Monochrome Photography – 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

Alabama Hills Scouting Photos Part 7

More iPhone scouting photos from Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.

Until next time,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 6

More scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.

Ok, this vandalized arch is called “Surprise Arch” (I think), but it looks more like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

I’ll have more iPhone images in the next post, but from an area well outside of Alabama Hills, so stay tuned,

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

Alabama Hills, March 21, 2024 – More Wandering

After our early morning sunrise shoot, my son and I went on another short scouting expedition.

Of course, I made a few shots during our little hike, scouting the area for possible sunrise or sunset shoots, but the two in this post are the only ones that I deemed presentable.

Until next time,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 27 – Final Sunset Shoot (continued)

This is the second part of our final sunset shoot in March 2023 in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

I’m always amazed at the rock sculpture nature provides for us to enjoy.

There is definitely a wary looking face in this rock that appears to be watching me as I make this image. Maybe this rock has had bad experiences with humans in the past.

While the image may not be a greatly attractive scene, I found it interesting enough to take time to capture it. There is much texture, interesting rock shapes and lines running through the rock. The image name is for the narrow wash in the center that has an accumulation of sand at the bottom center.

I moved to the right from the last composition to make this image, which shows off some of the more interesting features in the rock. The rock at the top, with its concave erosional form reminds me of a baseball catcher’s mitt. With the Texas Rangers clinching a berth in the 2023 World Series, maybe this is an appropriate time to post this image.

A close up, color version, of the “Catcher’s Mitt”.

Erosion has created holes in these rocks that I can imagine animals or ancient people using as shelters. Modern day man might even take temporary shelter in one of these in an emergency.

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 27 – Final Sunset Shoot

I’ve decided to move on to our final sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, rather than write another blog on our early morning shoot near our campground. But I will include one more image from that early morning shoot here.

Initially, I did not think highly of this image, but the more I looked at it, the better I liked it. The shadows, colors and features in the foreground rock with its ridge leading into the background were the impetus for this composition. Maybe my thought process leading to this composition was ok, after all.

Moving on…

The earliest photos shot while scouting and anticipating golden hour are seldom the (my) best, many do not even get processed and sometimes I’m grasping to just find something in these shots worthy of posting anywhere. So I apologize in advance, if my images chosen for this post are of little interest to readers.

There must be a better composition here.

And there is a better composition here, but I did not see it until near the end of this sunset shoot. Sometime one must move around more to see the obvious. I will return to this location in another post with much better compositions at this location.

Wandering about, I walked down a narrow passageway between two massive rock features, noted the nooks, holes and vertical feature in one of those rocks and I had to stop to capture this with late day sun on features in the background.

Nooks and Crannies – Monochrome – Close up

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 26 – Sunrise Near Campground

My son and I decided to walk from our campsite into the nearby area for a sunrise shoot on our final day in Valley of Fire State Park. The scenery near the campground is not as impressive as in other areas in the park, so I was not sure how this would turn out.

The early morning light enhanced the color in the rock features and highlighted the desert grasses, but as I edited the photos, I felt that a monochromatic treatment was more appropriate for many of the scenes that I captured.

The early morning light was good, the color in the rocks good and I always like the way the low elevation sunlight highlights the desert vegetation. To be sure the light quality was what drives us to get up early to photograph the landscape, but maybe it was the lack of spectacular features and the clear, bland sky that inspired me to go with monochrome for these few selected photos.

I’m still trying to decide whether to post other photos from this morning’s shoot or move on to our final sunset shoot. My indecision and the need to review more images, plus other distractions, might create an interruption of my goal of posting twice weekly.

Indecisively yours,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park and Nearby, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 6 – Monochrome Desert

This is a continuation of hiking and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park and nearby areas, Nevada. All of the photos in this post were shot with an iPhone 14 and converted to monochrome.

This “Dark Shelter” is not in Valley of fire. This is along a 4 wheel drive road outside the park.

Indiana Fall 2022 – A Short Walk and A Short Drive

One morning before going out for the day, I walked just less than a mile down the country roadway that went past our cabin. I knew there was an old barn in the neighborhood that I had passed by many times and never taken time to photograph.

After conversion to black and white, I use selective colorization to bring out a little of the fall color in the nearby trees and a little color on the barn.

We had friends with us for the first week of this fall visit to Indiana. I wanted to show them at least one covered bridge, since they had never seen one. They did not want to spend hours in a vehicle to get to an area with lots of covered bridges, but there was one small covered bridge just a few minutes away, one that I had seen on a previous visit to this area.

This bridge is located along a narrow country roadway, where there is limited space to pull over and turn around. Our friends were driving today. I routed them to the bridge along the best part of the access roadway, but turning around to get back out was a challenge for their minivan. Continuing without turning around would have presented other problems, if another vehicle came along going in the opposite direction.

More Indiana Fall later,

Ken

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Tag: Monochrome Photography

Santa Fe Impressions – Part 1

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Alabama Hills Scouting Photos Part 7

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March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 6

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March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 5

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Alabama Hills, March 21, 2024 – More Wandering

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 27 – Final Sunset Shoot (continued)

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 27 – Final Sunset Shoot

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 26 – Sunrise Near Campground

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Valley of Fire State Park and Nearby, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 6 – Monochrome Desert

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Indiana Fall 2022 – A Short Walk and A Short Drive

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