Here is a video that uses some of the pics and vids. Spent the greater part of the day arranging this, and it was quite enjoyable:

I have been reviewing pics on my CRT monitors and they are much better than on my crap notebook. I will be filtering for my favorites and running a 30 day trial on photoshop to perfect them. I am hoping to eventually make a coffee table book and\or some framed blowups from them.

So I met up with Sumati in Albuquerque for a nice hike up Sandia mountain which is just outside of town. It is quite a bizarre natural feature that juts up out of nowhere and the land around is insanely flat. We didn’t quite have the time for a full 8 mile hike up and 8 mile down, and couldn’t take the dog on the Tram so we made it about half way.

View of a ‘shelter’ at the state park we stayed on the eve of the hike. The sunsets were interesting because they actually produced a red-colored ring a full 360 degrees around the horizon, at a slight tilt that matched the descending sun. I think this is a combination of superflat land and city haze. This shot was opposite of the sun and so the red band is actually above blue.

A view of the mountain. It gets intensely red before sundown.

Interesting plants on the mountain which had several distinct vegetation zones (well at least 2).

Naturally owing to my preference for water, the little stream that we ran into produced most of my shots for the day.

I was in despair at not having had a really good cactus shot.. This one is still imperfect but definately looks like something you don’t want to sit on.

mmmm.. makes me want to take this wood home and make something out of it.

The background interferes with the great subject here.. something I want to find if photoshop can handle.. too black and white the back out.

Lovely yin-yang here.

Fighting a late cold night, we had to do some night photography. Here I am summoning a wall of razor wire.

We had trouble exposing me in the shot because I was wearing black… but that works also to exclude me.

This one was insipred by some great driving shots that Sumati had taken earlier.

Sumati knew of a great place called Cadillac Ranch with a dozen old cars planted diagonally into the ground that ppl spraypaint liberally. Note in this shot the actual tag I left behind on the left.

Here Sumati has put on some more traditional dress and is painting an icon of her guru?/mentor? Amma.

The rest of the trip was mostly just beating tracks back.. I had a tire blowout in Oklahoma. I ALMOST MADE IT ON THESE TIRES. ALMOST!!! I had felt the truck start pulling to that side and was gonna check it at the next gas stop in literally 5 minutes. I think it has lost pressure and then driving on it blew out a sidewall. Called out Hugo to put on a new one that was a different size. I then went to Walmart to get new ones but read only bad reviews about the ones they had in stock, so I just balanced the new one and made it back just fine. Pre-balance the car shuddering was so bad my gas mileage was actually decreasing.

Here’s to hoping that gas drops a couple dollars a gallon so I can get back on teh road!

BTW, I think Sadie is happy to be back.

Stopped by and saw the movie Into the Wild. Excellent film though I think the character is portrayed a touch bit over reverently. Hal Holbrook is seriously looking old these days but he is fantastic as are Keener and her hippie hubbie. I particularly liked the scene where the main character is eating an apple and having a massively spiritual moment (“you are.. the BEST apple I have EVER had”). Done that a few times on this trip. A very touching road movie.. always like those. Also saw American Gangster, Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Ridley Scott… get real. But I was disappointed in the overall result.. too familiar I think is the main problem. What’s with the recent grandiose 70s rehashes lately?

 A couple recent shots from around Durango. Some are HDR but they are all more subtle uses than the previous post.

From Durango’s sunday bike races..

I purchased a WalMart tripod which surprise surprise is not that good. Particularly, when I need to handle the buttons on the camera it is impossible not to shift the camera. I can bracket 3 exposures with the S3 but I can’t do any more without manual control and hitting the camera.. it also doesn’t have a remote so far as I know. An issue with going over the 3 exposures in bracketing is evident particularly in the clouds whose travel in that time equates to blur. Oh well these are early shots, and are obviously impossible to do with a single straight exposure.

One of the best uses here.. and this was handheld shots which explains the blur in the tree. Still.. detail in the miners and detail in the sky were hitherto impossible and in this shot really works.

ok so compare this last one for instance to the best exposed single shot and you can see that there wasn’t much detail brought out and the colors were saturated to cheeto level. An amateur job. ;p

BTW, I am posting from a wifi enabled laundromat. Interesting world…

I’ve noticed my pictures taken : pictures posted ratio is increasing. I suppose I am growing somewhat more selective though often I still post multiple copies of an image with small variation. There are a lot of shots I am simply tossing now. I have also discovered HDR and have a trial program to use it. I have been frustrated by the inability of the camera to capture the full range of light detail that the eye sees. So what happens is that when you expose a picture to capture detail in dark sections of an image you often lose all detail in the brighter sections which all wash out to pure white. The same is true about exposing for lighter regions. HDR is a method of composing multiple exposures so you do not lose detail.

