Nikon D850 – Page 18 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge – Day 2 Sunset Photography

Having found no better and more convenient place for sunset photography during my mid-day exploration of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, I decided to hike back to Little Baldy again for sunset.

I had already seen a flock of wild turkeys wandering freely and nonchalantly around the campground and as I left my campsite, I noted a dozen or more along my route. I had already mounted my wide angle lens and had no other lens with me, so I could not get a close up photo of these wild birds.

These photos are not very good, but I wanted to include these as documentation of the wildlife in this area. These wild turkey do not seem to be bothered much by humans, although they will scurry away, when approached too closely. I suppose their lack of great fear of humans is a result of this being a wildlife refuge, where no hunting is permitted and contact with humans is common.

When I arrived at Little Baldy, I worked my way around to the western side and picked my way up the slope, looking for different view points from which to shoot today.

Little Baldy western slope in sunset light

From atop a large granite feature, I shot along the edge of Little Baldy as the sun sank low in the sky. Then I worked my way towards the top of Little Baldy.

The sun was already sinking below the horizon, when I got near the top of Little Baldy. I managed to snap a few photos before the golden hour ended, but most were similar, even though I tried moving around as fast as I could to get various perspectives.

Possibly, I might have gotten better and more varied shots, had I gone to the top first, rather than shooting from the side of Little Baldy.

Tomorrow I will begin the next leg of my journey towards my primary destination of this road trip.

Ken

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge – Ferguson House

On my way to Mount Scott, I had passed a couple of old homes that I planned to try to shoot as I backtracked from Mount Scott. The first old home sat far back from the roadway and looked like an interesting photographic subject. I would have to walk to it to get shots. As I prepared to walk towards the run down old home, I noted a number of free roaming bison and long horn cattle in the vicinity, making approaching that house too risky. So I drove on to the next place.

Well, this house does not look old, does it? It was built in 1927, but has been reconstructed. Follow the links for more information. The little rounded building behind the house covers a water storage tank. I attempted to get close up photos of the tank and its covering structure, but none of those photos were good enough to share.

The little house in the right background is a mystery. It is just an empty shell, built on a concrete foundation and does not look very old.

There is a covered pavilion on the property with posters giving information about the early history of this area.

I shot the house from numerous view points, but the one in this post is the best image.

This marker is near the front of the home lot.

Other than the historical significance of the early homesteaders in this area, I found little of real photographic interest here.

More scouting of this Wildlife Refuge later,

Ken

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge -Holy City

As I was scouting the large Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, I saw road signs for “Holy City”. I had no idea what this was, but I had to find out.

When I arrived at the Holy City, the mystery began to clear. I learned that this is the site of an Easter Passion Play, which originated in 1926.

I walked around the site, making a few photos of some of the features used in the Passion Play, to document this visit.

I had much more exploration and scouting on my menu today, so I did not spend much time in the Holy City.

Scouting continues in the next post,

Ken

Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma – Mount Scott Scouting Photography, Part 2

With my DSLR in hand, I began a more extensive exploration around the summit of Mount Scott.

Since I was passing this interesting tree again, I had to shoot it with my DSLR, trying to get variations on my initial iPhone scouting photos.

I know these three photos are similar, but this unique tree shading the granite rock, inspired a number of thoughts and offered numerous compositional variations. I couldn’t decide which image I liked best, so here are several of my favorites.

Please do not deface nature’s beauty to express your primitive desires. There are many other ways to express your admiration of someone that will be much more meaningful, appreciated and will not be an assault upon others’ enjoyment of our natural environment.

I am enthralled by the forms taken by old trees.

That’s it for now,

Ken

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge – Sunrise, Day 2

This post was scheduled for last week, but somehow (according to WordPress) missed its publication schedule. So I’m manually posting it today.

I returned to Little Baldy for sunrise photography the morning of my second day in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

The heart shaped rock perched at the top of Little Baldy caught my eye. I positioned myself to shoot up the rock fracture towards that rock. Working my way around this area, I discovered that the large, curved rock in the bottom right of this image forms a bridge over the rock below it. I tried to get very low and shoot through the bridge, but I was not successful getting photos that adequately revealed what I was trying to capture.

That concludes the best results of this morning’s shoot,

Ken.

