Grass – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Santa Fe Impressions – Part 1

Santa Fe, New Mexico has a picturesque downtown area with its Southwestern Adobe architecture, but it is a busy, tourist filled city, which negates some of its charm. Walking down almost any downtown street one is sure to be accosted numerous times by business hawkers trying to give “free” samples with a spiel designed to lure a passerby into their shops.

The crowds make it difficult to photograph the city. I thought about getting out in the very early morning hours, even before daylight, to try to capture the city streets with no people in them, but I never did that. I still think that would be a good way to capture the essence of the city’s architecture and charm without the distraction of the crowds.

In any case, I wanted to try to photograph Santa Fe in a way that showcased its charm without the people. So one afternoon I went for a walk around the city and managed to capture a few images with my iPhone camera, while avoiding the crowds and mostly keeping people out of my images. While I’m not opposed to street photography with people in the images, some folks don’t like to be photographed and I don’t want to be involved in any altercations with those objecting to being photographed. So while I might photograph some street people and crowd scenes, I usually keep that to a minimum and exercise caution in posting such images.

In the Plaza, where there were often crowds, especially when there was entertainment, I spotted this “camouflaged” man standing against a tree. He would suddenly emerge to frighten those unobservant enough not to have noticed him, scaring little kids and adults. I’m not sure this is a good idea as some older folks with heart conditions might suffer from such a shock. Or some might even react negatively to being so startled.

There are plenty of flowers decorating the public areas and private businesses in Santa Fe, which adds much to the beauty of the downtown area.

It was not uncommon for an afternoon thunderstorm to pop up in the general area, but only light rain fell in the downtown area during this visit.

Clouds over Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts

To be continued,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 5

And even more iPhone scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California.

This monochrome version of an iPhone photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page July 25, 2024. The bright white clouds behind the arch draws the eye to the arch. Against a clear, bland sky, a photo of this arch would be much less interesting, maybe even boring.

I called this natural rock feature “The Head”, because it looks like a head on a neck looking across the broad valley into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, maybe thinking it would be cooler to be in those mountains, under a blanket of snow, rather than stuck down here forever.

The arch on top of the weathered, massive rock outcrop is called The Eye of Alabama Hills.

From this view point, The Eye feature reminds me of a big eyed puppy draped over its owner’s body, peering into its master’s eyes.

Thanks for following my posts,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 4

More iPhone scouting photos of Alabama Hills, California.

Until next time,

Ken

Badlands National Park, Day 5 – Sunrise Photography Part B

This is a continuation of my sunrise shoot on day 5 of my time in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, September 2022.

Light Arc, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

As I was about to wrap up my morning shoot, I decided to experiment with compositional variations using the wide area of grass in the area where I had been shooting as a foreground with Badlands features in the background.

Grassland and Badlands 1, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

I changed my distance from the Badlands and modified the zoom to include more or less of the background and more or less of the foreground.

Grasslands and Badlands 2, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

Grasslands and Badlands, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

I like all of the images that I shot in this manner,

Badlands Emerge, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

however, I think this final image, shot by going down a slope and shooting up at the background feature is the most dramatic. This gives the impression of a vast sea of grass with the Badlands emerging from the grassland.

Until next time,

Ken

Badlands National Park, South Dakota – Day 4 Sunset

As the sun sank lower into the western sky, I walked back into the grassland area to the east of the gravel road connecting Interior, SD to SD 240 in Badlands NP. I had pulled over maybe a half mile before the intersection with SD 240 and scouted this area a little earlier.

I always try to begin shooting a little before golden hour, since one can never predict what will happen with the light and today I have a large area from which to shoot, so I want to have time to get a number of compositions and hopefully have sufficient time to move around and vary my compositions as golden hour advances.

What happened to all those big fluffy clouds that had been so prevalent in the sky as I was scouting here? They’ve all disappeared, leaving a blank, bland sky.

For the image above, I stood in the shadow of a ridge to avoid having my shadow in image.

Time to head back to my campsite,

Ken

Salvaging the Day

After a day of browsing and walking around in Ouray and Telluride, quaint, old Colorado tourist towns, we had dinner in Ridgway. I had hoped to be able to rush up the highway toward or over the Dallas Divide from Ridgway, after dinner for sunset photography, but we were a little late getting out and the service was slow at our restaurant. By the time we finished dinner, it was too late to go anywhere. Arriving back at our lodging and resigned to having lost my opportunity for sunset photography today, I hoisted my camera backpack, grabbed my tripod and camera and began to walk into the lodge. Then I noted golden sunset light on the nearest mountaintops. So I jogged down the road past the inn to get past other buildings, power lines and trees to try to get into a location to shoot the rapidly changing scene before the light faded away.