During the mid-day hours of day 4 in Bisti, my son and I scouted in the northern area of Bisti. The unofficial parking area for access to this area is several miles north of the official south parking lot and it is on Navaho land.
A short distance along the dirt road access to the “unofficial” parking area is another spur road going south. This road leads to a rocky drainage crossing, which can be made with a high clearance vehicle and maybe best with a 4 wheel drive. We decided not to drive across the drainage or to drive all the way to it, since the dirt road had much broken glass on it. It appears that this area might have been a dumping site for trash at one time.
We hiked across the drainage and towards hills and rocky features a few tenths of a mile in the distance. There we discovered interesting features. We think this area is on BLM land, outside Bisti proper, but maybe some of it is on Navaho land. Where we parked is probably on Navaho land.
My son hiking among some interesting features. North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Although, there are interesting photographic subjects in this area, note the human infrastructure items along the horizon, which will present problems getting compositions that exclude those structures.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Another view of the area in the previous photo is presented above. Note the two steel items. We have no idea what these were used for nor why they are here at this location. It appears that they were designed to lift or hold something. These will present some compositional problems.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A close up view of one of those mysterious steel items is shown above.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
The portion of a weathered, petrified log shown above is near the previously photographed features. There is much petrified wood in the Bisti Wilderness, so apparently this was a lush forest area many years ago.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Another portion of a petrified log with scattered pieces of weather petrified wood around it. This is very common in this area.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
The photo above puts the petrified long into context with the other local features here.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
One possible composition that eliminates the nearby human infrastructure is shown here.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Another interesting looking hoodoo in this area is shown above. Big mouth rock?
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I named the hoodoo above “Snail Rock” for obvious reason.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Another view of “Snail Rock” is above.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
More petrified wood protruding from the ground.
North Bisti area scouting photo iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A small bridge formed by harder rock overlaying softer, faster eroding rock is shown in the photo above. Such features are common in Bisti.
I will have more scouting information for Bisti North proper in a subsequent post.
[Note: None of these scouting photos are posted on Flickr].
My son and I scouted an area in the southern portion of Bisti that he had previously visited and nicknamed “Scalloped Rocks”. This area has a rich variety of oddly shaped rocks and small hoodoos.
“Scalloped Rocks” area in South Bisti. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I just happened to be in a good location to snap a photo of my son framed by these rock forms, while we hiked around this area looking for potential photographic compositions.
“Scalloped Rocks” area in South Bisti. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Small eroded hills with rocks balanced on their peaks near the “Scalloped Rocks” area in south Bisti are in the photo above.
“Scalloped Rocks” area in South Bisti. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
The slender hoodoo and attractive rock formation is typical of this area. (Or is that an alien being next to its space ship? Perhaps, as one reader has suggested, the isolation in this wilderness may be warping my mind and leading to wild imaginings).
“Scalloped Rocks” area in South Bisti. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
There are many rock forms similar to those shown in this post and many other interestingly shaped rocks in this area. I liked the potential of this area, so we will plan to visit here again either at sunrise or sunset on one or two of our days here.
[None of the photos in this post are on my Flickr page].
After a strenuous previous day and getting to bed late with no firm plans for where to go for early morning photos, I decided to sleep in a bit and scout the area again during the morning and afternoon for possible locations for sunset photos.
After breakfast, I walked the trail to the visitor center looking around for possible photo locations along the way. Since I had hiked a substantial portion of the Guadalupe Peak Trail the previous day, I figured that I had earned the right to purchase and display a pin from the park in my collection, so I picked up the pin and inquired about the road into the Salt Basin, hoping to get time to visit the gypsum sand dunes in the western portion of the park. No one there had any update on the condition of the long clay road into that portion of the park. After thinking about this, I decided against attempting to get into the Salt Basin on this trip. I only had that afternoon and the next morning to spend in the park and the Salt Basin area is a day use area only, meaning no overnight camping or parking there. For sunrise photos, I would have to get up early the next morning and drive quite a way to get to the access road and then there was no way to know if I would be able to drive the last portion of the road and I would have no idea of where to go, anyway. For sunset photos, I ran the risk of losing my already paid for second night in the RV site, where the slots are on a first come basis; but there seemed to be no way to show that a site was already taken, if no vehicle was parked there. This eliminated the gypsum dunes for sunset photos.
Upon returning to my vehicle, I decided to check out the Tejas Trail from which I thought I might be able to get late day shots with golden hour light as I had observed it the previous evening on the mountainside to the east of the trail.
The lower portion of the Tejas Trail is much easier than the Guadalupe Peak Trail. Again I hiked with only my Camelbak with water, snacks, GPS (for safety and for recording waypoints at possible photo sites) and iPhone. I looked for possible photo sites along the trail, making a number of iPhone scouting shots. These shots were all taken around mid-day to early afternoon, so the light was harsh with the sun almost directly overhead, so there were not even any shadows to give the photos depth.
I am presenting a few of those scouting photos in this post with comments regarding the ideas for later DSLR images and some notes on editing photos.
Someone from McAllen, TX left this mark on a tree along the Tejas Trail in Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
This first image is an example of what is seen much too often and illustrates what one should not do in our national parks. Someone just could not resist defacing one of the trees along the trail.
An old tree trunk with highlights along the Tejas Trail in Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
Even with mid-day light, it is sometimes possible to get interesting images. The one above is a portion of a gnarly, weathered, fallen tree, mostly in the shade of another tree with sunlight dappling across it. This is a jpeg image, so the editing is limited; but I’ve tweaked it a bit in Adobe Lightroom, then applied additional editing in DXO Nik software. I typically like to add several filters in Color Efex Pro 4, depending upon the photo, with a slight touch of brilliance, detail extraction, sometimes a graduated neutral density and a slight skylight filter. One has to be careful not to over do it with these filters. Sometimes, I will note that a favorite filter is just too much and I either have to tone it down or eliminate it.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
I hoped to get sunset light on the features in the mountain side, but I also needed something in the foreground and/or framing objects. So I experimented with these concepts as I walked along the trail. I applied a little lens fall off vignetting in the above image to tone down some of the unattractive foreground and to reduce the plain sky.
A scouting photo along Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
Another foreground/framing possibility is illustrated here. Again, I used a little lens fall off vignetting to reduce the foreground clutter and to add a focusing effect into the image.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo.
The image above has a vignetting filter, that I do not often use, applied in Nik Color Efex Pro 4. I thought it worth experimenting with in these flat, bland photos. I think this one serves quite well in this case. It tones down the foreground clutter, reduces the plain sky and focuses on the main subject.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
I kept hiking along the trail, trying to get closer to this particular feature on the mountainside, hoping to find a good vantage point to photograph it later in the day. Here, again, I’ve added vignetting to reduce the foreground clutter and focus the eye on the main subject.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
The boulder in the lower right anchors the foreground in this image and I think with it located diagonally from the peak in the upper left, helps to give this image some depth and visual tension. Vignetting is used again to reduce the unattractive clutter around the edges and guides the eye into the image. The vignette center can be moved and in this case, it has been moved slightly to the left.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo.
This is just an experiment with a monochrome version of the previous image. Sometimes harsh light images can be more appealing images in monochrome. In this case, the lack of shadows results in too flat an image to be interesting.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
Just another experimental foreground for the prominent feature in the mountainside. The Cholla is weathered and not very attractive; but there is at least a hint of clouds developing in the sky.
A scouting photo along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe NP. iPhone Photo
Ah, if I could find this at sunset, I think I would get a good image!