I recommend that people check out the images on Flickr for the HDR pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/ . I think the results of this approach are yummy.

 So on to the new shots… Here is Sadie sampling the water.. she drinks a little something out of any puddle/lake regardless of color/condition. This is a early morning shot at Vallecito.

A rotten stump.. I’ve done this shot before..

Birds.. these are tought to shoot. The first is some form of woodpecker, though with yellow head curiously. The second is a Pinyon Jay. The last everyone knows. These birds can be damned elusive.

The distance to Emerald Lake was 10 miles rather than the 6 I had expected so I had neither the light of day or the energy to pack all the way to it.. with the extra time I had setting up camp I made a pretty nice fire and just chilled..

Oops. this needs straightening..

Here I have started playing with color manipulation after the photo is taken. I have really just straightened and cropped up till now. The original of these two pictures was decidely over-blue and unnatural. This seems to happen with early or late indirect light. The browner/less blue version is much better imo. This is one of my favs of this set.

Emerald Lake was just gorgeous with steep peaks rising right alongside and deep green but intensely clear waters. Very much worth the hike. This pyramid rock rising from the water shows the true colors.

Here is precisely an example of losing detail in an exposure.. where the blackened trees are simple sillhouttes.. There is no guarantee that exposing this in HDR would improve the quality of the overall image though.

Interesting how the deep green waters change to blue sky reflection when at a more parallel angle.

I found a great spot for some reflective images.. but wasn’t overwhelmed by the ones I got. This one has only one minor hint of being a reflection off a perfectly smooth river behind a beaver dam.

I wish I could have increased the visual contrast of the wood from the grass. Perhaps different lighting or deliberate light painting then this would be rockin.

Same thing here with color flatness.

On our hike back we got assailed by a pack of 5 mongrels lacking any human owner/operator. Sadie began to display her dominant side as she always does with dogs, and I held her collar sternly and said ‘listen Sadie.. there are FIVE of them.’ She got the message. These dogs fortunately for us were very friendly. Oddly, on the hike into the wilderness the path goes through 2.7 miles of a private land ranch first and I think they likely came from there. Sadly this was dusk and so I hadn’t light to capture the interplay and after 15 miles of hiking that day I was pretty tired.

And here is my first HDR of a previous bracketing exposure I made. It is not nearly as dramatic as one can find on Flickr but it did actually improve on all of the source exposures. This was of courthouse rock (I think) in Arches NP.

I’ve hit a walgreens to reload my prescriptions. I have once again lost my sense of smell but I only used have my prednisone so I am gonna go for round 2 here. It’s a bummer, but at least I can lay to rest the theory that air quality would improve my condition.

Still wrestling with the decision to upgrade camera equipment. I think I would need somewhere between 2000-3000$ minimum to replicate the functionality of the camera I already have.  That’s the beauty of what I’ve got is that it does Macro and 35mm-420mm focal ranges and has image stablization all in a light package. That requires at least 3 lenses minimum in SLR terms which you have to lug around and swap out based on situation. I would almost definately go with the canon xti body which is a good starter cam (about 650$ online) but the path to take on lenses is a bigger problem. They are like the monitor in the cpu upgrade cycle.. they have a much better shelf life. I am thinking I will likely go for the lower-end of the quality range and get image stabilization only on the long zoom. Even a really good tripod can set you back 300$ or more. Ugh. I think the goal is to find someone who jumped in over their head and are willing to unload on the cheap.

This first set of pics all came on a morning.. its usually then I feel like seeing what I can photo in the immediate area.

Wave to the camera dimpled towel bear! So soft.. so absorbant.

The bulbs in my LCD flashlight turned on.

Hair of the dog.

The door series. I had parked near a corner turnoff and down the hill in the morning I noticed some refuse including this wonderful specimen. This first pic reminded me of the cover for Wish You Were Here which is, if you look, not at all related. Anyhoo. Curious which of these ppl like the most. I was tempted to leave the door standing on the side of the road and photograph the hunters that passed by… in fact I should have. nuts.

