Monochrome Photos – Page 4 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 3

I continued shooting at an overlook of the Grand Canyon from the North Rim, as the sun rose higher in the sky and peeked through breaks in the clouds.

Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021

Note that some of the compositions in this post are similar to those in the previous post, but with varying light conditions.

Clouds over the Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021

Wotan’s Throne, Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021

This semicircular feature is called Wotan’s Throne.

Vishnu Temple and Wotan’s Throne, Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021

The blocky peak in the upper left is called Vishnu Temple.

The Vishnu Temple feature is in the upper right of this black and white conversion. I like the way this black and white version brings out the layers in rocks, making those layers effective leading lines into the scene.

The color version above does not have the contrasting “pop” of the black and white version. I’m sure I could edit the color version to brighten the shadows more, but I still think I’d prefer the black and white in this image.

That is all for this morning’s shoot. Stay tuned for the rest of the day’s activity.

Ken

Rusting Automobiles, July 2021

I just realized that I had overlooked a few items that I wanted to get into a post, after I already have a number of post scheduled. So to keep with the chronological order that I prefer for my posts, I’m slipping in an additional post this week, rather than rework my scheduled post dates.

In route to the Grand Canyon North Rim, I spotted a couple of old, rusting away automobiles that I took time to shoot. This Pontiac was located such that I could not get good, isolated images without including distracting items in the photos. This cropped image is the best that I could get.

Parked in front of a church, as if waiting for AAA, to replace a tire, is this rusty, early Ford.

Looks like this old Ford has been here a long time.

Ok, that’s it for this short post,

Ken

Rural Decay, June, 2021

There is a small Texas town that I drive by on my trips westward and each time I go through it, I think I should someday take time to get off the highway and see what is in this old Texas town. Finally, on one of my homeward bound trips, I did just that.

This is not a ghost town, there are still residents, businesses, a post office, city hall, and some modern improvements, but I found numerous abandoned businesses in and around the downtown area and even an older, abandoned city hall.

I shot numerous photos, but many of the settings and the mid-day light were not conducive to getting interesting shots, so I’ve greatly culled the images to present in this post and I had to do some creative editing to add interest to these images.

There is a crumbling building that was an auto sales business long ago.

Given the smallness of this Texas town, I was surprised to find the remnants of an auto sales place here. This one appears to have been abandoned many years ago.

The back side of one of the downtown area’s abandoned business had a couple of windows, one of which had concrete rebar installed for security.

The adjacent window had no bars and the lower glass pane was missing.

A street corner building had an interesting looking backside. The image above is cropped from a wider view to remove distracting items. The monochrome conversion seems more fitting for this subject than the original color version.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Bisti Wilderness, June 2021, Part 7, Monochrome Photos

Even though I much prefer golden hour color in my landscape photography, I find that there are light conditions and/or scenes that work better in monochrome.

Sometimes it is just the textures, patterns or shadows that make an image look better in monochrome. In the case of the photo above, the early morning colors were so intensely saturated that I thought those colors looked unreal, so I converted the image to black and white and I much prefer this look in this particular case. (Best viewed on Flickr and on a large screen).

Usually, I like monochrome for those images that I capture a little after the sunrise golden hour or a little before sunset golden hour.

In the image above, the sun had not yet come up, but shooting towards the early morning sky made this a better situation for monochrome.

The same is true for the image above. I have mixed feelings about this composition, not about the monochrome. I liked the look of the heavily textured, clay soil in the foreground and the gullies seemed to make good leading lines into the background, but is this a compelling photo? Opinions are welcomed, but please view on Flickr and on a large screen.

The readers can tell by the dates on the photos that I visited this area on separate dates and different times of the day, hoping to get different photographic conditions and/or to shoot from different view points. In the image above I wanted to show context for the natural bridge in the center, but I also wanted its shadow against the background features.

I wanted a wide angle view here and the light and shadows were best for a monochrome image. This is a result of focus stacking multiple images. A careful inspection of the clouds in the sky makes it apparent that there were multiple images used here. I could have easily replaced the sky with that from a single image, but I liked the indicated movement of the clouds, so I left this feature.

