Spring 2019 Road Trip – Bandelier National Monument

The third stop in my 2019 Spring road trip was Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico.  This was mainly a convenient place to overnight on this trip, but I was, also, curious about this area.  The camping area here is really nice with good restroom facilities, but no showers.  The camp sites tend to be rather close to each other, but during my visit the area was almost empty with only a few scattered campers.  This being my first visit, I stopped to chat with the camp site host, whom I spotted as I drove on an exploratory trip around one of the loops, all of which were open, even though the official website said some might not be open during the off season.  The camp host suggested that I drive around, pick out several sites that I liked, then go to the self check in kiosk on the roadway just prior to the first loop.  I did so, picking out a site with no one near it, but near a restroom.  Most of the parking sites seemed to be at least slightly sloped, but not so much that it was uncomfortable, so I did not feel the need to try leveling my vehicle.

After setting up and having a late lunch, I headed out to the visitor center, which I arrived at just after the 5PM closing time, so I did not get inside there.  There are a number of trails near the visitor center, so I picked up a trail guide outside the visitor entrance and decided to take a quick hike along the main trail.

Prior to this visit, there had been much snow in the area and the website said some trails were snowy and icy, so I brought along ice crampons for my hiking footwear.  However, the snow and ice were all gone while I was there, so I still have new, unused crampons.  I had received a weather notification of another spring storm heading this way with heavy snowfall expected over some areas.

Recent flooding had closed some areas and trails, all of which sounded more interesting than those that were open.

For landscape photography, I did not find this area of great interest, at least not on this visit.  This is a beautiful forested (mostly evergreens) area, but a bit enclosed and confining for my inclinations.  On my short hurried hike, I did not bother taking my DSLR and other gear, since I had no idea about what to expect.

Native American Ruins along the Main Trail in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone Photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There are interesting Native American ruins here, so there is much of historical and archeological interest.

Kiva remains, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone Photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A Kiva and entrance, Bandelier NM. iPhone Photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Ladder access into a Native American Cave Shelter in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

One is allowed to enter into any of the ancient dwelling with the ladders provided.  The ladders are not ancient, of course.

An interior view of a Native American cave shelter, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The ceilings of the cave dwellings are blackened by fires used by the ancient dwellers.  There were remnants of log elements protruding from the ceiling in some of the caves with a few charred by fire.  These do not appear to have been necessary for roofs, so I’m guessing they were used for other purposes, maybe for hanging pots for cooking or storage.  There is probably more information about these dwellings on the park website.

Native American Cave Shelter, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There were quite a few caves carved into the volcanic rock of the cliffside along the main trail.

Ruins as seen from the main trail along the cliff face, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone Photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There are interesting rock shapes along the cliff side trail and good views of the ruins on the valley floor.

Native American ruins along a cliff face in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There are holes in the cliff face, where roof supports were originally installed.  Some of the shallow alcoves along the cliff face contain paintings or petroglyphs.

After leaving the visitor center area, I went back past the camping area to a parking area at the Frey trail head and walked along the trail for awhile.  The portion of the trail I walked along, just prior to sunset, was mostly through a thinly forested area.  At a high point along this trail, there were good view of snow covered mountain peaks and I paused for awhile to see what the sunset would be like.

Sunset Clouds in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and Skylum Luminar.
A dramatic sunset sky in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and Skylum Luminar.

On this brief exploratory hike, I only had my iPhone camera with me, so the quality of the sunset photos are limited, but at least give one a sense of the possibilities here.

None of the photos in this post are published on my Flickr page, since I do not consider them of sufficient quality for sharing there (not to say that I have not ever published some poor quality photos on Flickr).

I will be away for a few days, so the next post may be delayed.

Thanks for following and reading,

Ken

 

Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Spring 2019 – Day 2 – Sunset Photos

After scouting about a mile along the Tejas trail earlier in the day, I went out again late in the day, planning to be near the far end of my scouting hike to get a shot of the most prominent feature on the mountainside east of the trail.  After arriving at that point on the trail, I very soon realized that the sunlight was not going to illuminate that feature as I had hoped.  Only a small portion of the intended subject would be highlighted with most of it being in shadow.  So I began hastily backtracking down the trail to check out other possibilities.  The next pre-scouted site that I attempted did not work out either, so I continued back along the trail.

