As is my habit, I use my iPhone camera to make images while scouting photo locations and/or sometimes to record in route travel scenes. This Post and others to follow will feature some of the many such photos made during my March trip to California. Some of the photos in these post may be similar to those shot later with my DSLR.
I know there are many people that only use their cell phone cameras for photography, simply because it is convenient and nearly everyone always has a cell phone with a built in camera with them at all times. The cameras in the newer model cell phones are quite good, although there are still limitations. Nonetheless, it is possible to get good photographs with these convenient devices. There are also camera apps that may improve a phone camera’s ability to shoot better images and there are plenty of in phone edit apps to enhance the photos.
Sharing photos taken via a mobile phone is also very easy. It is no mystery why these small, pocketable devices have become so popular with those that just want to shoot a quick photo and share it to social media or via text message or via email.
A snow storm came across the western U.S. at the start of my trip, threatening to delay travel for a day at least; but as it turned out, we only had slow travel over the Rockies through the area that received significant snowfall, after I-70 was opened just before our scheduled road travel.
I awoke at about 3AM my first night in Colorado and peeked out my bedroom window to check the weather and this winter scene filled my view. So naturally, I grabbed my phone and captured a few images through the window.
It is easy to see in these two images how light sensitive the camera sensors in these phones can be. Of course, there was some light from street and house lights and the heavy cloud cover reflected the city light onto the snow, which bounced the light, too. The detail in these 3AM low light photos is still remarkable.
The passenger in a moving vehicle might be able to shoot while moving along at highway speeds with one of these devices. (The driver should pay attention to driving and not use the camera while moving).
This image was made somewhere in Utah, the morning of our second travel day, as the storm seemed to be clearing; although, we continued to see storm warnings along the highway and we had driven through some snow flurries the day before in some higher elevations.
After shooting from an elevated location here, my son and I drove to the parking lot at the official visitor area and hiked down the steep, icy path to the creek level.
There are signs posted at frequent intervals warning visitors of the scalding hot waters of the creek and to stay at least ten feet from the creek bank and from steam vents.
At about this point and westward, Hot Creek is fed by snow melt before the water enters into the portion fed by hot springs. Anglers fish the waters here and to the west. I’m guessing the fish are smart enough to turn around before getting into the scalding hot water area.
I stopped to photograph this lone, bent tree with the mist from the hot water behind it as I was hiking back up the trail to the parking lot. This image, which I almost neglected to even process, was chosen for Flickr’s Explore Page May 30, 2024.
We woke up to a heavy snow cover in our campground the second morning of our visit here. We had been watching the weather forecast and expected snow over a large area, we just could not judge how much would fall at our location, which was a higher elevation than that used in the weather forecasts .
Snow in Bandelier Campground, March 2021, iPhone PhotoSnow in Bandelier Campground, March 2021, iPhone Photo
Judging by the depth of snow on the flat surfaces, it looks like 6-8 inches of cover.
After making a few early morning iPhone photos and taking care of a few housekeeping chores, I began to walk around the campground area with my DSLR.
I managed to isolate a few individual, snow covered trees against the overcast sky.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Tree and Clouds 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Tree and Clouds 2.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Monochrome Tree and Snow.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Skeleton Tree in Snow.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Towering Tree in Snow.
As I walked around, I tried to capture a few small features in the snow covered landscape.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Grass in Snow 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Grass in Snow, Monochrome.
And anything else that looked unique or interesting.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Crawling Snow Covered Tree Creature.
A distant mountainside was visible through the forest and I tried to frame that in a few photographs, but the 24-70mm lens did not allow for close ups of the distant mountains tops.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Distant Mountains 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Distant Mountains 2.
I think the individual trees are the best images that I captured here; but here are a few miscellaneous other images to give a feel for the general look of the snow covered forest area around the campground.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 2.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 3.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 4.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 5.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 6.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Old and Fallen, Old and Standing.
It is good that I got out early to capture the snow, since it began to melt away even as I made my way back to my van. It was essentially all gone by late morning.
After the creek and waterfall trek, I drove along FSR 243 towards FSR 380. There are several places that I had noted, via Google Earth, along FSR 243 as places of possible interest and possible campsites. When passing these locations previously, I was not impressed by the view that I had from the roadway. There had always been a number of campers in these areas and I had seen fly fishermen in the creek. As I passed by the primary location of interest today, there were no others anywhere around, so I decided to check it out.
A dirt road departed FSR 243 at a sharp angle and moderately downhill into a broad, open flat area with plenty of space for multiple unrestricted campsites. I drove to the end of the dirt road and got out to have a look around. Walking to the creek, I immediately saw a number of trout in the shallow water. The bank along the creek was mostly steep with loose soil, but I found a place to safely get down to the edge of the creek and then stepped over to the other side at a narrow place in the creek.
I shot a number of iPhone photos and made a couple of videos of the flowing creek.
Treasure Creek. iPhone photograph.
One can see in the photo above that it is getting very cloudy again.
After awkwardly stepping back across the creek and making my way back to my vehicle, I continued on to FSR 380 and headed westerly.
I stopped along FSR 380 at a place that I had previously spotted and near where I had shot another late day image, when returning from Del Norte.
It had sprinkled light rain sporadically and began again as I was shooting here. It was apparent from the heavy clouds that a storm was brewing over the mountains.
