Desert – Page 13 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 – Sunset

My son and I went back to the “Scalloped Rocks” area for sunset photos on our last evening in Bisti. This area works for both sunrise and sunset photography.

Sunset Day 7 Bisti March2019 — Scalloped Rocks Area, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 30mm, f/11, 1/5s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

In this photo I have used the row of rocks on the right side to create a leading line into the image. I also think the empty space at the lower left visually counter balances the weighty rocks on the right and upper portion of the image.

The two images above were made before the best light at sunset, as is apparent in the bottom photo. For photos taken at this time, monochrome version are sometimes best, but I still like the color version, too.

Some of the rocks in this area look like modern art sculptures.

The photo above illustrates how saturated the colors become right at sunset. Otherwise, most of the rocks in this area have rather dull colors.

I am always amazed at how much difference the “magic” light at sunset makes in a photograph. View this photo on Flickr by clicking on it and the details will be much more vivid. I call this “The Gathering”, since there is a circle of rocks around a much smaller hoodoo near the center.

The photo above is an HDR created via two exposures of 1 and 2 seconds, so that both the sky and the foreground objects are properly exposed. This is a moderate HDR, which looks more realistic than many of the HDR effect that one can create. I can imagine a creature in battle gear in the rock feature on the left. Maybe a turtle like alien from another universe or a video game creature?

These two last images are also HDRs. The one above is created via two images with exposures of 2 seconds and 13 seconds. I call these rock formations, “Conversing Rocks”, since I can imagine animal like faces in the upper portion of the features, with the two facing each other with the one on the right appearing to be saying something to the one on the left, who is smiling about whatever is being said.

I moved in and a little to the right to get the bottom composition, making a 6 second and a 20 second exposure, then combining these in Luminar Aurora 2019 HDR software. Can you see the animal like shapes in the rocks?

The difficulty that I have with making photos with these high contrasts is getting a good depth of field, since the light is low and focusing can be difficult. One might note that the rock in the bottom right of the second image is fuzzy, so I failed to get the desired depth of field in this image.

This post wraps up this trip. I spent a week on the north side of Bisti the last week of May, so I will be posting photos and blogging about my experiences on that side of Bisti, but to add variety, I will begin to mix in post from other places. This means that I will have to get some items out of chronological order, which I hope does not create confusion.

Until then,

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 – Scouting

Midday of day 7, and our final day in Bisti, my son and I returned to the north area of Bisti to explore and scout potential areas to return to later.

Day 7 March2019 Bisti North Scouting — Petrified tree stumps in north Bisti iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

We found these large petrified tree stumps in the broad wash area that we have to cross on our way into this area.

Here is another petrified tree stump we found.

And a view from the top side of the stump reveals more color from mineralization and lichen.

My son seems to have found the magic spot beneath the big X in the sky.

I had GPS coordinates for features someone labeled “Conversing Hoodoos”. I had not seen photos of these, so I had no idea what they would look like; but upon finding them, it was obvious why these were so named.

In the same general area as the conversing hoodoos are

other large wing like hoodoos.

More large wing like hoodoos that we saw in this area are in the photo above.

When the wing like feature above is view at just the right angle, it has a jack rabbit like appearance, hence my calling it “Jack Rabbit Hoodoo”. This feature is in the vicinity of the Conversing Hoodoos.

The large wing like hoodoo features in the photo above are, also, nearby the conversing hoodoos.

My son walks past one of the rock features on the north side in the above photo. Note how far one can see from an upper elevation in Bisti. This is very helpful, when navigating this area. There are landmarks that one can see from miles away from higher elevations, such as this, and use those landmarks to navigate by.

Although, we found many interesting places for photography on the north side of Bisti, we did not have time to get back to this area for either sunrise or sunset photography during this visit. I returned to this area the last week of May, 2019 and spent many hours photographing and wandering this area. That visit will be the subject of more blog posts in the future.

Until next time,

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 Sunrise

[Followers may have noted that there is no day 6 sunset post. This is because it became very windy and dusty prior to time to go out for sunset photos that evening. So we elected to skip the planned shoot for that evening].