I arrived at another pre-scouted site that looked more promising and proceeded to make a number of shots, none of which were greatly impressive.  However, I managed to get one that I could edit and make look presentable.

A late afternoon scene along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, DXO Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.

There was good light on the mountainside, but the shadows were quickly encroaching upon the scene.  If not for motion in the vegetation, I could have tried creating an HDR image or stacked a number of images.  In this image I applied color, contrast, brightness and structure adjustments in DXO Nik software via numerous control points.  Then more adjustments in DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.  I added a vignette frame around the edges to eliminate an obvious vignette in one corner of the original image that was caused by my filter holder.

Moving a bit more back down the trail, I stopped to shoot in another location, before the light disappeared completely.  Again I had to make a number of exposures, trying to balance the shadows and highlight, but none came out really well and HDR was, again, not an option.

Late day sunlight along a mountain top in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 42mm, f/11, 1/20s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, DXO Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.

One can see how far the shadows have moved up the mountainside in just a short time interval.  This image is edited in a very similar fashion to the previous one.  I could have brought out more detail in the shadows, but chose not to do so in this case.

I tried a few more shots as I moved back down the trail, but none worked out very well.  The evening was pleasant and there was a full or near full moon that evening, so the walk back to the RV parking lot was quite pleasant and well lit by moonlight, so I did not have to get out my headlamp.

This photo shoot did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but at least I got a couple of reasonable images and had a pleasant moonlight hike back along the trail.

I had picked out a few possible places for sunrise shots the following and last morning of my visit, but none of those were really appealing, so I decided to forego getting up early for a morning shoot and get an earlier start on the road to the next destination.

This park has much more to see than I had time to get to.  In particular, McKittrick Canyon is reportedly very nice in the fall, so maybe I can make another visit one fall.  I would also like to get into the gypsum dunes in the Salt Basin.  So I really need to find time to plan another visit.

Ken

Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Part 1

The second destination in my Spring 2019 road trip was Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO).  According to my map, the travel time to GUMO from the Sandhills via the shortest route should be about 2.5 hours.  However, a backup due to road construction on US 285, just past a signal light at my turn off from US 285, resulted in an hour delay.  The longer routes would probably have been faster, but I did not double check the traffic before I set out.  My bad!

Guadalupe Mountains rising from the plains of West Texas.  This is an iPhone photo taken from miles away from the mountains.

In the above photo the sharp drop off on the left end of the mountain range is a feature referred to as El Capitan.

After getting to GUMO, setting up in the RV parking lot and having a brief lunch, it was around 3PM.  Since I had never visited here, I did not have any idea about where to go for sunset photos.  After reviewing the trails and information on those trails, I decided to take the Guadalupe Peak Trail, but not to take my camera gear.  It was overcast, so the prospects for good sunset light was slim and I knew the heavy camera gear would really slow my pace on the trail.

An image from the park website
Trail information from alltrails.com

This trail is  around 8-9 miles round trip, rated strenuous and the literature said to allow 6 to 8 hours for the round trip.  By the time I made my preparations for the hike, it was well after 3PM.  So even if I could make the round trip in only 6 hours (doubtful), it would be after 9PM and dark before I made it back.  I took my headlamp and an extra flashlight and extra batteries, just in case, but I knew it was not a good idea to be on this trail in the dark.

Shortly after getting underway on the trail, I realized that not bringing the camera gear was a good decision.  There are very strenuous portions of this trail, it is mostly steep with considerable rocky portions requiring care in hiking.  As I met hikers coming down and heard their comments, I really began to realize that I would probably not make it to the top, if I expected to get back down before dark.

This image illustrates why this trail is rated as “strenuous”. (iPhone Photo)

The weather was good for this hike, since it was cool and overcast.  Even so, I quickly worked up a sweat, hiking with only a shirt and t-shirt on my upper body.  I had put a fleece, gloves and windbreaker in my backpack, since I knew it would be cold somewhere along the trail.  Indeed, in some windy portions it got quite cool with even a light snow off and on; but the effort going up the trail kept me warm.