This is the kind of photo that would make for good photoshop fodder. Perhaps a Dick Cheney version.

In some random town otw to Cortez (outside of Mesa Verde)

In Mesa Verde..

bugs..

This was a modern construction museum built to fit the motif… I liked this corner.. the perspective is interesting in the pic though and I’m wondering what different focal lengths may have done for that.

I think perhaps this was called a kivi… it was a storage cellar for the cliffdwellers. There was a bizarre phenomenon down here with the photos where the light which streamed through a narrow opening above still looked naturally white, but was brilliantly blue through the camera.

Ho-hum.. here are the cliff dwellings.. I failed to get into the spirit of this at the moment which was disappointing. Mesa Verde is a very popular destination and the place was perhaps overly developed which nagged at me.

The next 3 with the workers are my favorite for scale and interest. Finally we know how these things were actually built. Quite a racket they got going.

I was feeling a bit cynical and imagined that the majority of these people were merely checking Mesa Verde off on their list. This feeling was heightened by the fact that the museum with the artifacts and explanatory text was completely empty while the room with the canned video on large plasma screen was quite busy. The feeling was also heightened by the fact that I personally wasn’t feeling the mojo. There was a trip I had a few years ago and saw some free-standing ruins in New Mexico (or Arizona) which set out in the middle of a plain and that had much more impact for me. I think this aggravates me because I can really imagine myself imagining myself living in that time. Just wasn’t happening..

Grabbing the texture of the wall.

Wascally.. Color skewed blue again.. seems to be the camera’s favorite. Reminds me of the joke I tell people when I am jogging a trail with Sadie. I say its the race between the tortoise (me) and the hairy. Chuckles: 5 or 6. Genuine Laughs: 0.

Ok, so I had a good sunset coming out of the park. This is the sky I would want over a picture of the Iwo Jima statue.

I was just driving slowly here along some fire burned out Pinyon-Junipers and was amazed how much the trees lined up with the clouds here.

Nuclear.

Wonder how it would have looked with the lamp turned on.. I have a bunch of these shots and played a lot with cropping and want to revisit.

This was the real color. It was impressive. Though the zoom makes it appear more encompassing.

There was something bizarrely attractive by this porch as I passed it outside of Mesa Verde. Have to see a better monitor to judge if it came through. Exposure (again) was a problem of course.

A couple morning shots outside of Durango in San Juan National Forest. Pictures really are everywhere.

I was fascinated by how the ice fluted on the straw. It was more stalagmite than stalagtite. That’s right.

I like the implied motion of the stream alongside the static water ice. I will have to attempt this in a better locale. I could not for the life of me find a suitable rock for a tripod.

This guy might have given someone lip one too many times.

A natural spring that comes out of the mountain and was capped off.. tastes yummy.

mmm reflective colorful rock…

You’ll prolly see more of these types.. these super clear creeks are like playgrounds. Water is definately my favorite.

How dare you !

I really like this one.

This didn’t seem like much but really works better than I expected it to. I dig it.

I admit this is staged.

This is one of those dark glens even in bright light.. and where the sun sneaks through creates quite a scene.. I used a long shutter here and actually like the blurry dog one over the one that didn’t have the dog. Of course I’d rather it be something a little more .. native. Either way the pic didn’t really capture the scene IMO.

I like the perspective on this one

took a number of shots with the indian grass.. this one is the best but I’m not too enthusiastic.

I had been waiting for a chance to try a long shutter on water and this was it.. had to find a shady place and didn’t get the clarity of shot I want given the lack of tripod. This will definately be reattempted later.

I like the suspended leaf on the left.

[summong Jeff Goldblum] Life will find a way.. it will survive in any condition..

The shadow has stopped for a drink. These shots interested me because it was the clearest example of water reflecting a shadow rather than the actual object.

Can barely make out the camera sadly.. I was avoiding that. I’d rather be pointing here and her looking the way I was pointing.

I’d like this view 3 miles outside of MY town.

This hill is cool, one of a million… i have caught word of one that would blow this away though and hopefully will get to it.

Nice.

This was one in a group of supermachos. He did eventually make it over the hump after beaching on the skidplate once and airborning his wheels. hey, I guess that’s what they are here for… I like the little hand grabbing the backseat ‘oh shit’/rollover bar.

We got you now Bitch Cassidey.