These last two images are not great, but I still like them, particularly the bottom one, with the subtle shadow of the most prominent feature on the background. I suppose I could have enhanced this image to make the shadow less subtle.

I hope readers are not getting bored with Bisti, because there are more post on the way,

Ken

Abandoned Houses and Structures on the High Plains of New Mexico, March 2021

Down the road a few miles from the old ranch and windmill, depicted in the previous post, is a small community, that was once more vibrant. Like many rural towns in the US, it has suffered from the evolving economy and technological advances that result in lost livelihoods. As people move away and are not replaced, homes and businesses are abandoned.

I have stopped in this community once previously to photograph an abandoned school under a clear sky. There were scattered clouds today, so I figured I might get more interesting images this time through.

Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.

Just down the gravel street from this school was another one that I had neglected to photograph during my first stop here.

Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.

Those big fluffy clouds added much interest and black and white seemed a good treatment of the images.

Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico

I could see a number of other abandoned homes and structures scattered around this little community, so I took time to photograph a few of those.

Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico

Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico

Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico.

Dilapidated Windmill and Water Storage Tanks on the high plains of New Mexico.

Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.

The trees die as they are abandoned along with the houses and other buildings.

Abandoned stone fence and home on the high plains of New Mexico.

Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.

The final image in this post was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and so far has received 5737 views and 192 favorites.

Until next time,

Ken

Abandoned Ranch Buildings, New Mexico, March 2021

I spotted old, abandoned ranch structures and a windmill set back some distance from a highway, as I was traveling through the high plains of New Mexico a year or two ago. I resolved to stop and photograph the ranch scene on my way back through, since I was on a travel schedule, when I first noted these old structures.

I watched for that old ranch and windmill on my way past the area a couple of times, but I did not spot it again during those trips. The mental picture I had made for the ranch location was not accurate or maybe as time went by my memory became fuzzy. However, on my way home from the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado, I passed this way again and I spotted the windmill.

Abandoned ranch structures and old windmill on the high plains of New Mexico.

The ranch was, indeed, miles from where I had thought it was. I had made a mental note of the next town I went through for location reference, after first discovering that ranch. That town was miles away, but over time I became convinced that the ranch was just on the outskirts of that town. Consequently, I only began to look for it as I approached that town.

Lesson learned: even though my mental recollection is usually good, I should make written or recorded notes and/or GPS locations for places that I want to get back to.

Abandoned ranch structures on the high plains of New Mexico.

This area was volcanically active in ancient times and I’m fairly sure that is an old volcano cone in the background.

I had to shoot from a fence line with the house far on the other side. I considered shooting with an 80-400mm for which I have a 1.4x extender to get close up shots, but I think the shots with a 24-70mm at 70mm give a much better indication of the setting in this wide open landscape.

More abandoned structures down the road from here will be in the next post,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

There was a brief sleet storm just after I went to bed the second night of our stay near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was going to be a very cold night, so I wondered how the sleet and cold would impact our morning photography.

We arose before daybreak to get into the dunes before sunrise. It was 17 degF, the coldest morning we had experienced during this trip.

The dunes were dusted by the overnight sleet. This added interest to the landscape, but the sleet and cold temperatures preserved footprints from the previous day.

At least the footprints were somewhat muted, but there seemed no way to avoid getting footprints into photographs. I might have removed these in Lightroom, but I’m sure the results would not have been satisfactory.

In a valley between dunes, I found interesting patterns, where there either were no footprints or I could easily exclude those from my photos.

The sleet dusted, frosty sand dunes with snow covered mountains and clouds over them were good for making black and white images.

Snow and Sleet on the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021

This wraps up the highlights of my March 2021 photography in the Great Sand Dunes.

Thanks for following,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 2

I continued to wander around in the Great Sand Dunes early the first morning of our March 2021 visit, looking for good compositions.

The icy rim along the ridge in this dune caught my eye. I like the way that icy ridge leads the eye from the left corner of the frame to the long ridge, which in turn leads the eye into the upper part of the image.