If only I had a mount from which to dismount. iPhone Photo

As I progressed and became hungry, I realized that I had forgotten to put my trail bar snacks into my day pack.  Fortunately, I had a full reservoir of water in my Camelbak.  Otherwise, I would have had to turn around.  Wanting to go as far as possible, I pushed on and I was able to ignore the hunger and my decreasing energy level.

A portion of the cliffs past which equestrians were to lead their horses.  iPhone Photo

The haze in the distance of the photo above is actually a light snow.

As I neared the upper portion of the trail, I even began to think that I might actually make it to the top.  However, as it passed 6PM, even though thinking I only had about 30 minutes more to hike to the top, I decided it was best to turn back or I would surely be hiking down in the dark.

Elevation profile for Guadalupe Peak Trail

I went some distance past the campground, so maybe I was only a few hundred feet below the peak, when I decided to turn around.  It was disappointing to be so close and have to stop before reaching the peak.  I just needed to have started about an hour earlier in the day.

I think this is where I decided to head back down the trail.  iPhone photo
This is at or near the point on this trail, where I decided to turn back to avoid being on this rugged trail in the dark. The trail goes from the lower right corner down around the scrubby vegetation. iPhone Photo
This is a view from just below my turn around point on Guadalupe Peak Trail. iPhone Photo
A cloudy, cool day for a hike on Guadalupe Peak Trail. iPhone Photo

The feature on the mountain side at the upper right-center of the above photo is El Capitan.

Since the trip back was mostly steeply downhill, I was able to make much better time than I had expected.  I was almost sure that I would have to stop and put on the fleece at some point, but I never wanted to stop long enough to do that.  Even had I put the fleece on, I would have had to stop and take it off as I got back to lower elevation.

A view on the way back down Guadalupe Peak Trail. iPhone Photo

There is at least one trail visible along the mountain side in this photo.  I think the one in the center is the Tejas Trail.

On the way down, I had to frequently remind myself to slow down on the more treacherous portions of the trail.  There were plenty of places with tripping or sliding hazards.  I was making such good time on the way down that I passed a few people that I had met on the way up as they were coming down.

Sunset glow on a peak across the wash from Guadalupe Peak Trail.  iPhone Photo

The golden hour light in the above photo is what I looked forward to finding the following day.

Golden Hour Glow in Guadalupe Mountains.  iPhone Photo

A zoomed in, noisy iPhone photo of the late day light on a peak opposite my route on Guadalupe Peak Trail is above.

A Scene from a lower portion of Guadalupe Peak Trail.  iPhone Photo

I was greeted by a nice sunset scene over the plains from the lower portion of the  Guadalupe Peak Trail.

I made it back to the RV lot just after dark, with sore, sensitive, achy feet, a strong appetite and no plan for where to go the following morning.  I had been on the trail for about 5 hours, so I think I would have made it to the peak and back before dark, if I had started up the trail just an hour earlier.

Until next time,

Ken

Spring 2019 Trip – Monahans Sandhills SP, Texas – Abstract Photos

Sand dunes provide great opportunities for abstract photography.  I hope that the few such photographs shared in this post will illustrate such possibilities.

This image is created via focus stacking 4 images in Adobe Photoshop, with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 64.

Wind creates large expanses of ripples and repeating patterns in sand dunes, such as those shown above.  These can be rendered effectively in color, if the light is favorable.  I like monochrome for such photos, since one only needs the light to provide shadows and highlights, meaning one can shoot at times other than just the “golden” hours.

By excluding moving objects, one can use focus stacking quite effectively in such images, getting sharp images over a large depth range.

Sandhills Abstract. Nikon d850, Nikon 24-70mm at 55mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

I really like this photo with the diagonal ripples superimposed on the orthogonal wave in the dune.  Obviously, the shadows in the troughs, alternating with the highlights on the crests of the ripples, produces these interesting features.

A composite of three images focus stacked in Adobe Photoshop with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 46mm, f/11, 1/40s, ISO 200.

This is another of my favorite abstracts from the sandhills.  In this case, I like the highlight in the depression near the top right of the image and the way the ripples flow into and around the depression.

A composite of three images, focus stacked in Adobe Photoshop, with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 40mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO 200.

Another image with interesting, bifurcating, ripple patterns with faint wisps of plant matter (look closely to see these) across the ripples.