Looks like harder work from this angle.

 IronMan vs. Cow (hmm possible truck name?)

So the last few days I’ve explored the Glen Canyon area which basically surrounds the joining of the Green and Colorado, returned to Arches a few times for some more shots, and checked out the Slickrock trail. I have found a disinterest in most of the grand scale pics, particularly of the canyon which is a very impressive sight despite the lack of pics showing that.

I found the rules for liquor licensing here to be humorous. A bar has to claim to be a private club and you have to ‘register’ to be a member. The state then counts memberships and charges the bar 3.75$ for each. The one that I went to charged 4$ and then credited it right back to food purchases. lolz.

I called up the local radio station (first time I’ve done that) and made a request for Psycho Killer on Halloween. They played it despite it being a repeat. They don’t get too many callers… I owe them an online donation now. :p

I also made the first print of a photo. I chose an early one I took of a reflected pond with grass.. it looks good at 8″ x 12″ and might even be able to go larger. I am contemplating a camera upgrade rather heavily because I have now studied the technicals enough to manage my own shots manually and I am happy with the results thus far. I think the camera I chose is an excellent one particularly for less than 300$. The limitations are in megapixels, RAW format, exposure length, f/stop range, and viewfinder quality. Haven’t decided on the camera upgrade yet but I think its quite likely. I also need a tripod, polarizer and warming filter. frankly, I’d like a remote as well. Some of those kind of extensions become wasted money if I change camera bodies.

The sun literally is seconds from popping out from behind this mountain. The colors in the pic are surprisingly close to what they were actually like.

Mesa Arch in Glen Canyon. Very tough exposure here.

This shot has absolutely no merit. :p

Basic composition attempt to make something out of nothing.

These coyotes lingered longer than I would have expected which was good for me. Sadie about threw a sprocket. I’m cropping this pic based on two principles. He is position in the upper right corner according to the rule of thirds, and he is glancing towards the frame. Those rules really do work it seems to me. He’s prolly 30 yards away and I don’t recall my zoom.. likely near max.

Here is a depth of field problem I might pass off as art but not really. The insect in the upper left is out of focus which tends to happen on macro shots. Really.. how much more impressive would it be if the bug were in focus? Quite a bit methinks.

I love the noire wood.

Here I am happy the background is blurred. Could prolly crop even closer here. This might be the whiptail lizard.

I was actually gonna post another variant of this, but then I found myself complaining that the background was too distracting. Does this work here with the blurred path or do you generally want the background clear or blurred to oblivion? Not sure…. I find myself looking at this picture and trying hard to bring the path into focus with my eyes. Kind of uncomforable.

Debris scattered on a web.. lovely.. some exposure problems. Very close to washout on the leaf to the right but this IS a tough exposure.. pushing the total range. I am very impressed with the quality of focus on the whole scene aside from some dropoff in the lower left.

From the otherside.. excellent. Less focused than the prior pic but looks good at lower magnify.

Love this composition, some focusing issues. Macro tends to bring a slower shutter speed and this is all handheld. I need a ground level tripod.

These pics were at the same pond (the only body of water I’ve seen aside from the Col and Green R.) I had posted some ‘overly complicated’ pictures of before. Some clever lighting here.. definately simpler.

This is the arch from the more traditional side. I hate knowing I’m taking pics that have been taken a gazillion times. That’s why I included the dude to the left. I doubt THIS pic has been taken. (There are other good reasons for a dude in the pic).

These crows all but sang Tom Jones for attention. Worked to my favor. Loved playing with the manual exposure here to pick up detail in a very dark surface with a fairly light background. I would not trust auto with this. I was going for faster shutter because this was handheld and zoomed, but fairly low overall light requires a higher aperture and this camera tends to put some fringing on the edges with a wide aperture. Worked out here though. You can almost see me reflected in their eyes. Top notch. These were mates clearly and they would coo and rub beaks.

Not sure I like how I cropped this but gives more of the bird.

Texture. Scale free.

This is what I hope to be an unorthodox shot that is still hopefully of some interest.

Spectators for the sunset on the arch. The word is out. This is the best sight at Arches IMO. The trail up is well designed to hide the arch, give you other nice sights along the way, and then surprise you at the end.

Not sure the ‘impatient’ pose fits the patient/durable/timeless impression of the rock but it was a teenager so you know how it goes..