For sunrise photos on day 7 in Bisti, my son and I returned to the area just outside the Bisti north area.

Sunrise Day 7 March2019 — An interesting rock form silhouette at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 4.0s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I captured this early morning silhouette of a bird like hoodoo here.

I shot this particular rock formation mainly due to the rock shape at the upper left that has a satellite dish look.

The sunrise light was very good today, but the sky was boring.

A monochrome conversion of the previously posted image. Even though the sunrise light was good, I’m inclined to like the monochrome version better, maybe due to lack of interest in the background sky.

The hoodoo cap on the left has features that make it look almost alive and it looks like it is displeased with the jumble of rocks on the right.

The smug looking rock, that readers will have seen in an earlier post, seems to be staring at the contrails in the sky.

I think this would be a really interesting photo, if only the sky was not so boring. The light falls upon several features as if purposely spotlighted.

The black and white version looks even more dramatic; although, the image here looks muted. Click on the photo to view it on Flickr, where it will look much better.

That is it for this post,

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 6 Scouting Near the South Parking Area

After returning from scouting the north area and having a late lunch, I decided to kill some time, while waiting until time to go out for sunset photos by walking around in the area just across the road, west of the south parking area. Usually, I only went a very short distance into this area to climb a hill to get a cell signal.

This area, as far as I know is not a part of the designated Bisti Wilderness and is probably on Navaho land, but it might also be BLM land.

Day 6 March2019 Scout @ South Bisti Across Road from Parking Area — South Bisti area scouting photo. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Just into this area, I spotted this small arch with a view through it into the parking area. The red blob within the arch opening is my Sportsmobile.

This photo is a close up of the arch with the parking lot visible through it.

A really close up shot through the arch in which my red Sportsmobile is visible near the center.

Continuing through the wash behind the arch, I found these small red capped hoodoos in the wash.

A little further down the wash, I found this upside down automobile body on a hill bordering the wash. I wondered how this got here, since there is no road, not even a reasonable way to drive into here to dump a wrecked vehicle. Then I realized that it must have been deposited here by a flash flood.

This view from the opposite side gives a better context for its location.

Hiking through this wash I encountered more automobile parts, which may have come from this vehicle. One such part is in the photo below.

The dark layer in the side of this hill is the geological deposition from which all the dark rock fragments scattered all around Bisti are derived.

I saw the horseshoe like features on this hill side from a distance and they looked like a strange geological feature, so walked closer to investigate. This photo clearly shows that there are exposed portions of the dark rock layer that are weathering. The loose rock fragments are then washed downhill creating this geometric feature.

The red rock layer above is probably the source of all the red rocks scattered all around Bisti. This is the only place that I consciously have observed this rock layer still contained within other layers of rock. I frequently see it as caps over the underlying layers, where the overlying layers have already eroded away.

The geological observations and/or conclusions/conjectures here are my own and not necessarily academically robust.

A hoodoo on the wash wall with a clothes dryer visible in the wash in the lower left of the photo. I’m guessing that this clothes dryer shell also got here via a flash flood.

And a roll away bed frame that probably got here via a flash flood, too. I suppose it is possible that some of these type items might have been intentionally dumped into a wash somewhere, then got moved around via flash flooding.

Walking back towards the parking area, I looked more carefully around the drainage flowing out of Bisti into the area across the road. It is apparent that there are salts or other minerals in the water that drop out along the stream as the water floods over the land, then evaporates. This area is very soft and it is not advisable to walk into it.

The stream creates abstract art like patterns in the mud, some outlined with colorful mineral deposits.

The above mud pattern makes a really nice abstract photo.

This has gotten into a much longer post than I intended. I hope you have not been too bored by it.

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 6 Scouting

On day 6 in Bisti my son and I went to the unofficial north parking area for access to the northern portion of Bisti Wilderness. Neither of us had previously been to this portion of Bisti, so we were truly exploring. I had GPS coordinates to a few of the northern features that I had gleaned from online research, but rather than heading towards any of my GPS coordinates, we just wandered around on an exploration hike today.

