A popular area for visitors to Bisti is called “The Nursery”, where there are unique rock shapes that are referred to as “Cracked Eggs”.
It was very overcast this evening in The Nursery, so there was very little golden hour light; but the heavy clouds were great for creating dramatic photographs.
More later,
Ken
I’ve hiked past this small bridge hoodoo in Bisti, usually when photographic conditions were less than optimal, many times on my way to a predetermined destination. This feature is not easily photographed in an interesting composition that clearly shows that it is a bridge, not just a chunk of rock in a jumble of other rocks. So even when I’ve stopped by, I’ve decided not to shoot it or did not get anything worth sharing. Still it is an interesting little bridge, so today I decided to make an attempt to get a decent photo. I wanted to clearly indicate the opening in the bridge with some object behind it. I could not get the sky through the bridge opening, so I needed some distinct object to show through the opening and not fill the entire opening. Moving around to vary what was visible through the bridge, I decided that the small rock that is visible behind the bridge, would work to give some depth in an image. To get this image, I made multiple exposure with different focal points, then stacked them using Helicon software to get the best overall sharpness.
Moving on, we found numerous portions of petrified logs and then in an area that neither my son nor I had previously explored, we found a long petrified tree specimen. It was so long that it was difficult to photograph its entirety and still get it into a good composition.
I worked around this long petrified log, trying to get shots that showed how impressive this petrified log is.
A shot from the base of the log shows the base well, but this point of view does not indicate the significant length of the log.
I did not get any shots of this long petrified log that shows how impressive it is to see in person, but I think the shot above with the adjacent hoodoos and cloudy sky is the best image I got here.
In the same general area of the long petrified tree are several other petrified logs that are partially exposed from the encasing sediment.
Even though it was heavily overcast on this hike into the Bisti Wilderness, there was a little break through of sunlight, but no golden hour light.
The tall hoodoo in the image above seems to be tilting its head towards the sun to catch the late day rays.
More Bisti later,
Ken
It was frequently cloudy during the days spent at Bisti in early June of 2021, which is good for dramatic sky backgrounds, but it can be bad for golden hour photography.
I thought the rock (photo above) with the pointy feature looked like some sort of weird creature guarding an egg, others have suggested it looks like a baby elephant. I can see that, too.
There are many pieces of petrified wood, logs and trees scattered around in this area. The mineralization of these objects is not as colorful as that in the Petrified Forest National Park, but it is amazing how much of the original tree detail is retained in these rocks. Most of the petrified log sections are horizontal, but occasionally there are vertical ones, which I suppose tumbled into this position somewhere in the distant past.
The cap on the hoodoo in the photo above, looked like a turtle soaking up some sun, but there was no sun.
I made some photos just to capture geological features, even if the photos are not highly interesting in an artistic manner. Having worked with many geologists and as a petrophysicist, might make me more prone to see and marvel at the layering in rocks.
Weathering and erosion continue to create and modify the features found here. Some features might linger for many years and some might be changed quickly by a heavy rainfall.
The petrified log in the photo above, may be the longest exposed one that I’ve seen here. It was difficult to capture in a single photograph, so I shot it from multiple view points and on multiple occasions under different light conditions.
More later,
Ken
I know I’ve multiple posts from my visits to Bisti and I hope that readers do not get bored with these. The Bisti Wilderness, in a desert area of New Mexico, is a marvelous place and one of my favorite places for photography. Each visit reveals new areas and new features to photograph. Even revisiting the same areas within the wilderness can result in different photographs, since it is never possible to photograph everything within even a confined area during one visit and the scenes will continue to evolve with time, weather and lighting.
In early June, 2021, I met my oldest son here for several days of exploration and photography. We chose to visit the area known as The Nursery the evening of our arrival, since we knew we could get there easily before sunset.
This is a popular area with photographers, requiring working around each other and proper etiquette to avoid getting in each others way.