This is a composite of 6 images focus stacked in Adobe Photoshop with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 48mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 200.

The animal track across these subdued ripples adds interest to the pattern.  The original color version also shows variations in the color of the sand, producing streaks of color crossing the ripples.

Natural artwork in the sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm (before crop), f/11, 1/15s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

I’m sure some of you have seen images of circles swept into sand by plant fronds or limbs.  Here is a variation on that with the lower frond producing long streaks across the sand ripples and the upper frond pecking out an intricate, dimpled pattern along the direction of the sand ripples.  To me such natural art work is fascinating.  These are also short lived, since the next wind will probably erase these or maybe produce a variation.  So, if you see an interesting one, photograph it before it is gone!

Ken

Spring Trip 2019 – Part 1 – Monahans Sandhills State Park, Texas – continued

Before I continue with photography within this park, I will offer a brief review of the park and facilities.  There was some work being done at the visitor center at the entrance, when I was there.  This required one to go into the center to confirm one’s arrival and pay any fees that were due, rather than pay in the typical way at a reception window.  However, I was a bit confused by the signage at the entrance, thinking that I needed to drive on into the park to find the place to check in.  So I continued, following the signs to the camping area.  Upon getting to the RV area, I found a ranger helping another RVer with a big rig get into his assigned spot.  He came over to chat with me for awhile and told me how to best get to my reserved spot and told me I had a good spot adjacent to a sand dune on one side.  He also told me that he could come by, when he made his early morning rounds, and take me back to the visitor center to check in.  I informed him that I would probably be in the dunes in the early morning hours and late day hours.  I did not tell him why and he did not ask, but he looked a bit confused, since apparently few visitors get out that early into the dunes.  Anyway, even though I saw him passing by my place during my subsequent stay, he never stopped by and I never got any note on my vehicle, even though I did not have the typical sticker or receipt that the parks require on vehicles within the park.  I did stop by the visitor center as I was leaving the park to be sure all was ok and I was informed that all my fees were paid by the online reservation and I was all set to go.  I knew that I had paid the campsite fee, but I still thought that I had to pay the entrance fee, since my annual membership card was expired.

This is an old park and the facilities need some refurbishing, especially the restrooms and showers.  The showers are open with no privacy doors.  The shower water valves do not operate the way I expected and I initially thought there was no hot water.  This is a sandy place and visitors using the showers naturally leave much sand in the shower area.

The park is just north of I-20 and a railway that parallels I-20.  Being in the heart of the Permian Basin, there is much oil field truck traffic on I-20 and there were numerous trains passing by through out the night, so it can be rather noisy at night.  I must admit that the train whistle sound during the night was a bit nostalgic, since I recall hearing these during the night in my childhood home.

The days were mostly pleasantly cool during my visit, but the late night and early mornings were cold.  Even with chemical hand warmers in my fleece mittens, that opened to fingerless mode so that I could operate the camera controls, my finger tips got numb, especially just before sunrise, when I need them to not be so numb.

This is an Adobe Photoshop focus stack of 5 images, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 31mm, f/11, 1/30s, ISO 64.

Apparently, there is much night life activity in the sand dunes, too.  The evidence of such is reflected by the many animal tracks in the sand, especially in the early morning hours before people walk through the dunes, disturbing the surface.

This image is created via focus stacking 5 images in Adobe Photoshop with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 48mm, f/11, 1.6s – 2.0s, ISO 64.
An early morning photo of multiple animal tracks across sand dune ripples. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 42mm, ISO 64, f/11, 1/30s. Two images focus stacked in Adobe Photoshop, edited in Lightroom and DXO Nik software.
This is a composite of 5 images, edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 29mm, f/11, 1/40s, ISO 64.

In the late day excursions into the sandhills, I could hear coyotes yelping and they did not seem very far away.  I saw numerous coyote tracks in the dunes, so I’m sure they were hunting prey in the night time hours within the dunes.

