Tag: Hoodoos

Bisti Wilderness Area – Fall 2018 – Afternoon Day 2

I rested during the day, after my early morning shoot, and spent some time studying the photographs in the book gifted to me by John Eric Hawkins.  John Eric went out a bit earlier than I did that afternoon and I headed out again around 5PM.

My destination for sunset photos was again The Nursery, where I would shoot with my Nikon 24mm PC-E lens.  I do not have much experience with this lens, but I thought this would be a good place to use it.  In my morning conversation with John Eric Hawkins, I asked him what he thought of my idea of using the tilt/shift lens in The Nursery.  He agreed that would be a good place to make use of this type lens.

As I neared my destination, I saw John Eric shooting in an area with small features, that I had scouted the previous day.  I recognized that area as a good place to shoot and I had thought that I might get back there at some point during my visit, so I was intrigued that John Eric was shooting there.  We chatted for brief while.  He really liked that little area for shooting and contrasted it to The Nursery.  As we were chatting, he told me that the 85mm 1.8 lens was a good one for shooting here.  I had recently seen other landscape photos taken with that lens and I could easily see that he was correct in his assertion.  I had a Nikon 85mm 1.8 lens back in my vehicle and I had hoped to get a chance to try it out for landscape shots somewhere on this particular trip, but I never had time to do so. Not wanting to distract John Eric for very long from his shoot, I continued on to The Nursery, which John Eric pointed to from our location, indicating that I could walk more directly to it than the route that I had set up on my GPS via a satellite map view.

Arriving in The Nursery, there was no one else around and I had the place completely to myself for the duration of my shoot.  Again the late day light was very good.

I began experimenting with the PC lens before the golden hour, just to get comfortable with the technique of using this unique lens.  I’ve blogged about this lens and technique previously, but here is a brief description of how to use this type lens.  The general procedure that I use, after setting my composition and determining a starting point for an exposure,  is to focus on the nearest object in the composition, using a large aperture, then tilt the lens to bring distant objects in the composition into focus.  At least with large apertures, the focus on the very nearest point in the composition tends to fall out of focus as those in the distance come into focus.  Decreasing the aperture a little helps with this problem.

I found shooting with the PC lens was a challenge, especially determining when I had proper focus on distant objects, as I tilted the lens.  It appeared that only a very small tilt on the order of 1-2 degrees was required to bring distant objects into focus and it was very difficult to determine when the focus was optimum. The PC-E 24mm is an entirely manual lens, with the exception of metering prior to tilting or shifting the lens.  I was also trying to use large apertures with the tilt and still get good depth of field, since this is one of the capabilities with this lens.

I had what I considered good compositions, with the “cracked eggs” in the foreground and the hillsides in the background or an array of the “cracked eggs” and the focus looked good to me in the field.  However, after reviewing my photos on a large screen, I was very disappointed.  Nearly all of the images were poorly focused or had very shallow DOF.

So what went wrong on this shoot?  There may be several possibilities.  Firstly, the very slight tilt range with very slight changes affecting the focus made it difficult to fine tune the focus.  It is also possible that the tilt might have moved slightly after it was set, even if I locked down the tilt mechanism or maybe locking the mechanism might have resulted in a slight tilt.  Secondly, maybe my eyes can no longer properly detect sharp focus.  Thirdly, maybe I expected too much DOF from this lens with large apertures in landscape photos with lots of depth and maybe I should have shot f/11 to f/16.  In hindsight, I certainly should have made each image with a range of apertures, since I had so little experience with this lens.

On the positive side, this was an experiment, which even though, it was mostly a failure, I can at least learn from the poor results and hopefully get better results with the next trial with this lens and I must practice more with the lens before depending upon it in a shoot of this type.

If any readers have experience with using the PC-E 24mm (or any other tilt/shift lens) for landscape photography, I would appreciate your feedback on this topic.

I only deemed 4 (or parts of 4, cropping some of the images to remove out of focus portions) of the 70+ images that I made on this shoot to be presentable and those are included here.

Bisti “Cracked Eggs”. Nikon D850, Nikon PC-E 24mm, f/8, 1/125s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Bisti “Cracked Eggs” in “The Nursery”. Nikon D850, Nikon PC-E 24mm, f/8, 1/160s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Bisti “Cracked Egg” Texture. Nikon D850, Nikon PC-E 24mm (severe crop), f/3.5, 1/500s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Bisti “Cracked Eggs” in “The Nursery”. Nikon D850, Nikon PC-E 24mm, f/3.5, 1/50s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Bisti “Cracked Eggs” in “The Nursery”. Nikon D850, Nikon PC-E 24mm, f/3.5, 1/50s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

As usual, these images are posted to my Flickr page, where they may be more easily viewed.