I continued along FSR 380 and it began to rain more heavily. The rain soon turned to slushy ice, then to pellet like snow. I was close to several campsites that I had been keeping an eye on. My coveted location had always had a truck camper in it, whenever I had previously passed by. Today I got lucky. The spot I liked was empty. There was an RV trailer nearby in the same camping area in a spot, which had always been available previously, and I had resolved myself to maybe having to use that space, if it was available today and the truck camper was still here.
Snowy Campsite. iPhone photograph.
After parking in the campsite, I got out to take a photo with the snow coming down. I then waited, hoping that the snow would end and I would be able to shoot photos from this location.
The snow continued long enough for the ground to be thinly covered, but it mostly melted away soon after the snow stopped. As sunset time approached, I walked into an open area with a good view of the valley and the mountains to the southwest.
After the Storm. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 64.
With the cloud cover, I knew there was little chance of a golden hour sunset today.
The storm clouds made up for the lack of a golden hour sunset.
Mountain Peaks and Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 640.
When I first saw this location, I thought it would be best for a sunset shoot; but as I looked around today, consulting my photo app on my iPhone, I realized that this location was better for sunrise than sunset.
Mountain Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/80s, f/16, ISO 800.Late Day Light. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/40s, f/16, ISO 800.
I hung out here shooting until just after sunset.
Cloudy Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.Late Day Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.
My original trip plan had me traveling from Bandelier National Monument to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, then on to my son’s house in the Denver area, where we would make a final decision, based upon weather patterns, for a final destination.
This spring the snow fall in the Rockies has been very heavy with a number of avalanches. With the avalanche danger being high, we did not want to take our normal route across the Rockies into any of our favorite spring trip areas of Utah, New Mexico or Arizona. With another storm coming, we decided that the Bisti Wilderness and possibly Angel Peak in northwestern New Mexico, with a mostly benign weather forecast was the best target for the balance of this trip. So instead of driving to cold Colorado (night temperatures in the 20s), I would drive directly to New Mexico and my son would meet me there, saving me much extra driving.
I briefly looked at a map and chose the shortest route from my location in Bandelier to Farmington, New Mexico. It was a simple route and looked so straight forward, that I did not bother with using a navigation system.
Setting out about mid morning, I began driving along scenic NM Route 4 through mountainous, national forest areas. Shortly after getting underway, it began to snow lightly, then more heavily in the higher elevations, where snow began to accumulate on the roadway and vehicle as the temperature dropped below freezing, requiring me to drive more slowly.
A snowy scene in Bandelier National Forest, New Mexico. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I passed a number of scenic, photogenic areas in the higher elevations, but there were no safe places to pull over. Even though the traffic was very light, I did encounter other vehicles, so I did not take any chances stopping on the roadway. As I got into the lower elevations, where the snow was not accumulating on the roadway, I noted high piles of accumulated snow, indicating how heavy the snowfall has been this year. I pulled out at one view area and took a couple of shots with my iPhone.
A snowy day along NM4 in Bandelier National Forest. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4. The numerous dark spots in this photo are caused by snow melt water drops on the iPhone lens.
The snow limited visibility, so one could see little from the view points.
A snow scene along NM4 in Bandelier National Forest. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4. I did not bother trying to remove the numerous spots caused by snow melt water drops on the iPhone lens from these photos.
I continued along, enjoying the scenic drive. I turned onto route 126 from route 4 at some little mountain community.
I turned onto route 126 from route 4 here.
Route 126 was a curvy, scenic paved roadway, but somewhere along the way, I saw a sign that indicated there was an unimproved, mountain roadway ahead. I had not noted that on my map, but I continued ahead, thinking I had nothing better to do than to check out this area. There were a number of national forest camping areas along both route 4 and route 126, which I made a mental note of for future possibilities.
A short cut that wasn’t. iPhone Photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Just after passing a state fish hatchery, I encountered a “Pavement Ends” sign and a barrier across the roadway. Even had this road been open, I would probably have turned back, since I had no idea of the condition of the unimproved portion of this road.
Route 126 was closed just past the fish hatchery, where the pavement ended.
I turned back here, going back to Route 4 and continued on to US 550 at San Ysidro.
Where I expected to intersect US 550 from NM 126.I planned to get to US 550 at Cuba. Instead, I ended up at San Ysidro.
Had I looked at my map a bit closer, I would have noted the non-paved portion of Route 126 or had I used a navigation system, I would have avoided this unnecessary detour, but I would have missed a scenic drive. So in the end, it was not a big deal. I later encountered someone that had driven the unimproved portion of Route 126 and they said it was a good road and I would have had no problem driving it, had it been open.
I continued onto Farmington via US 550, making a reservation in route for a room in a local motel, so that I could get a proper shower and one night in a big bed, before heading to Bisti, where there were no facilities and I would be staying for a number of days.
A view of the snow clouds over the mountains that I drove through. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Driving along US 550, I got good views of the snow clouds over the mountains that I had driven through. I then saw another storm front coming at me from the north. It is so wide open in this area, that one can see storm fronts from miles away. I drove through windy conditions, then pouring rain, then icy, slushy rain along this route. At some point, there was even enough slushy ice on my vehicle that I got a warning that my blind spot monitor was incapacitated. Other than that, the only other problem was that my anticipated night of rest in a soft bed did not occur. For some reason, I slept very poorly, even though the bed was soft and the crisp, clean sheets felt so good. Maybe I was too used to a more simple sleeping arrangement!