You might note that all of the images above are created by focus stacking a number of images in Photoshop.  I like doing this to get sharpness through out an image, but there can be problems with doing this.  In particular, if there is motion, such as movement of vegetation or clouds, while taking a series of shots, the focus stacking might not work out well.  Since I knew I had this taking place in many of my shots, I inspected the results of each focus stacked image.  If there were movement effects noted, I would either abandon the focus stack method or try again with different photos.  If the movement effects were far in the background, where the image is not extremely sharp, anyway, I might ignore that and keep the resultant image.  This is ok as long as the image is not enlarged to such an extent that the movement or misalignment is apparent.  This is just a judgement call one has to make for such shots.  I’ve also noted that Photoshop sometimes selects the portions of images that it uses in the focus stack in what appears to be a non logical way, with blobs of images included within an area where most of a separate image is selected.  I’m sure that this is just a limitation of the software’s ability to distinguish sharpness for some portions of an image.  This might be corrected by manually stacking the images, but that gets into a lot more work in the editing process.

In a couple of my initial focus stacked images, I noted glaring misalignments that could not be attributed to motion.  Upon inspecting the original images, I noted that even though I typically sync adjustments across the images to be used in the focus stack process, the lens profile correction did not get applied to all images.  This might have been my error, not the software’s problem.  Upon correcting this, the focus stack misalignment issue went away.  So just something else to be aware of when using this technique.

Early morning in Monahans Sandhills SP. This is a composite of 5 photos, edited in Adobe LR, Photoshop and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO 64.
Coyote footprints in Monahans Sandhills SP, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm at 22mm, f/11, 1/200s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

Readers might note that this is a great place to use the “leading lines” technique in photography.  There are very evident lines of multiple kinds in most of these photographs that serve to lead the eye through the photos.

Early morning light and shadows in the sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64.

I like the long shadows streaking through the late day sunlit highlights on the dunes and the numerous animal tracks in the sands in this shot.

Early Morning in Monahans Sandhills SP, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm, f/11, 1/13s, ISO 64.

In the photo above, I am not pleased with he sky.  Note that it is very blue on the right and much too bright on the left.  I first considered cropping to remove the sky, but I did not think I could get a pleasing crop.  Subsequently, I considered deleting this photo due to its obvious defect, but then I thought that this can be an example from which to learn.  The dark blue is probably due to the effect of the polarizing filter in a wide angle shot.  I usually try to minimize this effect, but I apparently neglected to do so in this shot.  I do not specifically remember using a graduated neutral density filter in this shot, but I think it most probable that I did.  I tried to edit the sky color to even it out a bit, but I did not like the results, so I just left it as it was.  Someone with great patience and skill in Photoshop could probably fix the sky, but I’m not so inclined.

I still have a few images from this park to share, so it looks like I will need to continue this in a separate post or two.

Ken

 

Spring Trip 2019 – Part 1 – Monahans Sandhills State Park, Texas

I finally got time to get away for a couple of weeks in March.  My destinations were largely determined by weather patterns and the distance between those possible destinations.  The first stop was Monahans Sandhills State Park between Odessa and Monahans, Texas.  This is a place that I first visited briefly in the 1980s, while on a business trip in the area.

I arrive at the Sandhills about mid-afternoon on a Saturday, where I had reservations in the RV camping area for two nights.  My campsite turned out to be in an advantageous site, adjacent to a dune that helped block the prevailing winds.  It had been very windy here just a few days prior, which is good, since the wind erases the surface disturbances created by visitors to the dunes.  However, I was there during a weekend, so I expected to have to work around the weekend visitors and their tracks in the sand dunes.

The park was fairly busy, as I expected, but the nightly winds helped mute the daily human disturbance of the sand dune surfaces.  Initially, I was not impressed by the photographic possibilities in the dunes and many of my photos lived up to those low expectations.  However, in the end I think I managed to get a few descent photos.  I will let the readers judge the results for themselves and maybe provide some feedback on the posted photos.

Sunset light and shadows in the sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 32mm, f/11, 1/200s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.
Sunset light in the sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 29mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

It was rather cloudy, especially the first day at sunset, so the late day light was intermittent and not as good as one would have liked for landscape photography. The clouds added drama to the sky, but I never got the brilliantly lit or colorful clouds that I had looked forward to.

Late day in the Sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 26mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 400. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

It was a bit of a challenge to find large areas of undisturbed sand, but as you can see in the above photo, I managed to find a few such areas.  Although, there are muted footprints in the sand in the upper left side of the photo.  In the previous photo, there are muted footprints evident in the right portion of the photo.  I do not think these are so strongly apparent as to distract from the natural appearance of the sand.

