Tag: Sunrise

Bisti Wilderness, June 2021, Part 10

Pre-Sunrise, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM

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, AM
Pre-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, AM
Nefertiti’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.

More later,

Ken

Bisti Wilderness, June 2021, Part 8

Sunrise, Bisti, June 6, 2021, AM

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, AM
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM

Another view of the Alien and the Triplets.  I like the foreground in this view.

Even more Bisti to come,

Ken

 

 

Colorado 2019 – Gates of Lodore – Sunrise

Since the hike to the sunrise shooting location at the Gates of Lodore was not long, we did not have to get up excessively early, but we still began hiking in the dark this morning.

We were fortunate that we had the moon setting as the sun was rising today.  I made a series of images as the moon set behind the western canyon wall.

Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 0.8s, ISO 2000. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 18mm, f/11, 1/6s, ISO 1600. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm, f/11, 0.8s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

The moon is so much brighter than the foreground that getting a really good moon exposure was difficult, so I did not get any detail in the moon with the long exposure times required for the foreground, even though I was using a graduated neutral density filter.  A combination of the moons movement and/or the wide angle distortion results in an oblong moon, too.  I could have tried to make multiple images with proper exposure for the moon, then for the foreground and merged those, but due to the rapidly changing morning light, I decided against this.  Plus, I am usually not really pleased with the results of such attempts.

I continued to shoot as the sunrise light progressed down the canyon wall and the clouds moved through the morning sky.

Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm, f/11, 1.6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 19mm, f/11, 1.0s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

On the hike back towards the campsite, we made a detour down to the river to check out possible compositions closer to the river.

Green River near Gates of Lodore. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/13s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

This image with the canyon wall reflection in the river is the only decent image I managed to get there.  If this image is viewed on Flickr, click on the Flickr image to see the spider on the grass frond on the right side of the image. (Not all of these images are posted to Flickr).

The next stop on this trip is Echo Park, also in Dinosaur National Monument.

Until then,

Ken