It was another heavily overcast morning in Badlands National Park with sporadic light rain.
Traffic Stop, Badlands NP, September 18, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo through the windshield
These female Bighorns and lambs were in no hurry and did not care that they were holding me up in my quest for early morning photos.
Bighorn, Badlands NP, September 18, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo
Shooting under the heavy overcast, most of my images were dark. I brightened them, but did not want to overdo that and ruin the reality. These images look better on a large screen with proper brightness for viewing images, but may look very dark in this blog post, especially if viewed on a small screen. Some of these images have embedded links to the images on Flickr, where these usually look much better than in this blog.
I shot all of these image at a number of different viewpoints along SD240, the main road through the park. I met a young lady from Michigan, who was also shooting images. We seemed to be stopping at the same places for awhile. She observed that the color in the badlands rocks were more saturated when wet. I told her that she had discovered the reason geologists like to view wet rocks, rather than dry ones.
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.
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.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021Clouds over the Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021Wotan’s Throne, Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
This semicircular feature is called Wotan’s Throne.
Wotan’s Throne, Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021Vishnu 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.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
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.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
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.
We drove to an overlook area on the North Rim for sunrise photos the first morning of our visit. The sky was overcast and the canyon air was hazy. The overcast resulted in intermittent sunrise light. I struggled with how to best present my photo sequences. Should I group them by compositional variations from one spot and show how the light varied from one photo to another, or present them in chronological order. After playing with various scenarios, I decided that chronological order would be the simplest method.
I began taking photos before the sun rose and continued for awhile after sunrise at this first stop of the morning.
Grand Canyon North Rim pre-sunrise, July 17, 2021
The canyon was dark in this pre-sunrise image and I excluded all of the nearby foreground, which from this vantage point consisted mostly of the overhanging rock on the edge of the canyon overlook.
As I alluded to in the previous post, getting interesting foreground in the canyon images was problematic. I had to experiment much with the foreground objects that were available.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Morning Light, July 17, 2021
Pivoting to my right, I included part of the rocky ledge overhang just in front of the overlook. I have mixed feeling about using this foreground and how much to include, so I experimented with compositional variations with the rock ledge as foreground.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
I moved to the far right side of the overlook for this next image, including some of the rocky overhang in the foreground and part of the rock layer a few feet below the rim.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
Moving around a bit more on the far right of the overlook area, I included a small tree in the left foreground.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
Moving back to the left front of the overlook, I included more of the rock ledge in the image above.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
Then moving to the right a little, I’ve included the end most part of the overhanging rock ledge with a gap between portions of the ledge. I think this might work a little better, but it still looks like these foreground objects are more of a distraction than an interesting part of the photos.
Grand Canyon North Rim, Early Light, July 17, 2021
Finally, the very end part of the rock ledge in the foreground.
I think by now it is clear how I struggled with the foreground objects here and the compositional variations are limited at such overlooks. I’m not highly pleased with any of these images, but these do look much better on a large screen.
The sunrise light was still mostly muted in these images. The next part will have some break through sunrise light bringing out more of the features and colors in the canyon rock layers.
My son and I were out early again in Bisti waiting for sunrise. We had to hike about 2 miles to get to our destinations each day of our visit, so for sunrise we were initially hiking in the dark on the way out. After sunset photos, we could sometime hike all the way back to the parking lot without light, but sometimes we needed our headlamps for at least a portion of the hike back.
Pre-Sunrise, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AMPre-Sunrise, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
We were back in the area of the “Michelin Tire/Nefertiti Crown” and “Shark or “Surfboard” (our nicknames) hoodoos and I managed to get a few decent compositions here, while waiting for sunrise.
Bisti Jumble, Pre-Sunrise in Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
I usually try to compose photos with multiple objects, such as those in the above photo, so that there is separation between all the objects, but sometime I could find no way to completely separate them.
