White Sands

White Sands

Early in last year's trip I headed south from Albuquerque to White Sands. A very interesting place with some wild geology. The 'sand' is really gypsum, the stuff used to make drywall. It peculates out of the ground, carried by ground water. The stuff is actually wet and sticks to everything. Because it's wet it doesn't blow around much so the dunes are relatively stationary. But it does act like sand in many ways so you can see these nice waves that form when the wind blows. Really interesting place and I recommend a visit if you're in the area of southern New Mexico.

I wanted to get some sunset shots but the clouds didn't want to cooperate. Shooting into the sun with the white sand tends to wash everything out and that's what happened this time. When the weather isn't helpful I start looking for interesting features to study so the trip isn't a total waste. I found these interesting waves across the dunes, orientated just perfectly to the setting sun. I love the symmetry and how the alternating sun and shade spots emphasize that regularity. Sometimes there's beauty in the most simple things.

Made with a single exposure, run through Lightroom to bring out the colors. Hope you enjoy.

White Sands - 35mm,f/18,1/2500 sec,ISO 3200,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Balanced Rock, Arches NP

Politics ... not for the faint of heart

I'm not a big fan of Trump. I think I've said that before but will continue to repeat it until he's gone. Unfortunately, if he leaves before term's end we get an even bigger disaster ... Pence. I think Trump picked him as a shield ... shoot Trump and you get this turkey. May just work but who knows. Only people in Indiana, his home state, are happy about his selection because he goes away for a while. He's been a complete wipe-out for that state and they're glad to see him go. Not the best endorsement for national office. Hopefully Trump can keep this bozo under control. We'll see.

Anyway, the Trump administration is about to take office and it will be interesting to see how the country reacts. I'm hoping that a real opposition emerges, not just in the congress but in the streets. Trump won't listen ... he will in fact trash-talk the whole effort ... but it could be a real distraction for him and the congress. His ego is based on stroking and positive feelings and he tends to come off the rails when that warm glow is gone. Even his base will disappear, I suspect, if he and the congress really mess with 'entitlements' (you know, things we paid for but the political class thinks we didn't). But we've entered uncertain times and it's anyone's guess as to the outcome, I personally think this is the beginning of the end for America as any kind of functioning country. The political elites intend to flush the whole thing down the drain and start over. I don't object to that idea but the power at this moment is on the right which isn't a good thing. Regression is not the way to fix this ... going back to the past isn't possible because 1) the past isn't the paradise most of these people long for and 2) the country is much changed from those simpler times. Ask minorities if they pine for the past. Most would probably say no. Even most whites long for a time that never existed. The only way forward is to find a way to coexist. No winners or losers. Everyone has to be part of the solution or it's DOA. But I somehow think our elites can't see this or believe they can somehow keep the whole mess together for a while longer while they bleed the corpse dry. Not going to happen I think.

Balanced Rock

I spent several days this trip at Arches NP near Moab, Utah. The surrounding area is a magnet for all types of off-road activities and the the town is overflowing with dune buggies and dirt bikes. The park is filled with hundreds of sandstone arches and other natural wonders. The geology underlying the park is just as interesting so there's something for everyone. Much of my time was spent around Balanced Rock, a rare piece of geology that really emphasizes the strange nature of the sandstone formations in the area. This rock has been balanced, precariously, on this pedestal for a very long time. Looking at it one expects it to fall at any moment as the center of gravity is not over the pedestal. A small scab of rock seems to be holding the rock in place and it's cracked in many places. I would not be surprised to hear that the rock has fallen. That's one reason I spent so much time there.

I shot many star photos at this rock because it lends itself to the orientation of the milky way. I have several photos of the milky way arching over the rock and I'll show you one in the future. This shot is along the same vein but was taken long before the milky way appeared. It was just at sunset. I was sitting in the parking lot, eating my dinner and talking to several folks who were similarly waiting to do night shots. I saw that the sun was just illuminating the rock and the small butte behind so I took out the 6D with my Samyang 14mm f/2.8 which is the go to lens for night shooting. I was hoping I'd catch a few early stars high in the sky and I did. This is a somewhat different shot in that it breaks all the rules. No thirds, no real compositional elements to speak of, just the night sky and the rock. But it works and I really like it. Hope you enjoy the change of pace.

