Big Bend Badlands - Preface

I've been working on my Visions of Big Bend photography project for nearly five years now, and it's a project that I'll continue to work on indefinitely. But the project has been a little too broad in scope thus far, or at least that's how I feel about it.

Big Bend National Park (and the surrounding region) is huge and filled with so many interesting things. I can easily categorize the photos I've taken into themes (e.g. mountains, desert, river areas). But still that's too basic, and simply filing a photo into a category is like creating a photo project after the fact.

So, I decided to start focusing on very specific items of interest (well, stuff that interests me :-) ) within my project. My recent trip allowed me to kick this idea off by working on a sub-project about one, interesting feature of Big Bend.

Badlands

Two years ago, I visited a small area of badlands near Indian Head Mountain, and it really grabbed my interest. The golden, cracked soil and blue skies appealed to me. The simplicity and openness of the landscape wasn't exactly easier to work with photographically speaking, but it seemed easier to comprehend. Regardless, for whatever reason, the badlands just really appealed to my senses.

Badlands near Indian Head - March 2007
(click for larger version)

Ever since, I've been wanting to come back to that spot and explore it and photograph it more. After doing some research and also just driving around in the park, I've found many other areas of badlands. These areas are local and relatively small compared to the massive size of the park.

For my recent trip, I picked three areas of interest (two found using Google Earth and another spotted from Highway 118 just outside the park's west gate) and spent one night in each. Each night required an overnight hike off-trail and cross-country taking me deep in the backcountry of Big Bend.

The next several blog posts will feature the photos I took. I hope you enjoy them. As always, I really enjoy reading your feedback, so please leave comments if you like. Thanks!

Nugent Mountain

I went to Big Bend recently to take on a specific photo project (a sub-project within my Visions of Big Bend Photo Project). This photo is from the trip but not from the sub-project :-)

Nugent Mountain - click for larger image

Canon 5D II with 24mm f/1.4L II + cir. pol.
f/8, 1/90 sec., ISO 200

I couldn't pass up this scene with the great clouds framing Nugent Mountain. It was just too nice despite the harsh mid-day light. This was shot along Glenn Springs Road in the backcountry.

I'll get to my sub-project very soon, but this photo is a slight diversion and the possible start to a new sub-project. It would be very interesting to have portraits of every named peak and mountain in Big Bend. "Desert Mountain Portraits", or something like that perhaps? Anyway, during the recent trip, I also made similar pictures of some other peaks that would go along with this and perhaps might just kick off this sub-project. We'll see...

Camping Under the Stars

I spent three nights camping in the backcountry of Big Bend National Park last week. The weather was nice and the nights were mostly clear and definitely dark. It was a great trip.

click for larger image

Canon 5D II with 24mm f/1.4L II
f/1.8, 25 sec., ISO 1600

I had a very specific photographic mission this trip. Well, two missions, acutally. One was the night skies, and the other? just stay tuned... :-)

I have just begun the post-processing process, and I'm chewing my way through 16 GB worth of files. I will post more photos from the trip in the coming weeks. I'll also write up a field report describing my techniques and experiences in shooting star scenes like the one above.

Book Planning

I think I'm pretty much done with planning the concept of my SoFoBoMo book. This is going to be fun, and I'm looking forward to a project that I can work on right here at home.

The main concept is that the book will be sort of a guessing game for Henry (the book is for Henry, BTW). The idea is to have a close up and slightly abstracted photo of something he knows well followed by (on the next page) a wide, big shot of the whole thing. E.g. a close-up of one of the wheels on his yellow Tonka dump truck followed by a wide-angle shot of the whole dump truck with our backyard in the background.

The reason behind this concept is two fold:
1. I wanted a project that I could feasibly do within the rules of the SoFoBoMo project (so working at home is easy enough for me).
2. I wanted to make a book with some use. Creating a kids book is a good idea, IMO, because Henry can use it and also my younger son, Michael, when he gets older.

The next phase will be for me to select items around the house and backyard and then plan out the shots. Each item will require two photos.

So, that's an update! Let the planning continue...

Happy Birthday, Henry

Happy 4th to the monkey-man, my older son, Henry :-)

Comet Lulin and More

I tried hard last weekend to see and photograph Comet Lulin. Unfortunately, the high amounts of light pollution here in Houston prevented me from seeing the comet with the naked eye (the comet is now bright enough to see, but only in very dark skies). It did, however, show up faintly in a long exposure:

Comet Lulin - Wide Angle (Feb-22)
Canon 40D with 24mm f/1.4L II
f/1.8, 6 sec., ISO 800

Comet Lulin - Telephoto (Feb-22)
Canon 40D with 400mm f/5.6L
f/5.6, 4 sec., ISO 1600

Since it was not visible to the naked eye (or even my 10x42 binoculars), I resorted to taking 6 second exposures with my 24mm lens and then scanning the LCD screen to look for it.

The first night I tried it (two days prior to the photos above), I couldn't find it. I gave up and photographed other things in the sky.