The photo above is an example with my son in a shot I wanted to set up. Of course, I made this shot just to capture him, but since we landscape purist try to avoid people in our shots, we sometimes have to modify our point of view. So I just turned a little to get this image:
This is a much better composition, anyway. Although, I regret clipping a little off the front and right edges of the foreground rock.
There are so many objects, arranged haphazardly by nature, that it is virtually impossible with a wide angle lens to avoid clipping some object at the edges of a shot.
As the light began to fade on the Cracked Eggs, I began to explore the nooks in the hillside area to the east, where I found this tall hoodoo with a pointy top and small cap that I could set against the sunset clouds.
Preparing to hike back to the parking lot, I got one last shot at the edge of the hillside with the sunset light fading from the clouds.
Stay tuned for more Bisti exploration,
Ken
Down the road a few miles from the old ranch and windmill, depicted in the previous post, is a small community, that was once more vibrant. Like many rural towns in the US, it has suffered from the evolving economy and technological advances that result in lost livelihoods. As people move away and are not replaced, homes and businesses are abandoned.
I have stopped in this community once previously to photograph an abandoned school under a clear sky. There were scattered clouds today, so I figured I might get more interesting images this time through.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.
Just down the gravel street from this school was another one that I had neglected to photograph during my first stop here.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.
Those big fluffy clouds added much interest and black and white seemed a good treatment of the images.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico
I could see a number of other abandoned homes and structures scattered around this little community, so I took time to photograph a few of those.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico
Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico
Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico.
Dilapidated Windmill and Water Storage Tanks on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
The trees die as they are abandoned along with the houses and other buildings.
Abandoned stone fence and home on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
The final image in this post was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and so far has received 5737 views and 192 favorites.
Until next time,
Ken
I spotted old, abandoned ranch structures and a windmill set back some distance from a highway, as I was traveling through the high plains of New Mexico a year or two ago. I resolved to stop and photograph the ranch scene on my way back through, since I was on a travel schedule, when I first noted these old structures.
I watched for that old ranch and windmill on my way past the area a couple of times, but I did not spot it again during those trips. The mental picture I had made for the ranch location was not accurate or maybe as time went by my memory became fuzzy. However, on my way home from the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado, I passed this way again and I spotted the windmill.
Abandoned ranch structures and old windmill on the high plains of New Mexico.
The ranch was, indeed, miles from where I had thought it was. I had made a mental note of the next town I went through for location reference, after first discovering that ranch. That town was miles away, but over time I became convinced that the ranch was just on the outskirts of that town. Consequently, I only began to look for it as I approached that town.
Lesson learned: even though my mental recollection is usually good, I should make written or recorded notes and/or GPS locations for places that I want to get back to.
Abandoned ranch structures on the high plains of New Mexico.
This area was volcanically active in ancient times and I’m fairly sure that is an old volcano cone in the background.
I had to shoot from a fence line with the house far on the other side. I considered shooting with an 80-400mm for which I have a 1.4x extender to get close up shots, but I think the shots with a 24-70mm at 70mm give a much better indication of the setting in this wide open landscape.
More abandoned structures down the road from here will be in the next post,
Ken
We returned to the dunes in the early evening for sunset photography and I struggled to find satisfying compositions. Maybe we were not in the optimal location for this shoot. There were low clouds on the western horizon, which also blocked the sunset light.
As we were giving up and beginning to hike back towards the parking lot, there was a sudden and brief break through of light. My son, being much younger and more fit than I, ran to the west to catch the fleeting light, while I walked as fast as I could, hoping to get to a good vantage point before the light was gone.
I think the image above is the best one the I got during this outing. I was still far from the best vantage point for the best light, but I knew the light was fading fast and I had to stop and shoot now. I got low to catch the dim light in this grassy patch of sand with the fading light on the dune in the background and the interesting clouds over the dune.
