Posts in Category: rock
Tarantula!
Tarantula. Slot Canyon. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, Cochiti New Mexico
We did not see much wildlife at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument near Cochiti New Mexico when we visited last month…a Townsend’s Solitaire, a Jackrabbit, and, as we walked up Slot Canyon, this lovely Tarantula. Now I know there is a slight risk in positing this image, as some of my followers surely will react negatively, but the Tarantula is, as I see it, a lovely bug. As spiders go, it is furry and friendly looking. It is, of course, also very large. This one was maybe 5 inches leg-tip to leg-tip. One of the (many) things I love about my wife Carol is that it did not send her clawing her way up the side of the canyon. We both watched it scuttled along the Canyon floor working its way around us on its way down. Tarantulas live solitary lives, mostly out of sight, but they do come out in search of mates in season. This one may have been on that errand. And though they are big, they rarely bite (they have to be really provoked to bite a human) and the bite is more irritating than harmful. People (not people I know personally, but people nonetheless) keep them as pets. I was happy to see this one, free and on about its Tarantula business, in Slot Canyon.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Falls on the Batson. Happy Sunday!
I went to Emmons Preserve, and down the trail to the falls on the Batson River in particular, to look for Ebony Jewelwings…the darting, dancing, electric sometimes blue, sometimes metalic green, set-winged Damselflies that prefer rapid water…but of course the rapid waters have their own attraction. The place is beautiful…almost other-worldly…elven…with the still shadowed pools connected by falling runs of peat-brown water, the moss and rocks, the dappled light through the covering trees…a feast for the senses. I try, again and again, to capture it…but the true essence of the place is very difficult to catch.
This is a three exposure in-camera HDR with the exposures separated by 6 EV, with the Sony NEX 5T and the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. I put the camera right down at water level and only inches from the falling water. Nominal exposure, as determined by the Program, was ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/60th. The file was further processed for HDR effect in Snapseed on my tablet. And it is getting there. It is satisfyingly close to the visual impression…or at least to the emotional impression…of the place.
And for the Sunday Thought: there are lots of places, like the falls on the Batson River, that have such a rich emotional impact…such a rich spiritual impact…that any attempt at photography is bound to fall short. That does not, and should not, keep us from trying. We reach, and in reaching, pay homage to the creative spirit of love that shapes both the beauty of the world, and our sense of beauty. Like the Ebony Jewelwings, we dance…our intention dances above the falling water of creation…and we take pleasure in the dance…as we were made to do. Such beauty can not be caught and held…but it can be pointed to…celebrated in the beautiful gesture of the attempt.
Ah the Winter Shore
We are expecting 8-12 inches of fresh snow, and up to a quarter inch of ice, in the next 24 hours, so I went out yesterday while the sun was shining on a short photo-prowl. The light has changed over the past week. There is more warmth in the sun, and it does interesting things with the snow. Here, where the wind off the sea has thined and sculpted what was about 4 inches of fresh snow on Monday, the contrast with the warm tones of the exposed rock makes a striking composition. The clouds over the sea complete the picture. I walked out along Gouch’s point through drifts in my winter Crocs to get the shot, but it was worth a slightly damp ride home.
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. 24mm equivalent. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f16. Processed in Snapseed for HDR effect on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Fine tuned in Photo Editor by dev.macgyver.
Water’s Way
I return frequently to the little stretch of the Batson River protected by the Kennebunkport Land Trust as Emmons Preserve. It is a peaceful spot where the sound of the water descending over rock ledges soothes the soul and let’s the spirit surface. Or so it does for me.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB750F. Since the camera has no flip out LCD I had to hold the camera low and shoot blind. It required some trial and error, but the stream, though running musically, was not going anywhere, and I had time. 🙂
Processed on the 2013 Nexus 7 in PicSay Pro.
Silky Water: Happy Sunday!
Back in the day of slow film emulsions, taking a photo of a waterfall, or water falling over ledges as in this image, especially in deeply shaded glens where waterfalls are likely to be found, resulted in the “silky water effect.” During the long exposure required to capture the image, the moving water painted itself on the emulsion as blur, with all detail submerged in a smooth flow like a cascade of silk. As it happened, the result was very like how some painters rendered falling water, attempting to capture a feeling of motion in the blur. As film speeds and quality increased, it became possible to “freeze” the flowing water, even catching ripples in their run and splashes in mid-air. However, the “silky water effect” never lost its appeal. Photographer’s today go to great lengths, internationally undermining the strengths of their equipment with neutral density filters and the like, to recreate the painterly, traditional, silky water effect.
The engineers at Samsung, when designing the software for their Smart Camera family, included a “waterfall” mode among the Smart Camera Modes. If you have the camera mounted on a tripod, it will take a very long (90 seconds or more) exposure of moving water…resulting in what I would call a “super silky water effect.” I find that the longer I am away from the actual scene…as the sound of the rushing water and the play of the play of the light in the ripples and falls recedes into memory…the more I like the effect. I have to break away from memory and look at the image for what it is, not what was there. For sure, this is not the way I see rushing water…but I can understand the attraction of the image, as an image. I can understand that that rush and tumble and joyful confusion of water in constant motion can be reduced to the calm rendering of silk, and that it captures a different, and equally valid, emotional response to the falling water than I might otherwise feel. I get it. I am still uncertain as to whether I totally approve. 🙂
And that leads to the Sunday Thought. Silky water is not real. It is a photographic artifact, or the imaginative impression created by a painter’s mind and brush. And yet it captures a real emotion…or at least one among many emotional responses to reality. It speaks to a calm in the center of confusion that appeals to us all. In a way, it is, from a traditional point of view, the more spiritual response…a seeing through to the assumed essence of what is behind the rush of our daily reality.
