Sunrise on the sand dunes

If you have followed my blog you probably already know how much I enjoy being in Death Valley Ca.  The early light on the dunes is magical, and to watch it change so quickly has always amazed me. When I worked with a large format camera and film, I knew I had time for three or four possible setups as the sun came up.  It was a lot of work to fine the location and choose the proper fixed lens to fill the frame with the area of interest. I always worked with black and white film and would use a spot meter to determine the exposure. Most of the time I would meter the shadow area and base that value for my exposure.  I used a red filter many times to increase contrast, and quite often would over develop the negative to gain even more contrast.  The dunes at sunrise can fool your eye into thinking that there is a lot of contrast in the scene.  In reality there are about four stops of light between the bright sunlit side of the dune and the shadow side.  The reason being that there is so much light being reflected back into the shadows from the adjacent dunes.  Working with large format equipment alway posed a challenge when being on the dunes.  Extreme care must be taken to prevent dust and the sand from getting into the film holder or the camera.  I always worked in a slow and methodical process to insure my negatives would be properly exposed and as dust free as possible.  The above image was taken with a digital camera and much of the processing of the image is done long after the image was taken.  Working with a zoom lens means I don't have to change lenses as often and gives me the opportunity to create many more interesting compositions at sunrise.  I have made many fine images of the dunes with a digital camera, but appreciate the ones I made with a large format camera more, knowing the hard work that was involved in achieving them.

Traveling the road from Jalpan

Traveling in central Mexico can take you into some beautiful mountains. My wife and I spent many days wondering around these wonderful places in search of small towns and historic locations. On this day we were returning from spending a few days in the mountain town of Jalpan.  I stopped to make a photo of the rugged terrain and noticed a road running up through the mountains. It can be seen in the upper right side of the above photograph. We found the road and went to a beautiful mountain town called San Joaquin.  It is a long and winding road that takes you to the top of the mountain where the town is located, and that is where the road ends. We found San Joaquin to be a delightful town and have made several return trips. We have a friend that lived full time in his RV in Mexico for many years and wrote a wonder blog of his adventures. I had read on one his blog post of his adventures of traveling up and down the mountain to visit the town of San Joaquin. After making the trip in a car I am amazed he ventured out to a high mountain area with his rig.  Reading his blog of traveling in Mexico in an RV gave us the desire to make the trip. Those days we some of the best in our travels. Many thanks to George the "Vagabond Supreme" and his blog.


https://www.visitmexico.com/en/magicaltowns/center-region/jalpan-de-serra

https://www.visitmexico.com/en/magicaltowns/center-region/jalpan-de-serra

Rock Art

Being in the Saguaro National Park in July is probably not the smartest time for a visit, but you can be certain you will have the place to yourself.  We were in Tucson Arizona this past summer and decided to revisit the Saguaro National Park.  It is a fascinating place that we have visited many times over the years. This was our first visit in the middle of summer and the heat was scorching.  The day we made the short hike to these petroglyphs it was 115*.  As I climb among the boulders in search of the petroglyphs I kept my eye open for rattlesnakes that most certainly were hiding in the rocks. Setting up a tripod and composing an image in the intense heat was exhausting.  I was able to spend about an hour before I felt the heat overwhelming me. After I made my last image I turned to step down over the rocks and had one roll out from under me. I went down head first and hit hard but somehow kept my camera held high and it never smashed into a rocks or the ground. Certainly the good lord was looking after me.  I had a pair of new glasses that flew off my head and went down into the deep pockets among the rocks. I sat up and dusted myself off and took inventory of my situation. I had some scrapes and marks on the tripod but not much more. I thought about my glasses down in the dark hole before me and decided that they could stay there.  Sometimes it is easy to forget where you are when making photographs or become affected by the elements you are working in. I was fortunate to not have broken a bone or damaged my equipment with this fall.  I used a 17~40 zoom lens with a polarizing filter when making this photograph.

http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm
http://www.yelp.com/biz/saguaro-national-park-west-tucson