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge – Sunset, Day 1

After scouting the area near my campsite, I decided to return to Little Baldy for sunset photography. I arrive on the upper slope of Little Baldy early, as is my usual practice, to look around again and pick compositions prior to sunset. As I was looking over the area, a herd of people from a parking lot visible in the distance, came up the eastern slope. They were all heading for the summit to watch the sunset. It was a Sunday evening and this is apparently a weekend favorite sunset viewing site for visitors. I had not anticipated this, since I had seen so few people in this area earlier in the day. We landscape photographers usually prefer no people in our photos.

After the crowd ascended to the crest of Little Baldy, I worked my way to the western slope, rather than going to the highest point, where I knew the crowd would congregate.

Fortunately, most of those on the summit stayed below the peak on the eastern side and were not visible most of the time I was shooting.

As I was shooting the final images of this shoot, one couple did appear near the top of Little Baldy and I included them in some shots, but they were moving too much for me to get non-blurry images. So I have no images of the actual peak of Little Baldy with the best of golden hour light to share.

Until the next time,

Ken

Rural Decay and Photography

The first day’s drive towards home was long and I had taken considerable time in the morning, stopping to shoot images in route between Hotchkiss and Gunnison. I could not spare much more time for in route photo stops, but I knew there were a number of abandoned structures along the remaining route that I might want to stop to photograph, if conditions were suitable.

I’ve driven past this abandoned country church many times. I always wanted to photograph it, but usually it was mid-day, with harsh light and clear sky, when I was passing by. It was maybe mid-afternoon when I spotted it today, the light was not great, but at least there were big, fluffy clouds to add interest in the sky. I decided today was maybe the best conditions that I would ever have to photograph here.

There is another small town in New Mexico with numerous abandoned structures, where I have stopped a couple of times to photograph, usually under harsh mid-day light. Today it was late day, just before sunset, when I was in that neighborhood, so I had to stop to see what I could do with more favorable light.

I think these are the best photos of these abandoned schools that I have gotten to date. It was just a matter of fortunate timing to be here as the sun was setting.

A few miles down the road, we noted a full, golden moon on the horizon. If I had only hung around that small town, I might have had opportunities to get photos of those old abandoned structures with the golden moon in the shots. We still had a few miles to our night’s lodging and in our haste to get there, I had again blown a good photographic opportunity, one that I will probably never have again.

Until next time,

Ken

Colorado Route 92 to US 50

We left Hotchkiss headed towards home, driving CO92 to US 50 on the first leg of this journey.

This is a scenic drive following a creek and its canyon that feeds into the Gunnison River, then tracks near the Gunnison River as it flow towards the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

At one of the large pull outs along this route, a group of motorcyclist pulled in. One of them asked me to take a group photo on one of their phones. Afterwards, I asked permission to get a group photo for my blog. I was assured that none of them were in a witness protection program or had ex-spouses searching for them.

It turned out that most of this group are from DFW, Texas and the young couple on the right are from Tupelo, Mississippi, with the female an alumni of my college (Ole Miss).

Their handles, from left to right, are: Jax, Bab, Blackout, Wheezy, Bronco, Sparky, Tinkle, Demon Dawg, and Helkat.

Thank you all for allowing me to include your group photo in my blog,

Ken

Colorado Mountains at Sunset

Dinner plans were complicated by a number of our choice restaurants being closed for various reasons, requiring some driving about looking for alternatives. As we drove between two local towns, I made mental notes of possible locations for sunset photography. After dinner in Hotchkiss, I returned to one of those location for sunset photography.

As I returned to Hotchkiss, I noted an almost full, silvery moon rising above the clouds. The moonrise was hidden by the clouds, when I was shooting. It was too late to find a good vantage point from which to include the moon in my late day images. That was disappointing. If I had hung out at my sunset shooting location a few more minutes, maybe I would have had an opportunity to get the moon in my images. Never the less, I thought I had a good sunset photo session.

Ken

Dallas Divide – Sunset Photos

We spent a portion of our second day in the Ridgway area driving over Owl Creek Pass, making a loop over the pass from Ridgway, down to US 50, through Montrose and back to Ridgway for dinner.

I planned better today, going for an earlier dinner to allow time afterwards to drive along CO62 prior to sunset to shoot mountain scenes at sunset.

Until next time,

Ken

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Tag: Nikon D850

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge – Day 2 Sunset Photography

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Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge -Holy City

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Colorado Route 92 to US 50

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