However, I can’t help but feel that it is, at least a bit, a cheat. I think there is as much spirit in the rush and tumble and churn of detail that is our immediate response to falling water (and to life). I appreciate the peace of the long view, but I am not willing to give up the excitement of the moment. My instinct is that they are both elements of the spiritual view. Joy in the confusion. Joy in the underlying calm.
Interestingly enough, by happy accident (if you believe in such things), Google+ assembled two images of the same tumble of water into an animated gif…one taken in waterfall mode, and one taken in Rich Tone / HDR. Hopefully your browser will display it properly. Joy in the confusion. Joy in the underlying calm. Happy Sunday!
Palm Canyon, Anza Borrego Desert
This is the lower reaches of Palm Canyon at Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs California. As you can see, the desert landscape is littered with palm trunks that have, over centuries, washed down from the oasis above. In the dry desert air, they last just about forever. The number of them lying about might be a matter of concern to anyone hiking up the canyon…can there really be any palms left standing at the oasis?…but I can testify that the grove is healthy. This seems to be a completely natural accumulation of trunks.
There is a stark beauty to the Anza Borrego landscape. The mountains, practically bare, well broken, deeply eroded yet still sharp, rise up imposingly on either side of the canons…the reddish tones of the stone contrasting sharply with the blue blue sky.
Canon SX50HS. 24mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR Mode. Recorded exif: f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
White River (really)
On the way out from Seattle to Mt Rainier National Park and Sunrise, I drove for miles along the White River. There were precious few spots where it was safe to stop for a view of the river, but there were pull-outs at both ends of Federation Forest State Park. This shot looks vaguely east toward Chinook Pass.
The “white” in White River, and the odd look to the river in the image, comes from fine particles of clay suspended in the rushing water. It makes a difference from the tannin tea colored brook waters and crystal clear mountain streams of the east (and the Rockies for that matter).
There was no avoiding the haze in the air, which solidified almost to mist over the darker trees up river, but it is still, as I see it, a wonderful mountain scene.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. About 58mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. I also used a Graduated Filter Effect from the top to increase clarity in the mountains slightly.
12/16/2011: Church Rock Revisited
I already shared one set of images from the hike my wife Carol and my daughter Kelia and I did in the red rocks near Gallup New Mexico, but it is worth a revisit. And besides, I still have a lot of images from that hike. In this shot you can see the drop off to the canyon floor from the the next ledge of hard stone above it. This shelf is being slowly worn back toward Church Rock itself. Above the ledge the character of the canyon changes…it becomes narrow and more resembles the famous slot canyons of Arizona.
And the way the water carves the rock is always interesting. This is a pot-hole, dug in solid stone by a swirl of water over centuries.
And as always, the red of the rock contrasts dramatically with the the high blue New Mexico sky…especially with a few wispy clouds to set it all off.
Church Rock in Red Rocks State Park is a fascinating place for a hike.
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3 EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) 24mm equivalent field of view, 3) 28mm, 4) 60mm.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/17/2011: Church Rock
While in New Mexico for the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, we visited old friends in Gallup, where we lived for 12 years before moving to Maine 16 years ago. The formation in the distance is Church Rock, in Red Rocks State Park, just east of Gallup in the amazing red Chinle sandstone formations of the area.
It was a brilliant November New Mexico day, cool enough for hiking with a jacket, with just enough clouds in the deep blue sky for interest, and with the clear light across the landscape that only the seems to fall in the high elevations of the Land of Enchantment in the fall. My wife Carol and daughter Kelia along the trail. Kelia was born a few miles from this formation, but we moved when she was 1 month old, so this was her first experience of the enchantment.
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and -1/3EV exposure compensation. The images show off the versatility of the zoom on this camera, and the accuracy of the exposure system. These are not HDRs though they could pass for the more subtle variety. 🙂
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
8/4/2011: Rocking the Beach
Depending on the season and the tide, this corner of the beach where the Mousam River meets the sea is either pebble or sand, as the pebble bed is alternately exposed and covered. This summer there is an extensive reach of pebble showing, here somewhat exaggerated by the low angle and the tight crop on the sky. The sky was blank blue…not a cloud in sight…so there was no temptation to keep it in the image any more than was necessary to provide scale. I like the somewhat radiating lines of the pebbles, combed by the tide, and the lone lady in the camp-chair on the right. (This was very early on a Saturday morning. Even by the time I left, the beach was a lot more populated than it is here.)
The second view features one of the larger pebbles…a rock by almost anyone’s standards…in an even tighter crop.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting. Shot with the flip out LCD out, from a few inches above the pebbles and sand. Both shots.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
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