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| From L to R: Panasonic G85 w/100-400 (eq 200-800), Canon 7D w/500 (eq 800), Canon 6D w/800 |
Whew! What a week it’s been! Over 6,000 visitors, 15,000 birds, and dozens of tired staff members and volunteers who are now thankful for a mini-Thanksgiving break. But, oh what a fun time we all had at the 28th Annual Festival of the Cranes!
After two weeks at a National Park campground (with electric hookups no less!), I was yearning to do some boondocking again and Millie was more than ready to find some wide open space where she could run around leash-free (the National Parks may be beautiful, but by their mandate, they cannot be as pet-friendly as other public lands).
So, with a family Thanksgiving on the horizon in Los Angeles, I decided to spend the 10 days before then at a spot headed towards that general direction-- exploring the area around Valley of Fire State Park at the north end of Lake Mead (about an hour northeast of Las Vegas).
Jim & Gayle were headed to that area a couple days ahead of me and had just the perfect boondocking spot to recommend just down the dirt lane from their site a few miles south of Overton, NV. Oh, yes! This site will do quite nicely!
A few readers recently suggested that I should create a wall calendar of my landscape photography for 2015. I’m totally inexperienced at this sort of thing, but figured that my recent photographs from Utah might provide a good theme—some of these images have already been featured in the blog, while others from Zion are still to come!
So, just in time for holiday gift-giving, I humbly announce the 2015 WinnieViews Calendar - Utah Rocks!
Ever since getting a bit of “dumb luck” in shooting this photo a few winters ago at Joshua Tree National Park, I’ve been fascinated by night photography, particularly night landscapes.
Last year, I discovered the Into The Night group on Flickr (as well as its excellent companion blog by Royce Bair) which provided a never-ending source of inspiration and knowledge. But it seemed every time I tried to plan a nighttime photo shoot, I was stymied by one thing or another—wrong camera, wrong lens, wrong exposure settings, wrong time of year, wrong moon phase, or wrong weather. With each failed attempt, though, I learned a tiny bit more than I had known before, so “progress” none the less.
This year, I set a goal for myself to finally capture photos of the Milky Way. It’s taken months of planning and waiting for just the right conditions, but finally (FINALLY!) two nights ago, I did it!
It’s pitch black and quiet in the Rio Grande campground at 4:29am. A minute later, my alarm clock is rudely piercing the silence, and Millie is sleepily looking at me as if I’ve finally and forever gone completely mad. At this hour, I wonder that as well! Was the plan I had schemed up a few days before actually going to be worth it?
An hour later, my little yellow Tracker is the only car hurling down the highway in probably a 300-mile radius! Suzanne and I are headed to Santa Elena canyon on the far west corner of Big Bend National Park-- just a mere 90 miles away! The full moon is still high in the sky and illuminates the mountains in the distance, but there’s no doubt about it, it’s still a very long and very dark drive! Big Bend has the darkest skies in the US due to it’s distance from any major (or any minor) cities.
If my photo app research has been correct, on this morning of Tuesday, March 18th, the full moon will set in perfect twilight conditions shortly before sunrise. Now, that phenomenon is not so special—it happens every month on the morning after a full moon. But, according to my TPE app (The Photographer’s Ephemeris) with its sun and moon path lines overlaying Google Maps, on this particular month and morning, the moon should be setting pretty close to the mouth of Santa Elena canyon. Now, THAT might be something worth waking up and driving 90 miles to see!
As we make our way closer to the canyon, the moon begins setting more rapidly. By the time we turn into the trailhead parking lot, the moon has now just sunk down below the ridgeline. “Ut oh! Perhaps the app was wrong about the times!” Still, with mountains and canyons you just never know.
Suzanne and I quickly lace up our hiking boots, get our flashlights, and start heading to the canyon’s trailhead out at the banks of the Rio Grande. As we come out of the trees, we begin to see a reflection on the water. A few more steps and we now see that the moon is still a few minutes from setting— and it appears to be setting right into the dead-center of Santa Elena canyon!!!
I move quickly to find a spot where the reflection will show in the water. Meanwhile, Suzanne walks a bit further down the river and happens to get a few photos of me as I’m shooting (what a treat!).
Words can simply not describe this exhilarating moment…nor can these photographs. Suzanne ranked this as her #1 Big Bend adventure, and I’d go even further to say it was well within the Top 10 of my most amazing nature experiences ever!
