This monochrome version of an iPhone photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page July 25, 2024. The bright white clouds behind the arch draws the eye to the arch. Against a clear, bland sky, a photo of this arch would be much less interesting, maybe even boring.
I called this natural rock feature “The Head”, because it looks like a head on a neck looking across the broad valley into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, maybe thinking it would be cooler to be in those mountains, under a blanket of snow, rather than stuck down here forever.
This is a continuation of photography in my local area during the Texas spring wildflower season. I photographed handholding my camera with the usual Texas wind moving the flowers around. I tried to use a sufficiently high shutter speed to freeze the wind induced motion and my hand shake, shooting in burst mode, hoping to get useable images. This resulted in many images to sort through and many that I had to pass over. Even so, some of the images that I elected to process and present publicly, are not entirely satisfactory.
When I was a very young, my playmates and I smashed these “Buttercups” into each others noses, covering them with yellow pollen. It is fortunate, none of us had severe allergies.
Texas is famous for its spring wildflower season. It starts in the south in March and progresses northward as the weather warms. Here in northeastern Texas, the season usually arrives in April with flowers peaking around the middle of April.
This spring has been warmer than normal (if normal is even a thing anymore, due to climate change) and the wildflowers began to show up in late March and peaked well before the middle of April.
Some years, my schedule causes me to miss the best portion of the wildflower season here, but this year, I took time to get out on several occasions to view and photograph the wildflowers.
The Bluebonnet is the Texas state wildflower and these abound in the spring in fields and along highway medians and borders. There are many other wildflower varieties, with the Indian Paintbrush, being maybe the second most prevalent in many locations. I’m more partial to the paintbrush for its color and shape. So even in masses of bluebonnets, I am drawn to the paintbrush.
The mass of tall yellow wildflowers (mostly cropped out of this image) at the top of the image above is an invasive Mediterranean species that is threatening to crowd out native wildflowers.
I returned to the Yellow Mounds area of Badlands National Park for sunset golden hour photography on my third full day in this area.
Yellow Mounds, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
I had to watch closely to keep my shadow out of a number of my late day images. Looking closely, one can see the shadow of that foreground Rabbit Bush on the far side of the ravine.
Yellow Mounds 2, Badlands National Park, South DakotaYellow Mounds 3, Badlands Np, South DakotaYellow Mounds 4, Badlands NPBadlands and Grasslands, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
I had decided to shoot at one of the overlooks in Badlands National Park my first morning here, but when I arrive at that destination, I did not like the view and proceeded down the roadway to another pullout. That pullout was intended as an overview of an area to the north, but I climbed a grassy slope on the opposite side of the roadway, anticipating better sunrise lighting on the features on that side of the roadway. That is, if there was a sunrise this heavily overcast morning, after a storm came through during the night.
Sky NotchOvercast RidgeDark MorningInto the Badlands
Looks like no golden hour this morning, but the clouds are dramatic.
Into the Badlands 2
With the sun just barely peeking through the heavily overcast horizon, I decided to move on down that roadway and look for other photographic opportunities.
Clearing Storm Clouds over BadlandsHitchhikerPastel MorningMorning SpotlightMorning ColorBadland MorningBadlands MeanderMirrored
The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge campground hosts recommended Mount Scott as a place for sunset photography and so did the rangers in the visitor center, so I drove up the scenic drive to check out the views.
The steep drive up Mount Scott passed by large boulder fields and scenic views across the Oklahoma landscape. I stopped at a number of pull outs to check out the local views.
View From the slope of Mount Scott, iPhone Scouting PhotoLichen on Mount Scott Granite, iPhone Scouting Photo
Many of the granite boulders here are covered with yellow and grey lichen, forming interesting patterns on the rock faces.
Mount Scott Granite, iPhone Scouting Photo
There are massive granite rock faces along the route to the top of Mount Scott.
Yellow Wildflowers and Yellow Lichen, Mount Scott Granite, iPhone Scouting PhotoShoe Rock, Mount Scott Granite, iPhone Scouting Photo
I’ve labeled this photo “Shoe Rock”, since I can see a shoe shape in the rock on the bottom left.
Blocky Rocks and Sky, Mount Scott Granite, iPhone Scouting Photo
When I reached the parking lot on the top of Mount Scott, I initially walked around the perimeter of the lot, looking out over the views. I was discouraged to see much litter in the area around the parking lot. I picked up a few plastic bags and put them into my trash. I did not see any trash receptacles in the area. When I am shooting photographs in such public areas, I often have to remove trash from the scene, prior to shooting.
The Duck, Mt. Scott Tree Remnant, iPhone Scouting PhotoView from Mt. Scott, iPhone Scouting Photo
From the parking lot, I worked my way down and into the area just below the parking area.
Mt. Scott Tree, iPhone Scouting Photo
This sprawling tree offered a number of photographic opportunities.