A composite of three images, edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and DXO Nik software. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm (before crop), f/11, 1/60s, ISO 200.

The two trees in this photo are weather beaten and scraggly, but I like the glow in the sand at their base and the alternating dark to light in the sand ripples leading from the base of the photo to the trees.  This originally started out as a wider landscape view, but there were distracting elements on the right hand side, so I cropped the photo to remove the distraction.

Sunset in the Sandhills. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm, at 36mm, f/11, 1/30s, ISO 640. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik software.

This sunset photo was taken at the end of my first day in the sandhills.  There are notable human infrastructure item along the horizon, some of which I removed or muted via editing, but I could never get all of those features removed without leaving unattractive artifacts, so I left most of them in the photo.  These are only visible and distracting, when one enlarges the photo.

This is enough for this post.  I will continue with more photos from the sandhills in the next post.

Ken

 

 

The Importance of Light Quality in Landscape Photography

I’ve just returned from a two weeks road trip and, as usual, after such trips there is much to do before I can get around to reviewing the photos taken during such trips.  Added onto the usual catching up with items around the house, I’ve had to work to correct some software issues, at least some of which I created myself due to the way I decided to use a portable hard drive for Lightroom photos and the Lightroom catalog, so that I can work from both laptop and desktop computers.

In addition, I decided to upgrade my old Nik software, which has not been supported for some time now, to the new DXO Nik version.  The software installed and ran on my MacBook Pro, but it did not want to run properly on my iMac.  It took quite a bit of work over a couple of days to sort this out.  In the end, I’m not sure what action(s) actually cured the problem, but at least now it is operational.  In the process I learned how to remove the links to the old Nik versions from Lightroom.  One would think this would be an easy, straight forward task, but no search of Adobe’s Help yielded any results on this topic, nor was DXO support completely helpful.  Finally, I got suggestions from the Adobe community forum, none of which related directly to my installation, but at least got me onto the right track, allowing me to find and remove the problem files.

So now back to the subject of this post.  Experienced landscape photographers need not read any more of this post, since I’m not revealing anything new here.  However, beginners or novice landscape photographers might benefit from information shared here.

Light is the essence of photography.  It is light that allows one to make photographs and the properties of light affect the resulting photographs.  Readers may have heard the term “Golden Hour Light”, used by landscape photographers. This term refers to natural light just as the sun is rising or setting.  At these times, when the sun is low in the sky, sunlight has to travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere, which favors the transmission of the warmer colors, filtering out the cooler colors.  It is the “warmer light” that really bring to life objects illuminated by such light.

In this post I am showing an example of a scene shot with only the beginnings of this light and one with much more of this golden hour light.

A shot with just a hint of golden hour light peeking through the clouds.

The photo above, while lacking in great depth of field, shows the effect of muted late day light.  It was a cloudy day and only a little golden hour light is getting through the cloud cover.  This photo is taken looking north with the sunlight coming from the west.  This is referred to as sidelight and is good for casting shadows, adding depth to a 2 dimensional photo.  Note that there is only a sliver of brighter light going diagonally from the lower left corner towards the upper right and there are minimal shadows, but at least the light alternates in a repeating cycle from dark to light across the photograph.  The overall tone is dark.  Compare this to the photo below, taken just moments later.

A shot with almost full golden hour light.

The cloud cover is still muting the light in the second photo, but it is obviously much brighter and warmer with stronger shadows.  The original image files for each of these final images are raw camera files with adjustments in Adobe Lightroom and Nik software.  I’ve applied essentially the same edits to both photos.  The difference the light properties make in these images is obvious.  The second image “pops” much more than the first image.

As a side note, there is a photo shoot within these photos, which I did not fully realize, until enlarging these images during the processing.  In the first photo, near the upper center in the sand just below the sky there are three figures, one female on the left in a red dress and two males to her right.  At the time I took the photo, I just noted that there were three people walking in the background.  While processing the second photo, I noted these same three people now grouped together just below the skyline on the left side of the photo.  The enlargement shows a lighting umbrella device on a tripod, hence the conclusion that this is a photo shoot of the female in the red dress.  These figures are only clearly visible (but not in sharp focus), if one enlarges the photo.