We also could simply not believe that we were the only ones here on this perfect morning watching such a rare scene, one that would not happen again for a full year!
Try as I might, I just couldn’t stop photographing it! When my arms got tired of holding up my big Canon (I could just kill myself for forgetting my tripod back at the RV!), I started snapping a few desperation shots with my point-and-shoot. The view was still Un..be…liev...able!
With the moon show now over, we ready ourselves for the next big show— the sunrise into Santa Elena canyon!
First, the long ridgeline becomes illuminated..
and then, the canyon itself, with the river sitting still nicely to provide a perfect mirror reflection!
I suppose on any other day, I would be jumping for joy with this kind of sunrise shot, but after just witnessing such an extraordinary moonset, this sunrise feels a bit anticlimactic. We still sit and enjoy it for a bit, though, and pose for a few photos. It’s hard to put into perspective how big the 1500-foot canyon walls are, so Suzanne suggests this shot!
We follow with a few more traditional poses…
and then Lucy & Ethel each take their turns imitating the hiker sign!
After more than an hour since our arrival, we finally begin hiking into the canyon itself. The hike quickly ascends to about midway up the side of the canyon before returning back to river level again deeper within the canyon. The views (and temperature!) in the early morning light are absolutely perfect!
A few more hikers now join us on the trail— just in time to give us this nice shot of the two of us!
As we reach the end of the trail, Suzanne gets another shot of me preparing to take my next round of photos with “the big camera”!
The big camera does not disappoint!
At the end of the trail, the canyon wall overhang almost make you feel as if you’re in a cave! The rock patterns here are simply amazing!
We chat with a dad and his young son from Tennessee for awhile, laughing as we each take turns shouting and listening to our voices echo against the canyon walls. What a hoot!
Our return trip does not yield as many spectacular photos as the sun is now getting a bit too high in the sky, but we stop for the big camera to take a couple more shots of new hikers coming down the trail, and of canoes now down on the riverbank preparing to launch. If they only knew what they had just missed!!!
I don’t have many hikes under my belt yet, but this one will surely be the most memorable for quite some time-- an extraordinary, exhilarating experience!
My “C” topic for the A-to-Z Challenge today is: Cameras!
A girl can never have too many cameras! My brother loves to call me “gadget girl” and I admit to being guilty as charged. My first job out of college was working at a professional photo equipment company. For years, it seemed as soon as a new wiz-bang camera model was announced, I started coming up with reasons to justify why I needed to buy it.
These are 10 of my cameras (taken with yet another camera, my iPhone!):
In addition to these, I also have a box of antique cameras tucked away in the back of my storage closet that I inherited from my grandfather. Prior to his long career as a minister, he ran a photography portrait studio in small town in Kansas, so I guess he’s to blame for my “camera collector gene”!
Let me take you on a tour of the cameras displayed above. The two oldest on the top shelf are film cameras.
The silver and black camera to the left is a Hasselblad 500, a legendary medium format camera from the 1960s. Fully manual with a waist-level viewfinder on the top and a film magazine in the back that takes 120 film (where on earth you’d be able to find that nowadays is a mystery!).
Next to the ‘Blad, on the right, is my last film camera, a Nikon N2000 from the 1980s. Still works great, but again, finding 35mm film is becoming increasing difficult and not worth the effort. I’ve mainly hung on to these 2 cameras for sentimental reasons.
The second row of cameras from the top photo are my “point and shoot” collection. I’ve owned a lot more of these, but would give the older models away to my family members as I got new ones. The one on the far right in the top photo is my current favorite, the Canon s100, that I shot these close up photos with. If you’re looking for a high-quality point-and-shoot, the s100 will serve you quite well!
The other 2 cameras from that middle row are the first ones I acquired that combined HD video with still images. The black camera on the left is a “super zoom” Canon SX1 with a rotating LCD screen that flips out from the back. The lavender camera to the right is a Kodak PlaySport, a fixed-lens camera that I mainly bought for it’s waterproof & underwater capabilities.
The bottom row of cameras from the top photo are all of my Canon digital SLRs. Here they are in closer detail:
At the far left, is the oldest of the bunch, a Canon 20D, which I had converted to an Infrared camera a few years ago (so it is now only used for black & white images). Second to the left is the camera I used almost exclusively all of last year, the Canon Digital Rebel T3i (with a rotating LCD screen). I wrote a post about how I used that camera last year—love the combination of LiveView with a rotating LCD screen and sure wish all DSLRs had them!