After the light faded from that dune and illuminated the mountainside to the east, I pointed my camera in that direction to get this final shot.
Stay tuned for our final morning in the dunes,
Ken
As promised in the last post, I want to elaborate upon the making of this image:
More precisely, I want to talk about a few of the many possible compositional variations around this scene.
Firstly, I spotted this feature from a distance and I wanted to be careful in approaching it. If I got too close and then decided to back off, I would already have ruined the scene with my footprints in the sand.
So I began to photograph from a distance and slowly worked my way closer to the “driftwood”. I also had some zoom capability with my 14-24mm wide angle lens.
The light changed as I approached and I tried including more sky in my compositions.
I think I’m much too far away in Driftwood 1. So I worked my way closer.
I think I’m still too far away in Driftwood 3 and it’s a little dark. I like the sky in this image and the lack of features at the interface between the sand and sky, giving this image a clean, simple look. Maybe this makes it more dramatic?
I like the closeness and the angle of view in Driftwood 4, but I cut off a small portion of the driftwood’s shadow in this image. Cutting off shadows is something that I try to avoid, whenever possible. So I zoomed out a little and made Driftwood 5. Zooming out here got more sky in the image, which I like.
I got much closer for Driftwood 6, but I do not think this is an optimal angle of view.
I lean towards Driftwood 2 and 5 as my favorites. I’m not sure which is best, but I lean towards 5. I think that I could have made a better image than either of these two. Maybe it is good to never be quite satisfied with our photographs, so that we continue to strive to get better images.
As always, readers’ opinions and critiques are welcome,
Ken
I continued to wander around in the Great Sand Dunes early the first morning of our March 2021 visit, looking for good compositions.
The icy rim along the ridge in this dune caught my eye. I like the way that icy ridge leads the eye from the left corner of the frame to the long ridge, which in turn leads the eye into the upper part of the image.
I’m always looking for objects with distinct shadows and these chunks of frozen sand, that lie along the edge of a dune, add interest to this image. The edge of the dune acts as a leading line from the lower right towards the upper left. This line is more brightly lighted than other portions of the image and acts as a diagonal dividing line in the image. Notice how the sand details, visible texture and light change as the eye crosses this diagonal. The darkness in the clouds and the shadowy, distant mountains create a strong contrast with the sunlit sand.
A series of circular features breaking the ripple patterns in the sand made me stop to take this photo. I’ve converted the original color image to monochrome, since I think this image with these features is more dramatic in black and white.
This small piece of “driftwood” breaks up and modifies the wind created ripples in a dune. I put quotes on “driftwood”, since I’m not sure that this is the proper term for how this chunk of a tree got here. Maybe it blew in via wind or maybe it was washed here by water?
I’ll have more to say about making this image in a subsequent post.
Until then stay well and safe,
Ken
This is a continuation of a previous post with photographs from the ancient Native American site, Tsankawi, a part of the Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.
Up above the main continuous trail through Tsankawi, I spotted a portion of a trail that was obviously out of place. This part apparently broke away from its original location and lodged here many years ago.
The depth of this portion of the trail is impressive. The pathways are narrow, which suggests that the people that made these were not large people.
It took a little effort to navigate some portions of these ancient paths, especially when carrying a daypack and DSLR.
Interestingly, this portion of the trail had dual pathways, but one was a dead end. Was this two lane path created by having one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side of the trail? Each side is too narrow for having both feet within the narrow channel.
There were numerous indications of dwellings, shelters or storage areas along the pathways of Tsankawi. Some areas were off limits for visitors, so we did not get to see everything here.
The entrance to this cave (above) seems to have a torso with head shape.
There were numerous caves in some areas. Notice the foot and/or hand holds in the rocks around these caves.
A desert view from the main trail around the Tsankawi area.
This wraps up the best photos that I managed to get in this amazing place. Perhaps someday I will get back again, when conditions are more favorable for photography.
Until next time,
Ken