That is all for this post.  I will have much more to share from this trip in subsequent posts.

Until then,

Ken

Hiking in Joshua Tree National Park – Part 3

In the spring of 2018, my oldest son and I visited Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. We photographed in the park in the early morning, late afternoon and night. During the middle hours of the day we scouted for places to photograph and/or we hiked several of the easy to moderate trails within the park. This post is not really about hiking so much as just exploring an area along Geology Road with illustrations via iPhone photos.

One can drive much of Geology Road in an ordinary passenger vehicle; but there are portions where a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle is recommended.

We drove much of the easier part of the road, including some of the rougher portions, stopping to explore around one boulder area.

A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

There were some clouds to add interest to the photos and I am again contrasting color processing and monochrome processing.

A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

My son standing on one of the rocks in the above photo gives one a sense of scale here.

A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

One can always find interesting features within the boulder fields. In the preceding photos, note the window near the center of the photos.

The rock at the center of this image looks like a modern sculpture in the shape of a bear. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Climbing around on the boulders, my son spotted what he referred to as a “bear” rock, nestled down within an opening between other large boulders. It looks like a modern art sculpture of a bear cub to me; but maybe others see something else.

The rock nestled within these big boulders looks like a bear sculpture. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Color Efex Pro 4.

 

A boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

The boulders (of which there are many scattered through out the park) are produced by weathering of plutonic intrusions.

Flowering bush amid the boulders, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Plants seemingly find a place to grow in the most unlikely places.

A panorama within a boulder field along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

This panoramic image give one a sense of the openness of the area, even though there are large boulder piles and mountain peaks apparent in this vast desert area.

Boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Boulder Field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Fittingly, there are a few Joshua Trees scattered around within the boulder field.

A scene along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Other desert type scrubby vegetation also populates the area.

A view from within a boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A gnarly tree trunk within a boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

A remnant of an old tree found within the boulder field.

A gnarly tree trunk within a boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Even a few California Barrel Cacti are present. A couple can be seen in the background of the gnarly tree trunk.

A colorful California Barrel Cactus within a boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A colorful California Barrel Cactus within a boulder field, Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

My son had found an outcrop of quartz in the desert opposite this boulder field on an earlier visit and he recalled how to hike to it again on this visit to the park. It is quite an impressive amount of quartz.

A quartz rock outcrop in the desert along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A quartz rock outcrop in the desert along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4
A quartz rock outcrop in the desert along Geology Road, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

This post is short on words and maybe a bit long in photos; but at least that makes for a fast scan of the blog.

Until next time,

Ken

Hiking in Joshua Tree National Park – Part 2

In the spring of 2018, my oldest son and I visited Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. We photographed in the park in the early morning, late afternoon and night. During the middle hours of the day we scouted for places to photograph and/or we hiked several of the easy to moderate trails within the park. This post is about the Lost Horse Mine Trail with illustrations via iPhone photos.

A view of a portion of Lost Horse Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

In the early history of this area there were numerous mining operations, which have since been abandoned. Remnants of equipment and/or facilities remain at some of the mine sites. Hiking trails to the abandoned mines often follow the original roads made to access the mines.

Some of the equipment remaining at Lost Horse Mine, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Lost Horse Mine Trail is an easy trail about a 4 mile round trip and only 480 feet elevation gain from the parking lot to the mine site. One can do a longer version, resulting in about a 6 mile hike, climbing a steeper, narrower loop from the mine back to the parking area. A long interval of the trail is visible in the photo above.

A view of a portion of Lost Horse Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The trail is through a desert area with wide views of the local area with typical desert vegetation.

A blooming Yucca along Lost Horse Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A blooming Yucca along Lost Horse Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Bees were swarming around the Yucca blooms. Looking closely (maybe zoom in on the above photo) and at least one bee is visible on the left hand side of the bloom about half way down the photo. Another photo had more obvious bees in it, but I did not like that photo.

The remains of a winch at Lost Horse Mine, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

As in the first part about hiking in Joshua Tree NP, I’m including a couple of duplicate photos, except for the processing (color and monochrome). I like the monochrome treatment best here; but I would like to hear reader preferences.