Behind the Shark, Pre-Sunrise, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AMNefertiti’s Crown Hoodoo, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
I shot the Nefertiti Crown hoodoo again in sunrise light, but with a wider angle view this time. Nefertiti’s shadow is still falling on the “Shark”.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
From the point of view in the above photo, I got the shadow from the low, tilted hoodoo in the foreground that it cast upon the base of the Shark Hoodoo. Note that Nefertiti’s Crown Hoodoo looks completely different from this point of view, hence my initial nickname of “Lumpy Hoodoo”.
Morning Breaks, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
“Morning Breaks” is my favorite from this batch and I had to use multiple exposures blended via HDR software to get this one. Although, “Behind the Shark” is a close second and “Bisti Jumble” comes in close behind that.
The first image in this post is an HDR made from multiple exposures, since it would be impossible to get a single exposure with detail in the foreground and background here.
Nefertiti Crown, Bisti, June 6, 2021, AM
My son called this the Michelin Tire Hoodoo, but one of my Flickr friends and former work colleague said this looked like Nefertiti’s crown and I like that description. We referred to the flat wing like hoodoo in the background as either a shark or a surf board.
Shark Hoodoo, Bisti, June 6, 2021, AM
The shark hoodoo was difficult to photograph and it was always partially in the shadow of the Nefertiti Crown Hoodoo.
Lumpy Hoodoo, Bisti, June 6, 2021, AM
From a distance, seeing this hoodoo for the first time, I named it Lumpy, but a closer view makes it look more like some big mouth creature and it is actually the same as Nefertiti’s Crown from a different side. The features here can take on very different aspects, depending upon the view point.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
A group of distinct hoodoos in pre-sunrise light (above). The feature on the far right looks like an alien creature and near the middle are those we called the Triplets. We photographed around this location multiple times from various view points at different time of the day.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AMBisti, June 7, 2021, AM
Another view of the Alien and the Triplets. I like the foreground in this view.
Sunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMLight and Shadow, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMEarly Morning in Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMLight Beam, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMBisti, June 4, 2021, AM
As the sun gets a little higher in the morning sky, the colors begin to wash out.
Long Hoodoo Shadow, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AM
Even in the brighter light, there can be interesting shadows cast by the hoodoos.
Most of the rocks and geological features in the Bisti Wilderness are dull under bright sunlight, but in the early morning and late day light these features seem to come alive with color. At these times one can get landscape photographs with soft pastels or bright, golden hues.
Golden Hour Begins, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMGolden Hour, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AM
We were in the sand dunes before sunrise of the first morning of our March 2021 visit. Hiking in sand requires some effort, but at least during the winter, some of the sand is frozen on the surface, making it a little easier to walk on.
Photographing the dunes in the early morning has the advantage of overnight winds wiping away or muting the footprints of the previous days’ visitors. Still one might have to hunt for places to avoid remaining footprints. Caution is also required in approaching an area to photograph, so one’s own footprints are not ruining the scene.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
Those lumpy looking features in the left center of the image above are frozen parts of the sand dunes and make good foreground objects in the vastness of the dunes.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
These dunes cover a vast area and we are barely in the edge of the dunes and well below the highest peak.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
It was good to have early morning clouds over the mountains to the east of the dunes.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
I varied my compositions by moving around slightly or carefully approaching foreground objects, so as not to trample the natural patterns in the sand as the sunrise light progressed over the dunes.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
The photo above is nearly the same composition as the first image of this post, but the light has changed with the rising sun and the shadows are longer and more pronounced.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021
Moving just a few feet can make a dramatic difference in an image in the dunes, as does the changing light conditions.
We arose early on the morning of July 30 to get out and into position before the sunrise. I again went to the south side of the volcanic ridge, but this time just a little below the crest to await the sunrise.
My first composition here included a little too much of the scrubby vegetation in the lower right corner of the image. So I changed the composition a little and then cropped the image more to get this out of the photograph.
