from other higher elevation vantage points and complained that I did not come up to join him. I have not seen his photos, so I don’t know how to compare his to mine, but he is of the opinion that he had better views than I did. I was busy shooting what I saw from my location and I thought I might miss out on the scene by taking time to move elsewhere and at least I know that we did not get identical shots.
This wraps up today’s sunset shoot. Next up, sunrise in the desert near the campground in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
Until then,
Ken.
This is a continuation of a March 2023 sunset shoot in Valley of Fire, Nevada.
I made many images with the late day light changing as the sun sank into the western horizon with clouds moving overhead and a distant storm on the easterly horizon. I’m presenting a few selected images in this post.
To be continued,
Ken
It seems suitable, at this time of the day, that the clouds in the sky and the geology in Valley of Fire, Nevada came together to create an hourglass shape, if one has the imagination to see it.
Another late day storm was brewing over the desert, which resulted in dramatic sky for background.
I composed this image to have the rocks along the diagonal pointing towards the distant storm.
Then I thought maybe I had too much in this image, so I moved in close to the end portion of the foreground rock, keeping a portion of the little bush at the edge of the rock.
This emphasized the foreground rock, but reduced the background and the stormy, cloudy sky, which I think is not an improvement. The wider angle view is better, I think.
I like the way the rock texture looks, even on its own, but with the late day light and a stormy sky background it seems to really pop.
In this image I like the foreground shadows that contrast with the late day light on the middle ground and the background sky and the rugged geology.
Maybe the correct word is “symmetrical”, but the image is not exactly symmetrical, so I will stick with the “Symmetric” label.
I used the many linear features in the rock as leading lines in this photo, which is a cropped version of the original. The original included much more of the foreground, as I like those linear features, but upon reviewing, I thought maybe I over did it with the foreground.
To be continued with much more of that late day desert storm,
Ken
This is a continuation of a multiple part blog of a sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
The rock features in Valley of Fire take on different looks as one moves around, viewing these from various positions.
The Funnel is my name for this location. The rock texture just seems to “funnel” one into the scene.
Light tops off the distant rocks like a sweet, golden frosting on a multilayered cake, with a dollop of whipped cream on the edge.
Everything in this image is in the previous one, but less. I moved in to reduce the scope of the image, then cropped in more in post processing to make the sky more prominent and emphasize the large rock feature at the bottom right, which was in the bottom left of the previous image. I think this makes the scene more dramatic, but that is in the eye of the beholder.
Evening sky flows and glows over Valley of Fire, Nevada, highlighting some features and casting others into deepening shadows.
This wraps up this sunset shoot, but there will be another.
Ken
There was a late day storm on the eastern horizon during this cloudy, sunset shoot. Such desert storms contribute to the slow, but certain evolution of the rock features found here. These are a few of those images.
I made many images, capturing the changes in the sky as the storm and the late day lighting progressed.
I hope the similarity of these images is not boring to the reader. It was fascinating to see how the sky changed with the storm’s advanced across the landscape and the subtle changes in the light on the landscape.
Until next time,
Ken
It was a cloudy, overcast morning for this outing in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
I’m always amazed at how some desert shrubs can survive with very little in the way of actual soil in which to put down roots.
A narrow wash with an apparent dead end, but is it the end of this canyon in the making or is this wash continuing to grow into a canyon? I suspect erosion will continue at a very slow rate and this short, shallow wash will grow into a deeper and longer canyon over a geologic time interval.
This was supposed to be a sunrise shoot, but as one can see there was little sunshine early this morning.
Stay tuned for more of Valley of Fire,
Ken
My son and I utilized the middle of the day hours to drive around, exploring the local area and generally sight seeing. We traveled to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on a couple of occasions.
The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is like art and an engineering marvel rolled into one, which is fitting for this location, the site of the magnificent Hoover Dam, built over a period of 5 years from 1931 to 1936. That such a structure could be built in those early years of the 20th century is an astounding engineering feat.
I had to be sure to have a firm grip on my iPhone as I leaned over the walkway to shoot downward at the face of Hoover Dam. It was a windy day and the wind hitting the dam face was deflected upward with a significant velocity.
The image above is of Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam. The bleached rock layers indicate the historic level of Lake Mead. This is a very large reservoir, so that indicated drop in the water level represents a tremendous amount of water that is no longer in the reservoir. Reading about the effect of the long drought in this area is concerning, but actually seeing the visible indication of how much water is gone, is much more impressive and startling. Maybe the recent heavy precipitation in this area will provide some respite, but it will take years of above average rainfall to replenish this reservoir. In the meantime, people whose water supply depends upon this water resource are having to adapt to using much less water.
Large man made reservoirs in the western U.S. have allowed more people to move into previously arid desert areas and increased farming and ranching activity, but now the lack of water resources is having dire effects upon that population and agricultural activity.
The drive between the Valley of Fire area and Hoover Dam is a scenic one along Northshore Drive.
One can see from the clouds in these photos, that the weather was unsettled at times with intermittent rain and gusty winds and the light on the landscape changed as the clouds moved over. The clouds added much drama to the sky and to the photographs.
Until next time,
Ken
There are many arches of various sizes all through out Valley of Fire State Park and in this area, in general, where the sandstone has been eroded away over long time intervals of exposure to wind, rain, freezing and thawing. The arches are not on the size of those found in Utah’s Arches National Park, but seemingly more numerous.
Sunlight reflects around inside the arches, creating wonderful lighting on the rock surface.
The arches in this post are found along a short hiking trail and can be spotted by looking up into the canyon walls, which can be spectacular, too.
There is an open area along this trail with many nice cholla cacti. I had to refrain from trying to photograph each one, as I’ve always found these enticing.
We stopped short of completing this hike today, since we wanted to get to an area that we had chosen for sunset photos.
We will revisit this area later,
Ken
