Tag: Conversing Hoodoos

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

Bisti – May 2019 – Day 1 Sunset

As I was leaving the north Bisti parking area, taking the short route just over and along the north fence line, and passing a young couple with two very young kids, the young man approached me, saying that I looked like I might know the area and asking if they could follow me.  Of course, I agreed, being happy to help anyone in that situation.  I had to walk much slower than I normally would, since the kids could not keep up, otherwise.  The young man soon put the smaller, pre-school child in a carrier on his back.  That young man was not very big, yet he must have been strong and in good physical shape, to carry even a small child like that.  As we walked along, I learned that the young man and his wife were from South Korea, he was working on an MBA at Illinois University and they would return to South Korea, when he finished his degree.

I was heading out much earlier than required, had plenty of time to get to my destination, the “Conversing Hoodoos”, well before sunset,  so I guided them on a longer route than necessary, taking them past other interesting features on the way.  The young man stopped to take snapshots along the way and I encouraged him to take as much time as he needed, since I had no need to hurry.

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Conversing Hoodoos and background at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/15s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

We arrived at the conversing hoodoos with plenty of time to spare prior to sunset.  The young couple insisted on taking a family photo with me and thanked me profusely for guiding them into Bisti.  After explaining and pointing out the more direct and easy route back to the parking area, I left them alone, wandering down a canyon to get a few shots before it was time to get back to my primary subjects.

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Near sunset light on hoodoos along a Bisti canyon wall. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 21mm, 1/50s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

I find that late day light, within an hour of sunset, is a good time to get shots that look good, when converted to monochrome.  The late day light creates shadows and depth within the landscape image.  While such photos can also look good in the original color version, I think the monochrome is more appealing.

A bit later from a distance, I saw the young man high up on a hill among some of the large hoodoos, shouting and waving.  He seemed to be having a good time.  He had told me they were going to the south area the following day and asked, if I would be there, as he was thinking that I could guide them around there, as well.  Even though, I would have enjoyed that, I had no plans to go to the south area on this trip.  They did have some information about the south area and I told them that that area was usually busy on weekends and that they could probably find others to at least point them in the right direction to see the things that they were interested in.

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Near sunset light illuminates rock forms on a Bisti canyon wall. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 16mm, 1/25s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
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Near sunset light illuminates a Bisti canyon wall. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/50s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

I was using my wide angle 14-24mm lens during this outing and I was not really pleased with most of my compositions with that lens at the Conversing Hoodoos.  I decided that I needed to return on another day of my visit with my 24-70mm lens so that I could more easily get the compositions that I wanted.

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Conversing Hoodoos at Sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/20s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
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A jack rabbit shaped hoodoo in Bisti. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/40s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The “Jack Rabbit” (my name) hoodoo on top of this hillside, is difficult to photograph with a wide angle lens, since it is not easily accessible and shooting from below just does not get one close enough and one needs to get a close up view to see the “Jack Rabbit” shape.  This feature  is seen in a canyon near the “Conversing Hoodoos”.

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Bisti Conversing Hoodoos at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/20s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
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Bisti Conversing Hoodoos at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/25s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
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Bisti Conversing Hoodoos at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/25s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
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Bisti canyon wall features in near sunset light. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 24mm, 1/60s, f/16, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The features in the image above are along a canyon wall near the “Conversing Hoodoos”.  The little hoodoo in the middle looks like a bird in a nest, stretching its head out to survey the area.

The sky was mostly very clear with only a few distant clouds, which were not visible in most of my compositions.  I am hoping that there will be a more interesting sky the next time I shoot here.

Until next time,

Ken