The 2 cameras to the right are my full-frame 35mm cameras. The Canon 5D (2nd to the right) was my main landscape camera for the last five years or so. Perhaps one of the finest cameras ever made! But in recent years, I found myself using the Rebel T3i more because of it’s more modern features (LiveView, HD video, etc). When Canon brought out the 5D Mark II with these features a few years ago, I thought for sure I would buy it immediately, but after picking up and holding one at the camera store, I realized it was not nearly as comfortable to my smaller hands than the original 5D. So, I waited, and waited, and WAITED, for Canon to come out with a smaller, lighter weight full-frame model.
Finally, this year, they did! The Canon 6D (far right) is my most-recent addition, fits my hand like a glove, takes wonderful photos, and has all the modern features (including a cool way to wirelessly focus and shoot via adhoc Wifi from a companion Canon iPhone app—more about that in an upcoming post!).
But, alas, a full-time RVing girl can indeed have too many cameras! So, I will be getting many of these posted “For Sale” to Craigslist soon as I start downsizing my household possessions to fit into an RV. I’ll likely be hanging on to the 6D, 20D, and s100 and selling all the rest. If you’re interested in any of these, just drop me a line (winnieviews@gmail.com) and I’ll give you additional info and a great “friend of WinnieViews” deal!
A couple of my favorite landscape photographers recently posted their 12 favorite images of 2012 (Richard Bernabe and Jack Brauer). What a great idea! While my images pale by comparison, it was still fun to take a look back at all the places I had photographed this year.
After spending most of the past 8 months at home, I was actually surprised at how many different places I was able to see. But yet, I tend to only pull the camera out when I’m traveling, so in 2013 I really hope to push myself to “see” and photograph more where ever I might happen to be.
Hope you all have a very happy new year!
Now, on to the 12 favorite images…
These sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico were my favorites for 2012. If you enjoy seeing thousands of migratory birds, a winter stop at Bosque is an absolute must!
I didn’t get to do as much off-roading in my wonderful little yellow Tracker in 2012 as I had in 2011, but I drove a couple a fun trails in Arizona last winter around Quartzsite, Ajo, Patagonia, and Sedona. This one was at the Kofa NWR just south of Quartzsite.
While living in Arizona the first three months of 2012, my mom decided to come out for a visit so we could take a quick vacation out to southern California to see friends. On our way back, we happened to stop near the Mohave Desert Lily Sanctuary just as the sun was setting to this spectacular display of desert wildflowers!
Before leaving Tucson, I finally took a drive up Mt. Lemmon on the Catalina Highway. What a spectacular way to see the sunset (and a great way to cool off too if the temps in Tucson get too warm!).
Our final week in Arizona was spent around the Sedona area. The drive between Oak Creek Village and Sedona was particularly stunning as the sun was setting on the brilliant red rocks.
I stopped at a few Route 66 attractions in the Texas panhandle on my drive back home, including this wonderfully restored Conoco gas station in Shamrock, Texas.
One of my favorite “little known” national parks is the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southeast Missouri with their amazing natural springs. This is my favorite, Alley Spring, with it’s beautiful red mill.
I spent a few weeks this summer revisiting a few of my favorite campgrounds up in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan. This was my nighttime view from the banks of Cunard Lake in Wisconsin. Loved listening to the loons sing us to sleep at night!
This lovely mushroom trail in the U.P. had not been so lovely just a few minutes before when it poured rain on Millie and me. But I’d always prefer photographing a damp and misty forest than one that’s bone-dry!
The mushroom trail was near my all-time favorite campground, lovely Imp Lake, in the U.P. I loved paddling around it’s little island, listening to the loons, and watching the sunsets from our large and peaceful lakefront campsite—heaven on earth!
This summer, I finally took the cruise of Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks National Seashore near Munising, Michigan. What a delightful “3-hour cruise” (and quite reasonably-priced too!).
And finally, 2012 wrapped up with a visit to my hometown, Kansas City, to see the Christmas lights at Country Club Plaza.
What amazing places did you discover in 2012? Leave a comment below and give us all some ideas for future travels! Better yet, post a link to some of your favorite pics of 2012!