Crescent Moon (Feb-20)
Canon 40D with 400mm f/5.6L + two 1.4x teleconverters
f/16 (eff.), 1/4 sec., ISO 800

Saturn (viewed at 100%) (Feb-20)
Canon 40D with 400mm f/5.6L + two 1.4x teleconverters
f/16 (eff.), 1/90 sec., ISO 1600

One note on using stacked 1.4x teleconverters: when used on the f/5.6 lens, the maximum aperture increases two stops to f/11. I stopped down one to increase sharpness a bit, so the above photos were effectively at f/16.

And just for fun, while I'm posting astrophotography stuff, here's a shot of a nice moon halo we had in early January. Again, this is from my backyard here in Houston.

Moon Halo (Jan-7)
Canon 5D with 24mm f/1.4L II
f/2.0, 6 sec., ISO 800

Walking Goals

It's been a very long time since I've posted an update on my walking progress. My walking program kind of fell apart last May when I twisted my ankle badly and it hurt for a month. Then it was just too bloody hot here. Then we had a hurricane. Then my IT band beside my right knee started acting up and hurt like hell. Then the baby came.....

I guess I could go on with excuses, but the short of it is that I didn't reach my goal of walking 1000 miles in 2008.

Oh, one other excuse: we cancelled our lawn service last spring and I started to take care of it myself again. This cut into my walking time, but it also made me exercise (I don't turn on the self-propel on the lawnmower - makes it much harder).

Anyway, here is the grand total:
Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 2008 = 408 miles

Interestingly, between Nov. 26, 2007 (the date when I started my hard-core walking program) and Nov. 25, 2008, I walked 508 miles. So, that's half of my 1000 mile per year goal, but done in an offset year period.

I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain any either. I'm just about exactly where I was one year ago. I guess it's good that I haven't gained weight :-)

I've picked up walking seriously again this year. I've made about 44 miles this month (and 58 miles total since Jan. 1). It's a slow start, but I'm on it...

My goal for this year? Realistically, I think 500 miles is a safe bet, but I'll try for 600 or 700. We'll see...

SoFoBoMo here we go!

I'm taking the plunge and will embark on the SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month) in May. The concept is that you shoot, edit, and create a photo book within a 31 day time period.

www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/TJAvery

I have an idea, and my book will have a very specific purpose when it's finished. I'll post updates here as the project progresses.

Just in from Canon...

It's all over the 'net right now: Canon has introduced an updated version of their 24mm tilt/shift lens and a brand new 17mm tilt/shift lens (world's first T/S that wide, AFAIK).

All I can say is WOW. Price for each lens is being estimated at north of $2K. Ouch.

Photos from a 3-year Old

A while back, we got Henry a little kiddie camera. It's a low-quality web-cam adapted into a "child-proof" camera body. I'll vouch for its robustness, but the picture quality is terrible.

Henry and his cam.

I put together a little gallery of Henry's photos yesterday:
www.texbrick.com/photo/averybros/hja_pic_01

click to see gallery

There were some interesting photos in the bunch. One interesting observation is that he often shoots things from his eye-level, i.e. he does not look upwards. Another problem is that the camera has a terribly long shutter lag, so he's often putting the camera down while it's in the process of actually taking a photo. He likes to shoot the TV a lot. There were several dozen photos of some of his favorite TV shows.

Some photos seem completely random and some are accidents. He'll depress the shutter sometimes when he's holding the camera at his side.

click to see gallery

But some photos seem like he's actually seriously thinking about the composition when he takes them. It doesn't seem possible because he photographs like a madman, running all over the place rarely standing still for more than 3 seconds. Maybe he'll make a good photojournalist someday?

Michael and Henry

The boys are doing fine and getting bigger each day. Although Michael is the one growing amazingly fast.

the boys outside
(click to see gallery)

I'll punch your lights out
(click to see gallery)

Here's a link to the latest gallery of their photos:
www.texbrick.com/photo/averybros/2009_01

Big Bend Extras

Last Friday, our DSL at home went out and I spent the following weekend without Internet access. I felt somewhat deprived, :-) but I spent some of my usual 'net surfin' time looking back at my Big Bend photos from last September.

Tornillo Creek near the Rio Grande
(click for larger image)

I found several photos that I'd not processed before, and I thought they'd be worth sharing. Nine new photos came out of this late post-shoot digging, and my three favorites are posted here.

Soil plates on the Rio Grande
(click for larger image)

One of my favorite moments from the trip was the cloudy, humid afternoon we spent near the Hot Springs. The confluence of Tornillo Creek and the Rio Grande River was nearby, and I found a lot of water flowing down Tornillo Creek. I didn't expect to see so much water in the creek.

Terlingua Ghost Town Cemetery
(click for larger image)

The cemetery in the old ghost town is another one of my favorite spots out there. It is unique and rustic as the surrounding area, and adds to the otherworldly feel out there.

Another Photo Published by Texas Highways

Texas Highways has choosen my Blue Creek Canyon sunset photo for use in their 2010 calendar.

click to see larger pic

The calendar will not be out until later this year. This calendar should be available at local bookstores (e.g. Barnes & Noble, etc.). I'm not sure what month my photo will appear on in the calendar.

Many, many thanks to the folks at Texas Highways for again publishing my work and allowing me the privilege of sharing work from my Visions of Big Bend photo project!