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

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 4 – Cathedral Valley

One of the most fascinating areas in Capitol Reef National Park is Cathedral Valley, located in the northeastern portion of the park. There are two access routes into/through this area from Utah Highway 24. The access closest to the visitor center requires a river ford, while the other, nearer Hanksville, does not require a river ford and gets into the most scenic portion much sooner than the river ford access point.

The geology in this area is varied and great for photography. We visited numerous times and only scratched the surface of the photographic opportunities here. I will devote a number of post to this area.

Initially, we hit the most popular areas in this very large valley and scouted for the places we wanted to get to at golden hours, which was a challenge, given the many miles of driving to get here from our lodging and the limited time we had to work this very large area.

I see opportunities to organize my photographs of this area into themes, but rather than take the organizational time required for that at this time, I’m posting images in the order that they were taken.

Desert Sand, Vegetation and Shadows – Black and White

Dead Grass and Shadows – Black and White

Enough for now, more later,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 3 – Capitol Gorge

South of the Capitol Reef National Park Visitor Center at the end of the paved road is the Capitol Gorge Trailhead. We hiked a short distance down the canyon, then up a short, steep trail to check out natural water tanks formed in low places along a water drainage.

I captured a few images in the canyon in route.

Standing Tall – Black and White with Selective Colorization

Defiance – Trees atop Canyon Walls – Black and White with Selective Colorization

The snow like blobs in these photos are foamy floaters in the water.

Green Gold – Tree adjacent to the tanks – Black and White with Selective Colorization

Water flow has cut through rock forming a small arch along the occasional stream bed.

Old Visitor Register – Enhanced to bring out faded writing

Early visitors in this canyon left their names and dates high up on the canyon wall. These marking are much higher than anyone other than a giant can reach. Maybe some stood on horses or wagons to leave their mark here or maybe the canyon was not as deep many years ago?

Parched, Hopeful – Capitol Reef Desert Scene

I cannot recall where in the park this final photo was taken, but I think it was shot along the unimproved dirt road that continues past the end of the paved roadway from the Capitol Gorge Trailhead parking area.

More later,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 1

In late March of 2022, I drove to my oldest son’s home north of Denver, Colorado and we drove together to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. We lodged in the small town of Torrey, just west of the park.

Since we arrived late in the day, we only got out for a brief visit to the park visitor center and a stop at a nearby overlook trail, where we shot a few handheld images.

The sky was overcast, the light well suited for muted monochrome images.

This old tree stump looked different, depending upon the angle of view.

The color image of this old tree stump with this angle of view reminded me of a dancer’s torso, but when I showed this one to my grandson, he saw two dogs back to back. I have to admit that I had a similar initial interpretation, but only seeing one blunt snout dog with long ears trailing behind it. I still prefer the dancer interpretation.

I have not had time to go through all of my photos from this trip and just barely got time to write this initial post, more will follow; but I may not be able to keep up with my preferred schedule of two posts per week. (Every trip leads to much to do to catch up at home).

Be safe and well,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 4

More iPhone photos from antique stores.

Glassware of all sorts and colors are in plentiful supply is such places.

Monochrome conversions often work well for images of the glassware.

Wooden crates are common offerings in antique stores. I’m old enough to recall the time when these crates were used and most soft drinks came in glass bottles, rather than cans or plastic bottles. These crates were useful for sitting on, when placed on end and it was not uncommon to see these used in such a fashion.

I do not recall these Campbell soup crates in use.

Instead of an RC cola and a moon pie, how about an RC and a vinyl record?

Later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 3

This is continuation of the iPhone photography in Indiana antique stores during the early days of our two week fall stay in Indiana.

Older photographic equipment always gets my attention. I’m glad I do not have to use those items.

Some of those pictured in this poster, seem to be misclassified as Rock and Roll musicians. After noting one such collage of these bad criminals, I began to see these more often in this area.

Bad guy entertainers may be unpopular here, but alcoholic beverage items are prominently celebrated.

And Bing Crosby is ok.

I started this post with pottery items, so maybe I should end it with pottery.

More later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

This is the third year of visiting Indiana in the fall. The first visit was mostly to attend a few of the Covered Bridge Festivals, visit my wife’s relatives and see the fall color. We were about a week too early for the fall colors during the first visit. We visited a little later in the fall last year and we were late for the fall color peak. Many of the larger trees were already bare, thanks to a storm that came through the week prior to our visit. We thought we had the perfect timing this year, but we were early, fall color was late. Most of the trees were still mostly green and just barely beginning to show some color.

We were staying two weeks this year, so I decided there was no need to rush out to photograph. I could wait a few days and hope for the color to arrive before we departed for home.

During the early days of our time here, I went out with my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law to do those things they wanted to do. The first full day we were here was the last day of the Covered Bridge Festivals, so we went to one of those that day.

I’m not convinced that this sign conveys what the creator and seller of this product intended. It seems to suggest that there may already be indications of health issues associated with tobacco smoke. Wouldn’t effective advertising avoid bringing attention to any possible risk to using a product?

The following early days of this visit we drove to antique malls or stores, which the others liked to browse. These drives allowed me to monitor the fall color progression and I used my iPhone to practice getting mostly indoor photos of various objects in the antique places.

I could, at least, reminisce about watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

The one on the left might shoot the other two, so maybe they were not amigos?

Surely, the Wicked Witch of the West wore these in The Wizard of Oz?

More next,

Ken

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 2

As sunset approached, I hiked back into the area around my campsite with my DSLR for a sunset shoot. As usual, I went out earlier than I thought necessary. Even so, my timing was off. Some of the features that I had anticipated shooting, were already in shadow, well before sunset. So I had to give up on some of the preplanned shot locations.

My first stop was at this vey tilted rock or hoodoo nearest to the campground. It was in full late day sunlight and I could see that there were already shadows on the big hillside in the distance.

I found this batch of prickly pear cacti that were still getting some late day rays, with the red hill behind them mostly in shadow.

Tiny Desert Tree and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon

Even though the light was much less than I had planned to see, I like this composition with the small, weakly lit tree and the big red hill in the background.

I like the sinuous leading line formed by this drainage with green grass contrasting with the red earth and the change in lighting from the right side to the left of this image

Boulders and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon

Moon over Tilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro Canyon

I converted this final image, made from the top of the hill from which I had photographed during my scouting hike, to black and white, to get a more dramatic late day image.

I tried capturing more images of the moon over this hilltop, shooting from a location on the side of the hill with tilted rocks pointing at the moon, but I could not get a good image with the lens I had chosen to use today.

Thanks for following,

Ken

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

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Tag: Monochrome Photos

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 4 – Cathedral Valley

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 3 – Capitol Gorge

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 1

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Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 4

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Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 3

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Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

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Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 2

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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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