Shortly after crossing the deep drainage at one end of the parking lot, we found an abandoned well.

Day 4 March2019 Scout @ North Bisti — North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

This well is not very deep, but it would not be good to fall into this, while hiking in the dark, as we usually do in the early morning on our way out for sunrise photos and in the evening on our way back from sunset photography.

Continuing to follow the broad open wash/valley area, we could see features on the top of hills in the distance, so we headed towards those.

Day 6 March2019 Scout @ North Bisti — North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

From a distance, the features above looked like three distinct hoodoos, so I nicknamed these the Hoodoo Trio. On a subsequent visit to this area in May (more photos and blogs from that visit will be posted later in the summer or early fall), I used these features as primary navigation points to and from destinations in this area.

That is my son hiking near this hoodoo navigation beacon.

Hiking in a wash on the west side of the Hoodoo Trio, we eventually worked our way up to a plateau area, encountering a Hoodoo rich area that we called the “Valley of Hoodoos”. The photo above is near our exit point from the valley onto the plateau. (During my May visit here, I found an easier way to get to this area and also a short cut to get from this plateau back to the north parking area).

Day 6 North Side Scouting — Multiple exits from this valley/wash are possible iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

If my memory serves me well, I think we exited this valley at the blue arrow, hiking up through the Valley of Hoodoos onto the plateau. In May, I found it easier to follow the wash along the left side of the photo, exiting at the green arrow. There is one big step up on the green arrow route on the way out, then a big step down, when returning on this route. Other than that big step it is an easy route.

After exiting the Valley of Hoodoos we very soon came to this “Red Rock Garden” area. Walking through the rock garden, we found many interesting features, some of which, I recognized from our first visit to Bisti in 2011. At that time, we came from the south parking area; but it is much easier and quicker to get to this portion of Bisti from the unofficial north parking area.

The features in the above photo are on the plateau, just over a hill from the rock garden. My son named the hoodoo in the foreground here the Tongue Hoodoo. I think it is obvious how he came up with that name. I think the other large hoodoo in the left background is one that someone called The Pedestal.

A wing like hoodoo with a hole in it is shown above.

The same hoodoo with the hole, but from the top side. Holes in such rocks seem to be common here.

Just to the south of this area, we came to a very deep drainage, on the other side of which were other interesting features, but we did not see an easy way down into that drainage. We did see someone photographing features in the drainage and he motioned towards an access point, but we were running out of time on this scouting trip, so we did not attempt to find our way down, deciding it best to head back.

We came back to scout more in this area on our last day here and I will blog about that in a subsequent post.

Ken

Spring Road Trip 2019 – Bisti – Day 6 – Sunrise

My son and I returned to the “Scalloped Rocks” area of Bisti for sunrise photography on day 6 in Bisti March, 2019. This morning’s shoot was frustrating for me. I had a malfunction with my remote/intervalometer that resulted in the camera shooting continuously, just as I was composing what I thought would be my best shot of the morning.

Another of my shots, that I thought would be really good, turned out to have much too shallow a depth of field. It looked good in my quick review in the camera LED screen, but apparently, I did not inspect it closely enough and maybe my fingers were so cold at that time that I was not using my best judgement.

Sunrise Day 6 March2019 — A pre-sunrise shot in the Scalloped Rocks area of South Bisti. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm, f/11, 10s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik color Efex Pro 4.

A shot across the area just before sunrise is shown above.

And another pre-sunrise shot from a different point of view is above.

While my camera was shooting continuously, due to the remote release malfunction, there were numerous images captured, which were all trash; but I decided to make use of the one above, since it has interesting abstract photographic features, which I do not think I could have purposely created.

I finally captured the image above, after managing to remove the remote release with my fumbling, numb fingers on this cold morning. Valuable time was lost as I dealt with the equipment problem and I think I missed the best pre-sunrise light composition here; but at least I got this silhouette of a window with the sunrise sky in the background, before the sun was completely up.