The remains of a winch at Lost Horse Mine, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The old mill is largely intact, but it is fenced off, so one cannot get close enough to get detailed photos of the milling machinery.

Remains of a mill at Lost Horse Mine, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A view from Lost Horse Mine Trail near the mine area. iPhone photo edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

If one looks very closely, a hiker is visible on the trail in the above photo. The hiker is on the right at the jog in the trail, where it appears to go from the wider close up to the narrow looking distant part.

As a reminder, all the photos in this post are via an iPhone. We elected not to carry our heavy DSLR gear along, since the lighting was not optimal at the time of day that we hiked this trail.

Till next time,

Ken

Hiking In Joshua Tree National Park – Part 1

In the spring of 2018, my oldest son and I visited Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. We photographed in the park in the early morning, late afternoon and night. During the middle hours of the day we scouted for places to photograph and/or we hiked several of the easy to moderate trails within the park. This post is about the Contact Mine Trail with illustrations via iPhone photos.

The Contact Mine Trail is an easy one, with a gentle slope, gaining only 700 feet in just under two miles. As we hiked along the trail we began to notice a barrel type cactus with red spines.

A colorful California Barrel Cactus along the Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Later research revealed that this cactus is referred to by its obvious common name “California Barrel Cactus”. As we hiked along, it became obvious that this area had many of these attractive red cactus, some with yellow blooms. My iPhone shots of blooms near the bottom of one such cactus did not turn out well, so none are posted here. I have seen other images with blooms on the top, but I do not recall seeing any with blooms on the top and most did not have blooms.

A close up of the spines on a California Barrel Cactus along the Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

In the early history of this area there were numerous mining operations, which have since been abandoned. Remnants of equipment and or housing remain at some of the mine sites.

The Contact Mine Site has remains of old mining equipment, other rusty evidence of human activity and mine shafts that have been covered with steel cages to prevent people from entering.

The remains of an engine at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Neither of us carried our heavy camera gear on this hike and I shot a number of iPhone photos just to record the scenes and the experience. I’ve edited the iPhone (jpg) images with some minor adjustments in Adobe LR, followed by edits in Nik software.

Rusty engine at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I’m including duplicates of some images to show the variations between color edits and monochrome edits.

Remains of machinery at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty old mining equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Edits can bring out texture, contrasts and colors. I tend to like the monochrome versions better than the color versions. The monochrome versions depend mostly upon the composition, texture, contrast and shadows. While it is possible to manipulate the monochrome images in many ways to achieve artistic effects, these type edits just seem more appropriate to me, than the color software edits.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty engine components at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Color editing software can allow one to emulate the effects of the “Golden Light Hours” in photos taken outside these magical times of the day; but the emulation is never quite the same as the real light effects, getting into the more artistic edits of the images, about which there can be much philosophical discussion.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty mine equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I’m not getting into the debate over photo editing, since that is a subjective matter. I used to be of the opinion that one could only get good images during the Golden Light Hours of sunrise or sunset and, while I prefer to photograph during those magic light hours, sometimes it is not possible to do so. Rather than pass up photographic opportunities in places, where I know I will never be during the golden light hours, I’ve reconciled to working with whatever light I have at the time, then editing to get an image that I find pleasing from an artistic point of view.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty gear at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I do still feel that the color editing is more unreal than the monochrome edits; but maybe that is just because monochrome images have been in existence in photography for many more years and we study the works of the early pioneers in photography, whose work was entirely in monochrome.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty mine equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Anyway, the early photographers manipulated the monochrome images in the dark room, just as modern digital photographers manipulate the images via computer software.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty gear box at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I would like to hear readers’ opinions on this matter as well as critiques of any of my images (composition and/or edits).

Beaver Tail Prickly Pear in bloom, Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Remains of a winch at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Remains of a winch at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Equipment remains at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Contact Mine winch remains, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Old mine cart rails at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

A final note:  I reverted to an older version of the WordPress editor for this post, since I could find no way to insert links into photos with the “improved” editor.  Verifying that the links were correct, even with the classic editor, proved more awkward than previously.  Please let me know if links do not work or are not correct.

Until next time,

Ken