I had planned to get up early the next morning and shoot again at sunrise in the area with the many wing like hoodoos with the Nikon 14-24mm wide angle, which is easier to get more DOF with than the 24-70mm; however, as I walked back to the parking area with the desert rapidly going into darkness, feeling the tiredness setting in, I realized that with a long drive ahead the next day, that it would not be a good idea to start that drive after a short night of sleep and after hiking into and out of Bisti again.  A morning shoot would have resulted in a late start on my long drive, so I slept in until just prior to sunrise Monday morning.  When I peeked out the window, just after awaking, I saw that it was going to be a glorious sunrise with colorful clouds in the eastern sky and I immediately regretted my decision not to do the early morning shoot.

After getting everything packed away and ready for the road trip, I wrote a note to John Eric, since I had not seen any activity from his RV.  As I was about to leave the note on the driver’s side door of John’s RV, he called to me from inside, telling me to come around to the sliding door side.  He and Jean were just finishing breakfast and they were planning to leave that morning, too.  He commented that I must have had a very good morning for shooting and I had to inform him that I had not gone out.  I thanked John again for the book and we chatted for a few minutes before I got underway.

It was only late in the day, as I approached Amarillo, that I realized that my decision not to shoot that morning was for the best.  Otherwise, I would have probably been driving after dark, tired, and less alert, resulting in less safe driving.

There may be only one more minor post related to this fall trip.  I do not know when I will get time for another photo trip.  I expect it will be in the New Year before I get time for another trip, so either there will be an extended break in these posts or, maybe, I might blog about much earlier trips, as I do have several interesting stories and photos that I could share from past years.

Here’s hoping and wishing that you all have a happy end of the year holiday season!

Ken

Bisti Wilderness – Fall 2018 – Day 1

I left Ridgeway Colorado Saturday morning, September 22, via the San Juan Skyway, deciding to take that route to the south towards New Mexico, rather than travel the most direct route via US550, AKA The Million Dollar Highway, which I had just been on in July.  I wanted to see some different scenery and I was not disappointed, even though, I know US550 from Ouray to Durango would have been a great, if somewhat scary with its hairpin switch back turns on a mountain roadway with steep drop offs with no guard rails, route, too.

There were some really good fall colors, more reds than I had seen in the past few days, along the chosen route in southern Colorado.  I pulled over at one scenic pull out, needing a snack and to stretch my legs for a few minutes.  Others pulled in and out of this area, to take a look around, while I was there.  Before I got out of my vehicle, I saw, via my side mirror, the driver of a van behind me taking photos of my vehicle through his windshield.  After my snack, I got out and walked back past that van. The driver was just coming back and he commented that he really liked my vehicle.  The Sportsmobile does get a lot of attention, so it is not one to travel in inconspicuously.

As I was standing by the guardrail, looking out over the roadside mountain view, a group of motorcyclists, decked out in their riding apparel, pulled into the parking area.  Most of the bikes appeared to be Harleys, but I noted one near the middle of the pack that looked different.  I walked over to it to get a better look and commented to one of the nearby riders that I had never seen one like it before.  He pointed out that it was a Spyder, a three wheel motorbike, and the rider was a “middle age” (not sure what this is now) female, who was really chatty about her tricycle and pointed out another “sportier, more powerful” model near the back of the pack, also ridden by a female.  I asked one of the riders, if they were members of a particular club and he said they were just friends out for a ride.  Most were from Wyoming, but a couple, he said, were “Idaho Potatoes”.  He then held up his phone, asking if I would take a group photo.  So of course, I did.  Afterwards, I wished that I had had the presence of mind to ask their permission to get a shot of the group for my blog,

Nothing else of note happened along the route, but it was an enjoyable ride through countryside that I had not seen before.

I arrived at the south parking lot for Bisti access early Saturday afternoon, which, as expected on a weekend, had a number of vehicles in it, including a full size tour bus.  I parked near the entrance of the lot between the bus and a long wheel base Mercedes Sprinter RV.  After setting up, having lunch, gathering my selected photo gear for sunset photos, checking my Camelbak and InReach Explorer GPS device with previously set routes across the wilderness area, I relaxed a bit.  Later, seeing the tour bus driver, I went over and chatted a bit with him.  He turned out to be a very talkative person.  He was originally from the northeastern US, but had moved to Colorado years ago, as had other member of his family.  I learned that the tourists he was driving around were Latvian.  It was a small group, too small to be profitable, he said, but the tour company had to host them, nonetheless.  They had a guide to conduct them around Bisti, which was fortunate, otherwise they would, most likely, have no idea how to navigate to any of the interesting sites within Bisti.  I was surprised that they were out there during the heat of the day.

Around 5PM, I set out into the wilderness, heading to an area referred to as the “Nursery” or “Cracked Eggs”, to which I had not yet been on either of my other two trips to Bisti.  I loosely followed a pre-determined route that I sketched out via a satellite map view of the area with points of interest marked as waypoints, using GPS coordinates gleaned from online searches and a few from earlier photos that I had taken with GPS coordinates recorded via a device attached to my Nikon D90 some years ago.  The one way distance to my destination was about 2 miles.  So the resulting hiking distance was a bit longer, since I scouted a few interesting looking areas just off of my route for future possible destinations, recording a few new waypoints on my GPS device and getting a few reference photos with my iPhone.  My Garmin InReach Explorer connects via Bluetooth to an app on my iPhone, which has an easier to use interface than that of the GPS device itself.