Some days are like this,

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 5 Sunset – A Monochrome Day in Bisti

The evening of the fifth day in Bisti, my son and I decided to shoot sunset photos in an area, which we think is on BLM land. At least we know it is outside the Bisti Wilderness proper area. It is an area that we accessed via a short spur road off of the road to the unofficial parking area for Bisti North parking.

It was a cloudy day without great sunset light, so I converted the shots presented in this post to monochrome.

Sunset Day 5 March2019 — A cloud covered scene near Bisti North. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 60mm, f/11, 1/6s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

The photo above is my favorite from this shoot. There are dramatic clouds and hints of rain falling from the clouds, interesting rocks in the foreground and middle ground.

We had spotted this little natural bridge or window on an earlier scout of this area.

And another little window shot that I like better than the previous one, possibly because of the more dramatic clouds and the more interesting foreground.

The shot above is what I consider a minimalistic shot. The objects in the photo are limited, but there are dramatic clouds, interesting geologic features and multiple leading lines in the barren foreground, which hints at the vast openness of this area.

The shot above is another minimalistic shot of the same basic features as in the previous shot, but with a different point of view. In this case I have emphasized the broad area around the narrow drainage patterns that are acting as leading lines into the photo with the clouds adding drama to the scene.

I like the multiple tiers in the rock formations in this photo with the dramatic cloud backdrop.

This rock feature looks like a bearded lizard to me, hence the title of the photo. I’ve added a lens vignette, shifting it to the left to focus on the “head” of the lizard or whatever imaginary creature one might think this looks like.

This hoodoo reminds me of a large turtle, but one might imagine it as some other exotic or alien creature.

This photo does not have the greatest depth of field, but I still like it. I used the flat rock wings or hoodoos running diagonally from bottom left towards the upper right to lead the viewers eye into the photo towards the feature on the horizon in the upper right. I wish I could find these dramatic clouds on nice sunny sunset or sunrise shoots, while still allowing for great light on the photo subjects.

This wraps up the highlights of day 5 sunset shooting in the great vastness of one of New Mexico’s wonderful desert areas.

Until next time,

Ken

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Sunrise – Day 5

We returned to the area just outside the Bisti Wilderness on the north end of Bisti for sunrise photography on day 5 of our stay in Bisti.

Sunrise Day 5 March 2019 — Accidental Sunrise Abstract. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 19mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik color Efex Pro 4.

I use a remote shutter release to avoid camera shake that results when physically pressing the on camera shutter button. Sometimes the remote shutter release button gets pressed accidentally, especially when moving the camera, maybe when walking with the camera on a tripod with the remote dangling from the camera. I usually just delete such accidental shots and that was my inclination for the image above. However, the colors and patterns looked intriguing to me, so I kept this image, pushing the texture and colors in Adobe Lightroom with additional editing in Dxo Nik Color Efex Pro 4 to get this “abstract” image. I wish I could say that I shot this one purposely, since I like it; but I doubt that I could duplicate this image, even if I tried. Maybe my most interesting shots are totally accidental!

Fortunately, there were some clouds in the sky this morning to add some interest to the sky. The early morning light brings out the structure and color of the rocks here, which are otherwise not very colorful.

The two images above are mostly of the same subject, but it is obvious that moving around getting a different point of view can yield very different photos. I call the rock feature in the center of the one above “Satellite Dish Rock”, since the pointy rock just right of top center looks a lot like a satellite dish from a rear view point. I have another photo from the rear taken on another day, but I’m not sure that it is good enough to post.

I like the way the early morning light highlights the rocks in a diagonal pattern in this photo (best viewed large on Flickr). There are many interesting rock features in the background that may not be obvious, unless this image is viewed large.

I’m using the rock and its shadow on the bottom left to anchor the foreground and the drainage pattern beside it to lead the eye up the hill to the rock outcrops and the small window rock in the upper left.

It occurs to me, when looking at these photos, that some may think these just depict dirt and rocks. So why spend so much time and energy photographing such objects? As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not all of us will have an appreciation of the natural beauty of the land. Indeed, in midday light, much of this area is just bland dirt and rocks. But add golden hour light and a few clouds in the sky and I think it is beautiful, at least if captured in a well composed image. Whether or not I manage to capture an interesting image is always a matter of creative vision and I know that I do not always succeed in that endeavor. So your critiques are always welcome and may help me to improve my photography.