This guy was actually working, pushing cattle up into BLM land. Postcard shot.. I think the polarizer would of helped pop the colors out better. Photoshop might could help. Good shot. i like this one.

I have nothing to say about this one. It is perfect. Such a surprise.

This was a from the hip shot. Impressive that that the camera didn’t explode looking straight at that sun.

Both of these are attempts to make something from nothing. Does it work?

Black and white seemed appropriate here with sharp defined lines. Who cares about the colors?

Too busy for B&W.. I still like it. On this monitor it looks like I should have stepped up the exposure one to catch some of the mountainside and highlight the power poles.. but maybe not. I should just bracket shot everything.

This was from the road alongside the Colorado which is suprisingly calm flowing. I actually prefer the minor rippling here over perfectly smooth.

Random Sadie Shot !!!!

So the rest are of the Slickrock trail. I manually exposed all these, keeping shutter speed VERY high. The bright sun allowed for some leeway so these are pretty good. I also learned the beauty of continuous shooting mode. I think this camera prolly can get 2-3 fps. Not bad.

I like the angle here and the shadow\rock detail this allows.

Back lit subjects still well exposed.

Trucks, motorcycles, bikes, and a dude running around with a camera. They all share this playground. There was a group of dudes on bikes talking about these guys. One said ‘It’s all fun until you rollover then it gets expensive’. The other guy said ‘Nah. Then you just get a new one.’ Lolz.

I like the shots where the bikers watch the trucks, reminds me of different species of animal observing each other.

This guy was game for the camera. Oh the wonders of 1/1600s shutter. No blur at all.

Who is this guy? Threat? Food?

The next day I did some basic chores: laundry, showered at a hostel, food shopping, etc. Picked up some pre-digital camera used books on photography hoping that I can tell what is still relevant. Yesterday was still a bit overcast but today looks better. The absolute key for photo’ing these rocks in Arches is getting the right time of day, which is either morn or evening depending on the rock in question. The sun popped out towards the end of the day and I literally RAN towards one of the bigger landmarks in the park which is delicate arch. I have to say that I am\was somewhat jaded with rocks but this particular one is very very impressive. It’s not really the arch itself which makes the whole experience but the way it is positioned on a huge natural bowl with a great surrounding view. Just amazing. I am gonna post a few pics here but I suspect I will be getting better ones later. Of note, I dodged the standard viewpoint and went off-trail (possibly not legal but if you stay on rocks and off the soil you do no damage and this was possible here). I like the view I found.. it’s farther away and I can’t get mountains in the background..but I can get the other photographers in the shot. At least its not a textbook brochure shot..

I also met a dude who went to my same High School in Georgia. Small world. Only talked briefly. He had pulled his small p’up truck into some deep sand and I could see him get immediately concerned as he tried nonchalantly to rock it out of the spot without drawing attention. Eventually he tried to gun it with no success, lowered the window and let out a slow ‘ooooops’. Cracked me up all evening.

Tried the local brewery as well. Note to self: Pale Ale is not good with spicy burrito. Their belgian wit was very very good.

This town has basically all the outdoor activities one can imagine aside from skiing. Being next to the Colorado and several national parks and LOTS of public BLM land translates to outdoor playground.

Supply your own caption.

Met some kids (Jaiden and Autumn) on a trail in-town next to a creek. Credit Jaiden with this shot. It was their dog who insisted on doing strafing runs on leashed Sadie, which aggravated her severely.

Flora.

The sand hill. Couple hundred feet of fun. I ran down myself 4 times I think.

This guy was also doing flips (clumsily) and such.

This golden was patient with being buried… which humorously was put upon him by an adult who I think was having more fun than his kids.

The celebration. Actually, what this German (by far the most common foreigner) was doing was providing the illusion of holding up an arch. The photo for that would have been from the other side.

Kind of a trick here because the greenery is provided by close and fairly small Junipers.

The longest arch in the park.. over 300 feet. Shooting into the sun made it a tough shot.

From a local picnic area.. These shots had a simplicity and the sun was just peeking out of the clouds to help.

About a 10 minute window to race through the park and pick up shots.

This is a good one IMO.

These two are overly complicated but nice just the same.

Stacked rocks good stuff.

Shots from the arch. I like shooting the photogs.

I love how everyone is doing something different / looking a different way..

Horizon the other way.

Nice shot.

tweet tweet. Next morning shot.