Feb 27, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Hot Air Balloon Gallery – Click Here for Big Images
(both galleries are the same, a mobile device friendly and a web big image size)
There were two reasons I set the dates for our K&M Adventures Monument Valley trip for this weekend, the phase of the moon (for star trails) and the balloon festival. Now just because you plan it doesn’t mean it will all work out. Two of the three mornings, there was no launch at all but the one morning they did launch and that’s all we needed. Here was my thinking, I want the color of the balloons to pop against the rock. If, and that’s a big if, you can have the balloons backlit, they glow bigtime. The problem is, the balloons keep moving so you might get that one or two cool frame, not the hundreds we came away with shooting front lit.
I filled 2040 images from the 90min of flight time. I went through and selected some of the one that are my favorites for this gallery. I’ve not mentally processed the shooting though. There were some things I learned to repeat and not repeat. And the most magical moment I still have to share. We are simply jumping here so this is all the blog I have time to post but hope you enjoy this small gallery of images. To say it was a gorgeous and inspiring morning of shooting is an understatement. There is more to come and share with you!
In the Bag
Feb 27, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Many moons ago, on our very first visit to Monument Valley we were befriended by Albert Jackson. At the time, he was just a person at Ford Point selling jewelry but after a couple of hours of conversing, we’d become friends. We’ve been friends every since! His family owns Ford Point and Albert is a tribal elder with a very rich family history and sense of tradition. Albert is not one of Monument Valley’s guides but being dear friends, he was happy to take our merry band on a backcountry tour like I’ve never had before. His knowledge of the Valley, past and present and willingness to share made our day simply amazing! We went to places I’m not really sure if I should talk about, they are sacred and there were tire or foot tracks so no one else had been there for a long time. I just want to publicly thank Albert for all he did, and for being my friend!
Feb 24, 2012 | Landscape Photography
The view behind us and the view in front of us. This is such a gorgeous land, you can’t help but fall in love with it! Great end to a great day!
Feb 24, 2012 | Landscape Photography
The sun, I try to have it in every image I take. Sometimes directly but mostly indirectly. Our first stop this morning (and I want it on the record this morning, K&M started at 07:30!) was Elephant Mesa in Monument Valley. I have no doubt folks were wondering just what the hey I was seeing and thinking as I headed up the wash. Just looking at the scene with your eyes, there was no photograph. But with camera eyes, I say a very cool star burst to be made on a cool formation. Because the sun is a star after all, a star burst just makes perfect sense! What you see here is exactly what I saw with my imagination and bugged over to photograph.
Now how did I know where to walk to in order to get this star burst? Glad you asked, great question! There are a couple of things you need to make a star burst. First is the sun, then closing your lens down and in this case to f/22 and lastly clear skies. I had everything but the clear skies. So I shot over to where by looking on the ground, I could see the shadow from the mesa on the ground with the V from the sun coming through the slot. I went there because with the clouds, I wouldn’t have a clean star burst but rather, a big bright smudge. By carefully moving so the sun was just peaking over the edge of the cut in the mesa, I forced a star burst even with the clouds. The rest was done with a 5 image, hand held HDR (all this was taught to the folks with us so they could all know what I was seeing and confirming, I am nuts).
As I moved away from the mesa, you can see what the clouds do to the star burst. No setting changes were made, I just didn’t have the edge of the rock to make the sun a small light source causing it to flare. It simply doesn’t have the same impact. And this bottom image? Well that’s my favorite. This was the last shot taken when I walked way left because the earth had moved placing the sun further to the west. This permitted me to incorporate a foreground and background much more interesting. So while you’re using a technique to make a star burst, using software to combine exposures, you still have to incorporate the basics of photography to make the final image sing. This is simply just great, fun photography when the light would normally be considered, yuck. Never loose site, it is a star after all!
In the Bag
Feb 23, 2012 | Landscape Photography
The view from The View as K&M Adventures wakes for it’s first day in Monument Valley. It gorgeous!