Thanks for following,

Ken

P.S. I will be traveling for a few days and posts may be irregular, since I may not have internet connectivity.

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 4 – Sunset

On day 4 of my March 2019 photography excursion, my son and I went to the little area on the north side of Bisti, which we think is actually on BLM land and is not a part of the designated Bisti wilderness.

Sunset Day 4 March2019 — A smug looking rock. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 20mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I had spotted this rather smug looking rock on an earlier scouting of this area. The rock has a cartoon like face expression, maybe implying “I’m not talking to any of you”. [Not that rocks actually speak to me, at least not in actual spoken words].

One of the hoodoos that we also found on an earlier scouting here is in the above photograph. It is too bad that the sky was so drab and uninteresting on this day.

The photo above is an attempt to use the drainage pattern and the broad band of red pebble covered ground as leading lines into the background features; but there might be too much of the foreground in this case. It would have been good to have something else of interest in the near fore ground.

I like this smaller (but actually fairly large) feature in the center here with the sand pattern around it from erosion of that feature. I would have liked to have gotten a bit more isolation of this feature, but I could not find a suitable place from which to photograph it to achieve that on this day. Anyway, this composition does give a good sense of the environment here and the setting for this feature.

As a reminder, clicking on any of the photos in this post will take you to the photo on Flickr, where they will probably look better than on this web page or in your e-mail. Also big screens are better for viewing these photos than small, mobile devices.

Until next time,

Ken

P.S. I will be traveling again for a few days, so the next few posts might be delayed, since I do not know where or when I might have adequate internet connectivity.

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 4 – Scouting Photos

During the mid-day hours of day 4 in Bisti, my son and I scouted in the northern area of Bisti. The unofficial parking area for access to this area is several miles north of the official south parking lot and it is on Navaho land.

A short distance along the dirt road access to the “unofficial” parking area is another spur road going south. This road leads to a rocky drainage crossing, which can be made with a high clearance vehicle and maybe best with a 4 wheel drive. We decided not to drive across the drainage or to drive all the way to it, since the dirt road had much broken glass on it. It appears that this area might have been a dumping site for trash at one time.

We hiked across the drainage and towards hills and rocky features a few tenths of a mile in the distance. There we discovered interesting features. We think this area is on BLM land, outside Bisti proper, but maybe some of it is on Navaho land. Where we parked is probably on Navaho land.

Although, there are interesting photographic subjects in this area, note the human infrastructure items along the horizon, which will present problems getting compositions that exclude those structures.

Another view of the area in the previous photo is presented above. Note the two steel items. We have no idea what these were used for nor why they are here at this location. It appears that they were designed to lift or hold something. These will present some compositional problems.

A close up view of one of those mysterious steel items is shown above.

The portion of a weathered, petrified log shown above is near the previously photographed features. There is much petrified wood in the Bisti Wilderness, so apparently this was a lush forest area many years ago.

Another portion of a petrified log with scattered pieces of weather petrified wood around it. This is very common in this area.

The photo above puts the petrified long into context with the other local features here.

One possible composition that eliminates the nearby human infrastructure is shown here.

Another interesting looking hoodoo in this area is shown above. Big mouth rock?

I named the hoodoo above “Snail Rock” for obvious reason.

Another view of “Snail Rock” is above.

More petrified wood protruding from the ground.

A small bridge formed by harder rock overlaying softer, faster eroding rock is shown in the photo above. Such features are common in Bisti.

I will have more scouting information for Bisti North proper in a subsequent post.

[Note: None of these scouting photos are posted on Flickr].

Until next time,

Ken

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Tag: Desert

Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 – Sunset

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 – Scouting

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 7 Sunrise

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 6 Scouting Near the South Parking Area

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 6 Scouting

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Spring Road Trip 2019 – Bisti – Day 6 – Sunrise

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 5 Sunset – A Monochrome Day in Bisti

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 4 – Sunset

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Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bisti – Day 4 – Scouting Photos

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