Artistic Sprawl, Mt. Scott Tree, iPhone Scouting PhotoPom Pom Tree, Mt. Scott Tree, iPhone Scouting Photo
After this brief scouting of the area, I decided that I did not like all of the human infrastructure that would be visible in wide angle images across this area. I decided not to return here, during this short visit; but I still wanted to explore more, in case I changed my mind or came back another time. I retrieved my DSLR with 24-70mm lens from my vehicle and began a more extensive exploration.
With a final destination of Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I needed stops in route to break up the long road trip. I searched the maps of the states I would travel through to get to the Badlands for possibilities. The first place that I noted in Oklahoma was the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, which is only a few hours drive from my home base. I searched online for information about the refuge and looked for photos taken in the refuge. The results of that research convinced me that I should spend a couple of nights in the refuge RV campground.
Prior to this visit, I had no idea that such a place was so close by and that there were actually old granite mountains in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Since I was traveling just after the busy summer season, there were plenty of RV sites from which to choose. After consulting the online campground map, I chose a site that looked like it was conveniently located near the restroom facility and near hiking trails from the campground.
It turned out that my campsite was just across a campground road from the campground hosts. I stopped by to chat with the hosts, let them know that I had arrived, get updates on the campground rules and conditions and get their advice on locations for sunset and sunrise photography.
I find that most non-photographers have completely different concepts about sunset/sunrise photography than do photographers. Still it is good to get local knowledge, especially for first visits to a location. After checking out the locations on the refuge map of the hosts’ suggestions, I decided that I should check out the area around the campground first and scout the suggested areas the following day.
I walked around the campground to get my bearings, find the trails originating in the campground and check out those trails. The refuge map is sketchy. Others that I encountered during my exploration of the large refuge area, expressed the same frustration with the refuge map.
Hole In One, Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
There were pretty wildflowers growing in the campground area.
Spider Like Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
After some effort and hiking much farther around the campground, than should have been necessary, I found the trail that I wanted to explore. The trailhead was visible from my campsite, but the trailhead was not marked! There were also branches along the trail, some branches clearly traveled trails, some branches not so clearly used and it was not even clear that those branches were actually trails and there were no markings along the trails.
It was not an area that one could get lost in, during daylight at least, so I did not mind exploring and I eventually found my way to my chosen destination.
One branch of the trail went around nearby Quanah Parker Lake. After hiking portions of that trail, I could see no good views for sunset photography, so I chose a branch that went away from the lake. That branch took me through woods to the other side of the lake, which looked more promising for photography.
Quanah Parker Lake, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were plentiful Prickly Pear Cacti in this area.
Prickly Pear Spikes, iPhone PhotoLooking towards Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
In addition to checking out the lake, I was interested in the map feature referred to as Little Baldy. I was not really sure what to expect of Little Baldy nor where exactly it was, given the sketchy map, but I figured I would know it when I saw it.
On the way to Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were many granite rocks and boulders scattered around, so I experimented with using those as foreground objects and tried to visualize how the scenes would look at sunset and sunrise.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
When I spotted Little Baldy, I explored around and up its slope, trying to pick vantage points from which to shoot at sunset today and for sunrise the following morning.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting PhotoView from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Shooting with the sun low in the sky, one’s shadow often becomes a problem to deal with. Sometimes a desired composition just can’t be obtained without one’s shadow and compositional adjustments have to be made.
View from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Now that I know where I want to be at sunset, I just have to figure out the timing for departing my campsite and getting into place prior to sunset. I’ve now got a good idea of the most direct path from my campsite to my intended location, so all I have to do is time the hike. Doing so as I returned to my campsite, it turned out that the hike is only about 10-15 minutes. That is really convenient and means that I can return to camp after sunset shooting without hiking in the dark and I can even hike back for sunrise photos and not have to hike in morning darkness, either.
We left Hotchkiss headed towards home, driving CO92 to US 50 on the first leg of this journey.
Don’t Fence Me In
This is a scenic drive following a creek and its canyon that feeds into the Gunnison River, then tracks near the Gunnison River as it flow towards the Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Canyon and SkyCanyon and WildflowersIndian Paint BrushWildflowers
At one of the large pull outs along this route, a group of motorcyclist pulled in. One of them asked me to take a group photo on one of their phones. Afterwards, I asked permission to get a group photo for my blog. I was assured that none of them were in a witness protection program or had ex-spouses searching for them.
Riders of the Western Range
It turned out that most of this group are from DFW, Texas and the young couple on the right are from Tupelo, Mississippi, with the female an alumni of my college (Ole Miss).
Their handles, from left to right, are: Jax, Bab, Blackout, Wheezy, Bronco, Sparky, Tinkle, Demon Dawg, and Helkat.
Thank you all for allowing me to include your group photo in my blog,
