Big Sur Again

Sometimes bad things happen...

Toward the end of my cycle I decided to head south from Albuquerque and check out a few places. White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe NP were on my to-do list. I hit White Sands and then went south to the other parks before heading north to Albuquerque again. At the end of this trip I was driving up I10 through El Paso and noticed that there was a storm brewing over Las Cruces. Storms in that part of the world are a great thing as they give you a dramatic sky to go with the wild geography. I wanted to see if I could catch a storm in White Sands as it can get really interesting so I turned east on rt. 70 and drove like a madman to get there before the storm broke. I was lucky and made it into the monument and up on the sand just in time. I wanted to get a timelapse of the storm. It took a while to get everything setup but finally the camera was rolling and getting some great shots. I watched a couple of guys get out of their car just below where I was positioned and wasn't at all surprised when one of them started climbing the sand dune straight toward where I was standing. When he was still 20 feet away I shouted at him that I was shooting and wanted pristine dunes for my shots but he kept coming. So when he got 10 feet away I told him again that I was shooting a timelapse and wanted him to change directions so he didn't interfere with my shoot. He kept coming. Just as he got about even with me I told him that I was not adverse to picking up my $2500 camera and lens and using it to beat the crap out of him if he didn't stop. That seemed to get his attention and he turned but not without giving me a dirty look and a finger. I have a hard time understanding the mentality that says it's OK to be an a**hole and simply destroy someone else's shot. He wasn't willing to explain to me why it was necessary for him to walk across the pristine sand I had chosen for my work. There are literally thousands of dunes in the monument he could have chosen to climb and why mine was so important still isn't clear to me. But I'm glad I ruined his day because soon after that confrontation he and his friend left the dunes and drove away.

The storm provided another unexpected bit of excitement as my shoot continued. The wind was blowing pretty strong but there was little sand in the air when I first arrived. In the video below, you can see about 30 minutes of the storm and the first 25 are very clear. But as the shoot progressed I could see sand far away but wasn't really worried because the wind was mostly from left to right. However, if you look carefully at the video you can see a wall of sand suddenly rising to my left and coming very quickly toward my position. I guessed it was about 8 minutes total from the time I first saw the cloud until I hit me full force. I had taken precautions for the camera, putting it in a rain sleeve so the sand didn't get inside or cause any damage but I hadn't made much effort to protect myself. As it was very warm I was in jeans and a short-sleeve t-shirt. I really wanted to stay a few minutes more and capture the full force of the storm as it swept over my position but I was being filleted by the sand which was stripping skin off as I ran back to my truck. I also wanted to get my truck out of the sand blaster but it was slow going as the road was rapidly disappearing under the sand. When I finally got to the ranger's station I showed the ranger my shots and he was amazed at how fast the storm had come. There were people way out on the sand and they had to have been in real danger as they couldn't avoid the full force of the wind. I hope they got out safely.

Anyway, sometimes stuff happens. Sometimes it's an idiot who thinks he's really important and sometimes it's something completely beyond your control. That's one of the reasons why I do this ... you never know when something really interesting will happen.

Big Sur Again

I already related my trials in Big Sur this trip so I won't rehash them. This overlook was just down the road from the spot where I took the other image from last week. I love the erosion which has created the most interesting forms in the foreground. Very dramatic and wonderful to look at. Enjoy.

Big sur - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

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

Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes Sunset

What a terrible year...

It seems this has been a year of tragedy. Every time I turn on the TV there's some new disaster to be explained. All the wars, the terror attacks and even all the airplane crashes. Well today, Christmas day, is no different. We just learned that a Russian military transport plane crashed off the Black Sea coast from Sochi, Russia with 92 passengers aboard. These were not military fighters ... no, they were entertainers, heading for Syria to provide some diversion for the airmen and support personnel involved in the Syria civil war. 65 were members of the world famous Russian Army Choir (including singers, dancers and musicians) while there were crews from 3 different Russian TV stations and others. The greatest tragedy, however, is the death of Doctor Liza (I think that was her nickname), an emergency room physician who has been leading humanitarian rescue missions into both the Donbas, Ukraine, and in Syria. She had just received a humanitarian award from Putin a few weeks ago. She specialized in wounded children and had been a huge contributor to the survival of so may kids injured in these conflicts. Her loss is beyond tragedy. When will all this carnage end?

Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes Sunset

It's hard to take a bad picture in Death Valley. You have to really try to make something ugly. But there are special places and unique times when the images explode with color and amazing structure. This image is one of those special moments. I was at Mesquite Flats, on the sand dunes, waiting for just the perfect moment to snap this image. There were clouds in abundance and I just knew this would be special. I wanted to incorporate the sand dunes into the shot in a way that emphasized how the wind sculpts the sand into the most amazing shapes. I think it came out just the way I intended.

This photo contains a classic photo organization. It has a foreground (the sand), a middle ground (the purple mountains) and a background (the sky). It contains a lot of structure which draws the eye from the bright sky to the shimmering sand to the barely visible scrub brush in the middle ground. You just want to be there, sitting on the sand while the sun slides slowly behind the distant mountains. I didn't want to leave that spot but finally had to pull myself away or get lost on the dunes for the night. The rangers tell me there are sidewinders and lots of scorpions out there and they all come out once the sun goes down. Not an appetizing thought as it gets bitter cold and very, very dark.

This is a 5 image grouping, run through Photomatix to extract as much color as I could and then put into Lightroom for finishing. It was taken on my Canon 6D using the 16-35 f/4 zoom. That lens takes the most amazing pictures. I'm really happy with the combination. It's quickly become my go-to setup. I think this pictures shows why.

Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes - 35mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0