Garrapata Beach

    Sea Stack at Garrapata Beach

    Doud Creek at Garrapata Beach


Garrapata Beach is located north of Big Sur on route 1 of the California coast. It is a majestic place where the Pacific ocean crashes into the rocks and cliffs along the shoreline.  I photographed here a few times in my travels and have always come away with new and interesting photographs. These images were taken near the end of the day as the sun was setting.  The climb down to the ocean is not hard but can be a bit difficult getting out once it is dark.  Photographing in these locations can be hazardous and caution should be used when venturing into these areas.  I was told about rouge waves by a photographer friend of mine that lives in Monterey Ca. He cautioned me about a rare wave that comes ashore that is much bigger than all of the other waves coming in. I had a frightening experience with one just a few days later. I always place my camera bag and gear up high on the rocks as I walk with my tripod and camera to find the particular composition I am looking for. On one day I had setup my view camera and realized that I had left my filter in my camera bag and walked back to get it. As I was near my bag I heard a roar like a freight train coming and turned to see a large wave coming to shore. I raced to my camera and grabbed the tripod just as the wave broke around my knees. I was fortunate that I was able to get to my camera but even more fortunate that the wave didn't knock me over. I gained a new respect for photographing near the Pacific ocean and came away a bit shaken by the experienced.
These images were made with a Linhof view camera and Tmax100 film.  A 11x14 print was scanned for posting to the blog.

http://www.californiasbestbeaches.com/point_lobos/garrapata_beach.html

The Grottos

This abstract image is of the grottos ice cave located in Colorado just west of Independence Pass on Highway 82.  I was there for the first time in 1990 and made this image. While the image looks very abstract, it is closer to the actual representation of how the cave environment appears.  In making this image I knew that it would require a long exposure on Tri-x film as well as a fairly small aperture to insure a sharp plane of focus.  I used a Zone Vl view camera with a 90 mm lens.  I visited this cave in the fall time when there was very little water to deal with.  I would have to assume that other times of the year this location could be filled with water or ice.  I enjoy finding these locations where the light dances off the walls and is reflected back into the shadows giving a complete range of tones revealing detail in the highlights and shadows.  To handle this contrast range of the scene, I overexposed the negative and then under developed it to reduce the overall contrast range.  This image was scanned from a darkroom print and does not represent the true quality and luminance of the actual print.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5186868.pdf

Angel Wing

In the mid 80's through the early 90's I made several visits to the slot canyons in the four comers region of the Southwest.  My first few trips into the slots were magical.  At the time only a handful of  people were visiting these locations and I had the place pretty much to myself.  I made a return trip about ten years later and was surprised that the canyons had turned into a major tourist attraction.  The first trip I made into the canyon, I had my thirteen year old son with me and we hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck with a local Indian girl and her newborn.  I gave her a few dollars and she offered to return around 4 pm. to pick us up.
The most successful photographer to make photographs in the slot canyons is Bruce Barnbaum.  He is one of the first photographers to venture into the numerous slot canyons of the Southwest.  His work is spectacular and all of it done with a large format camera. Another great photographer that spent years photographing the Southwest was Eliot Porter.  His work with dye-transfer color is unmatched by any print process to date.  I made this image in Lower Antelope canyon in 1994 using a Linhof 4x5 view camera.  It is the last trip I made into the slots in that area. I continued to seek out new narrow canyon locations to photograph that were less visited.  Often times I would be hiking alone and venturing into these remote locations can be a risk.  I always tried to keep my enthusiasm in check as I start my early morning climb down into these canyons.  It is easy to lose track of the time and the distance hiked when in the canyons.  After a few fool hardy mistakes I developed a strategy of four hours hiked in equaled four hours back.  So in the winter months I would be making my return trip around 1 or 2 in the afternoon to be out before dark.  There is always the urge to see what is up and  around the next corner and to push it a little too far.  A few times I found myself struggling to find my exit out of the canyon in the dark.
The Southwest of the U.S. is a remote area of intense beauty.  It is easy to overlook the danger that can exist when exploring this region.  It is important to have a "get back to safety" plan in place before heading into the rugged canyons.

http://www.barnbaum.com/barnbaum/Home.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Porter

Dunes before sunrise

Being on the dunes at Mesquite Flats near Stovepipe Wells before sunrise can produce the opportunity for some interesting images. With the anticipation of the sunrise it is easy to overlook the soft light that exists in the first few minutes of daylight.  It is fun to photograph numerous times in a location and to come away with a different look. I also like the color version of this image because of the amount of blue light that is found in the shadows.  Often times the dunes will appear as orange but in this early morning light they can have an entirely different color cast. Death Valley is a place that I can never seem to get enough of. It is a rugged and empty land with a constant changing light. It is one place that can make several different looking images just by revisiting a location at different times of the day.

http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/stovepipewells.htm