Oh, by the way, this is a single exposure, run through lightroom to bring out the colors and to remove some of the haze.

Balanced Rock - 14mm,f/4,8 sec, ISO 3200,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Natural Bridge National Park

Cycle #3 Plans...

The next cycle home is in the early planning stages and I thought you'd like to get some details. This year I'll be leaving early as my asthma is already getting much worse. Also, last year I didn't allow enough time for my lungs to heal and I have suffered ever since my return. So I'm planning more like 3 months this year and to leave in early March with a return around June 1. My plan this year is to skip all of southern California and to start somewhere around Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP (south of Big Sur) and slowly make my way up the coast to the Canadian border. I'll spend a few days around San Francisco, visiting some friends and trying to get a good set of images from the Golden Gate and elsewhere. That town is really hard to deal with as its almost impossible to keep people from stealing things from the truck and finding a place to crash at night. 2 years ago I was forced to drive south to Half Moon Bay and sleep in a shopping center to feel safe. Hopefully I can find a better place to overnight this time so I can really concentrate on getting some super shots. I also want to spend time in Crater Lake and other national parks along the coastal range plus maybe get some nice images around Seattle. Then I hope to travel east and hit Glacier NP along with Yellowstone before heading south and back to Albuquerque. I know that snow is especially a problem in Glacier so I may not be able to get much done there but we'll see. Yellowstone is also problematic but I'm hopeful enough will be accessible to make the trip worthwhile. As always, I'll adjust my plans as conditions dictate and get as many images as I can. This year I want to take "timeouts" along the way where I can organize my images and get some downtime to rest. Last year I was overwhelmed with all the personal issues and spent far too much time driving back and forth to Albuquerque to fix them. This put a lot of excess miles on the truck and on me personally. Hopefully not this year. I just want to get my gear and head out, not to return until my travels are over. I'll keep my fingers crossed that's what happens this time around.

Natural Bridges National Park

This is one of those hidden gems that few people know about. It's in the southeast corner of Utah and well worth the drive to see it. Not very big, and only a few standout features but WOW, are they something to see. Unlike the sandstone arches found in Arches NP, these arches are due exclusively to water erosion of hard rock. There's a river (dry most of the time) running through the park and these huge bridges are a direct result of the swirling water slowly eating away the rock until it collapses. What's really nice is you can, if you have the legs, walk down into the river bed and see the rock features up close. There's a very small staff, just a few rangers, and not a lot of visitors so you get the whole place to yourself most of the time. It's definitely worth the drive and a day to see these amazing features.

This is Sipapu Bridge and the surrounding area. The bridge itself isn't obvious but can be seen near the center-right (about 1/3 from the right edge) as an opening in the rock face. Don't feel bad if you can't see it ... I stood at the overlook for a long time trying to find it until someone pointed it out to me. It tends to blend in with the surrounding rock. The big problem is they put the overlook high above the river, on a bluff that's at least a mile from the arch. Not the best place but I understand their reasoning for doing it that way. There's a broad, flat area below the overlook that get's you much closer to the canyon (right on the edge in fact) but you have to negotiate a dry riverbed and walk about a mile to get there. I parked at the picnic area below the overlook and walked down hill until I got to a small bridge over a wash. Get into the wash and walk toward the canyon. You'll see some warn paths off to the right, across the crust, which you should follow. Eventually you emerge onto the flat and then you simply walk along the canyon edge until directly below the overlook. That's where I took this panorama. As always, I set up early and took several sequences as the sun set, then selected the best once I was back on the computer. There are 90 images in this pano, consisting of 5 images per frame. I ran them through Photomatix using the batch processor, adjusting the white and black levels along with strength to get the overall look I wanted. Photoshop was used to create the panorama and I used Lightroom to finish. There were just enough clouds to get an interesting sunset and the canyon speaks for itself. This is all water erosion and it took millions of years to get this far. There are 2 additional bridges, just as interesting, and maybe I'll show them in the future.

Sipapu Bridge - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0