[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8539.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The morning light was gray, some looked at the ground in despair. But then the clouds broke, the light streamed in and magic came our first morning of DLWS Moab!
I really don’t know how long I’ve wanted to go to this spot. Long before I was anybody, long before digital, Sharon & I spent a lot of time with rock art. In fact, for a number of years we had a workshop at the most amazing place in California.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0625.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Way back then we had been told about Newspaper Rock which is on the way to Canyonlands NP. It’s right on the side of the road, you can see it from the road. We drove two hours just to visit it and it was more than worth it! Photographing rock art I’ve always found a challenge, interrupting someone else’s art let alone art we really can’t fully read is a challenge. So I photograph it as an art piece emphasizing those elements that touch me. Newspaper Rock is behind a fence which is smart. To get this shot, I closed the eyepiece of the camera to keep light from going through. I then stretched my arm out as far as I could to so the depth of the wall while focusing in on the warrior taking on the bison. It’s a beautiful wall that I enjoyed just standing and reading. A nice click was a real bonus!
Photo captured by D3s, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
And to me, this wall is just a whole lot of trivia from our past. Because off that simple fact, it’s a black and white even though Hires was fire ball orange.
It’s just so bloody easy, just can’t help myself. The camera is set up just at duck for framing. Turn on the MC-36, set the alarm to get up at twilight to turn it all off. Put the images in a folder, run Russell Brown’s script (using Maximize) and you have a star trail. Killer!
Photo captured by D3s, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/UT050710_4.swf, 585, 439 [/swf]
Almost no moon, clear skies and lots of stars, it just screamed to be captured. Not the best trail, not enough images (107) from late start and early finish. But it’s fun none the less! What you see here was created with the Star Rotation Action that comes with CS5. Kind interesting. Curious whata full circle would create. You can see what Kevin did with the same skies right here.
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but winter just doesn’t seem to want to give way to spring. Last week was just weird, coming home from the sunny southwest to pulling out the snow blower to clear the drive way. This week, we had one gorgeous day and then….
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8433.swf,585, 453 [/swf]
Today the wind turned cold, the clouds came over the crest and for a while it seemed like it wanted to snow. The skies were black, solid and threatening with the sun not to be found. Come on, I like snow but really, it’s time!
Well finally late in the afternoon the clouds started to break. That’s when whether it winter, spring or summer, I love to be out and look up. The clouds were just flying by, it’s memorizing! Well, being tired of working on the computer, I grabbed the camera and headed out to the deck. I just chased around the clouds within the confines of our deck for a half an hour, making clicks thinking the whole time I would experiment more with my B&W technique to finish the images. While the clicks aren’t anything earth shattering, it felt good to get out, hopefully say good-bye to winter and know the B&W technique still works.
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film