Routes that I set up prior to my visit. I only had time for portions of the south (red route) on this trip. The waypoints shown as 2011 photos were where I had shot in 2011 during my first visit here.
A satellite map view of my possible south area routes. My first day destination was “The Nursery” or “Cracked Eggs”.

Along the way, I encountered a few of the Latvian tourists heading back to the parking area.  They were not youngsters, mostly female, all looked a bit bedraggled and did not respond to my greetings.  Maybe they did not understand English very well or were just too tired, hot and thirsty to speak.

When I arrived at The Nursery, I was pleased to see that there was only one photographer there, since it is a relatively small area and multiple photographers there could easily get into each others way.  I chatted with him for a few minutes, then left him alone to finish his shooting, while I scouted the area, being careful to stay out of his way.  It was still a while before the “golden” hour prior to sunset and I was a bit surprised that he was shooting prior to that time, since he was obviously a professional.  However, he appeared to be shooting close ups of details in the “cracked eggs”, so I think he only needed the shadows and the contrasts.  When he finished shooting, he hailed me, saying “It is all yours”.  We chatted a bit more about gear, cameras, photography, etc. before he began his trek back to the parking lot.  In our conversation, I learned that the long wheel base Mercedes Sprinter RV in the parking lot was his.

The Nursery.  Nikon D850, Nikon 20-70mm @ 35mm, f/16, 1/15s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Soon afterwards, I proceeded to shoot a few compositions, even though it was still a bit early.   I noted a small Z shaped hoodoo and, as I looked it over, I thought that one edge of it had a facial shape and I could imagine the top of it as long hair streaming back from the head.   So I’ve dubbed this the Bisti Automobile Hood Ornament Hoodoo.  To shoot it from the most interesting direction and angle, I could not isolate it against the sky and I could see that the hillside in the background was going to be problematic, unless I just left the background blurry, which would be ok; but I did not want a blurry background.   To bring out the hoodoo from the background, I made a couple of images to focus stack in Photoshop, then played around with a couple of ideas for merging the images.  I decided that the best looking result was a color background with a monotone image of the hoodoo, blended in Photoshop.  I selected “seamless color and tones” for the blending during the focus stacking process, which muted the color in the background, but I still think it contrasts well with the black and white hoodoo image in the foreground.

Bisti Automobile Hood Ornament Hoodoo. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 0.6s, ISO 64. This is a composite of two shots focus stacked in Adobe Photoshop, with prior edits in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

As I was shooting, a couple of more people showed up and we greeted each other.  Recognizing a German accent, I struck up a conversation.  The man (Wiener) and his daughter (Anna), who was a student (university, I surmise), were on a tour around the western US, having started in Los Angeles.  He and his family had visited the US on numerous occasions and he commented on how crowded the National Parks are now as compared to his first visits.

As the sun went low on the horizon, we each went about our shooting, being careful to keep both ourselves and our shadows out of the other’s shots.  Weiner did most of the shooting, but occasionally shared his camera with Anna.  Both shot hand holding the camera, as most tourist tend to do and I expect they were shooting with their camera in Auto mode.  There were clouds on the horizon, which intermittently blocked the best sun rays, so we would stop shooting and chat a bit, then resume shooting when the clouds moved away.

The Nursery. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Cracked Egg. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 46mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
The Nursery. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 1/5s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4
Cracked Eggs. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 1/10s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
The Nursery. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 0.6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
The hillside, with emerging hoodoos, to the east of The Nursery with moonrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 1/6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Cracked Eggs. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 48mm, f/16, 0.5s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Cracked Eggs. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 52mm, f/16, 1/6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Cracked Eggs. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/16, 1/3s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There was a beautiful sunset that afternoon, which we both shot, before heading back to the parking lot.  When I put a reverse graduated neutral density filter into the filter holder attached to my camera lens, Anna was intrigued, as she was not familiar with the use of filters.  I explained to Anna why that particular filter was useful for photographing sunsets; but I gathered that Weiner knew about the use of neutral density filters.

Bisti sunset silhouette at The Nursery. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/4s, ISO 64, Progrey 0.9 Reverse Graduated Neutral Density Filter. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There was nothing of interest in the foreground for this sunset shot, so I was satisfied with a silhouette shot.

Anna, learning that I lived in Texas, asked if I had been to Big Bend NP.  So I told them about my first disastrous visit there, as we hiked back to the parking area.  (I should write a blog about that trip sometime.  It was a very memorable experience, although not a really successful photography trip).

We arrived back in the parking lot, where Weiner and Anna were tent camping, just before it got really dark.  They were planning to go out again in the morning, but not prior to sunrise, as I was.  We said goodnight and I did not see them again, other than from a far distance the next morning, so I did not get a chance to learn more about them.

The photo compositional possibilities here are only limited by one’s imagination.  I have so many photos that I like from this photo session that it is not practical to include them all in this post, so I have selected only a few to include here, but others will be put onto my Flickr page.