I’m always looking for objects with distinct shadows and these chunks of frozen sand, that lie along the edge of a dune, add interest to this image. The edge of the dune acts as a leading line from the lower right towards the upper left. This line is more brightly lighted than other portions of the image and acts as a diagonal dividing line in the image. Notice how the sand details, visible texture and light change as the eye crosses this diagonal. The darkness in the clouds and the shadowy, distant mountains create a strong contrast with the sunlit sand.

A series of circular features breaking the ripple patterns in the sand made me stop to take this photo. I’ve converted the original color image to monochrome, since I think this image with these features is more dramatic in black and white.

This small piece of “driftwood” breaks up and modifies the wind created ripples in a dune. I put quotes on “driftwood”, since I’m not sure that this is the proper term for how this chunk of a tree got here. Maybe it blew in via wind or maybe it was washed here by water?

I’ll have more to say about making this image in a subsequent post.

Until then stay well and safe,

Ken

Bandelier National Monument, March 2021, Part 4 – Tsankawi 2

This is a continuation of a previous post with photographs from the ancient Native American site, Tsankawi, a part of the Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi Trail Fragment.

Up above the main continuous trail through Tsankawi, I spotted a portion of a trail that was obviously out of place. This part apparently broke away from its original location and lodged here many years ago.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Contemplation 2.

The depth of this portion of the trail is impressive. The pathways are narrow, which suggests that the people that made these were not large people.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Deep, Narrow and Steep.

It took a little effort to navigate some portions of these ancient paths, especially when carrying a daypack and DSLR.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Curves and Dead End.

Interestingly, this portion of the trail had dual pathways, but one was a dead end. Was this two lane path created by having one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side of the trail? Each side is too narrow for having both feet within the narrow channel.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Evidence of a dwelling, Shelter or storage area.

There were numerous indications of dwellings, shelters or storage areas along the pathways of Tsankawi. Some areas were off limits for visitors, so we did not get to see everything here.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Photographing the interior of a cave.

The entrance to this cave (above) seems to have a torso with head shape.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi Cave.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi Caves.

There were numerous caves in some areas. Notice the foot and/or hand holds in the rocks around these caves.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi View.

A desert view from the main trail around the Tsankawi area.

This wraps up the best photos that I managed to get in this amazing place. Perhaps someday I will get back again, when conditions are more favorable for photography.

Until next time,

Ken

Bandelier National Monument, March 2021, Part 3 – Tsankawi 1

We visited Tsankawi again one afternoon, but we never really got to be here at the very best time of the day for photography. Although, we did have some cloudy sky, which helped add a little interest at times.

Tsankawi is really an amazing place. I was most impressed by the paths created by Native Americans many years ago. Those ancient people walked the same paths so often as to wear deep trenches in the rock. Sometimes the trenches were only a few inches deep and sometimes several feet deep. Even though the rock may not be super hard here, it is not soft either, so it must have taken many walkers over many years to create such deep pathways in the stone.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Walking Through the Past 1, monochrome with selective colorization.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021.Walking Through the Past 2, monochrome with selective colorization.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi Trail.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Contemplation. Monochrome with selective colorization.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Old Tree and Fractured Rock with Petroglyphs

One has to look closely to see the old, worn petroglyphs, of which there were many, in some of the rock faces.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Lone Tree.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Tsankawi Petroglyphs.

Viewing a larger image on Flickr will allow for better resolution of the many petroglyphs on this rock face.

Tsankawi, Bandelier NM, March 2021. Small Evergreen Tree growing in a crack in the Tsankawi desert area. Monochrome with selective colorization.

To be continued,

Ken

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Tag: Monochrome Photos

Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 3

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Rusting Automobiles, July 2021

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Rural Decay, June, 2021

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Bisti Wilderness, June 2021, Part 7, Monochrome Photos

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Abandoned Houses and Structures on the High Plains of New Mexico, March 2021

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Abandoned Ranch Buildings, New Mexico, March 2021

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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 2

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Bandelier National Monument, March 2021, Part 4 – Tsankawi 2

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Bandelier National Monument, March 2021, Part 3 – Tsankawi 1

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