When I first arrived at this monument it was about 3pm. Although eye aspiring at first, I noticed that the lighting was as bad as I had seen anywhere.
I choose this image to upload first into this folder because it was made much later in the afternoon where the contrast range was more manageable. But when I first arrived there was so much white that it was very hard to try to compress and compose an image into something I liked. So as to not waste time just waiting for the later afternoon light to arrive, I broke out my 100-400mm lens and began looking for much smaller compositions to work with.
I also began shooting in IR, as it seems to favor strong lighting. This is a weird place because it really appears as if it just snowed. Only when you opened the door and the rush of heat hit you did reality set in.
I shot until dark-thirty and gave thought about returning in the morning but the gates didn’t open until after sunrise, and the lighting would have been much the same early on as it was in the late afternoon, so I choose to head to Texas instead.
View Large On Black
Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8”L
Exposure, 1/60 sec.
Aperture, f14 Lens Focal Length,60mm
ISO Speed, 400
Polarizing Filter
Tags: western-landscapes national-monuments new-mexico white-sands-national-monumnet sand-dune audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
© All Rights Reserved
I'm having some issues with getting the type of IR image from the newly converted 30D. The camera arrived back from LifePixel 2 days before I left on this Photo Adventure, so no time to do any fine-tuning.
I chose a much different IR filter than the norm based on the video tutorial from LifePixel...this might have been a big mistake. I have worked on other IR images made with the standard IR filter and found that there was a lot of Photoshop work involved to obtain a descent image. The video I reviewed indicated much more control over certain areas within the overall image. There is only a certain amount of global PS work one can do to an image, after that its careful selecting areas within the image and working more selectively. I don't really mind doing these extra steps as they are part of my normal PS workflow, but I was really hoping for much better results than what I'm now getting.
This image is not indicative of what I'm experiencing. I'll post some more IR.
View Large On Black
Camera, Canon EOS 30D-IR
Lens, Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 ”L”IS
Exposure, 1/80 sec.
Aperture, f 14
Lens Focal Length, 220mm
ISO Speed, 100
Tags: white-sands-national-monumnet sepia new-mexico sand-dune national-monuments bw detail-studies audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
© All Rights Reserved
I would have given most anything for some clouds (there are two tiny one on the left)that afternoon, but the weak cold front that was chasing me through southern CO. and the next morning through NM durg out all of the clouds and left me with blank.
This is a 2 image blend using Dynamic HDR 5. I left the bottom half a bit darker...much more would have been a little too unbelievable IMHO. Our eyes would have seen more but then again we are viewing in a video of images going between light and dark. Perhaps a little lighter would appeal to others moreso than here.
Some days you lose and then some days you lose again.
View Large On Black
Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8”L
Exposure, 1/200 sec.
Aperture, f11 Lens Focal Length,70mm
ISO Speed, 100
Tags: white-sands-national-monumnet winter-landscapes sunsets parks new-mexico national-monuments dynamic-hdr-5 audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
© All Rights Reserved
This was made late in the afternoon. I love to do these detail studies and play with the light.
Camera, Canon EOS 7D
Lens, Canon 100-400 f 4.5-5.6 ”L”, IS
Lens Focal Length, 360 mm
Exposure, 0.003 sec (1/400) sec.
Aperture, f 7.1
ISO Speed, 200
Polarizing Filter
Tags: white-sands-national-monumnet new-mexico sand-dune parks national-monuments closeup detail-studies audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
© All Rights Reserved
This was the perfect ending for my day at this park. Hindsight being 40/40(well for me anyway), I probably should have gone back the following morning, but I really needed to get to Rockport Texas by the next afternoon.
As it turned out I had an extra day afterall, but I didn't know until well after I left this area.
I was out of the park and on the main highway heading to the town of Alamogordo,NM for the night. I saw this and just had to turn around in the middle of a 4 lane divided highway...up and over the concrete curbing. I got to here and I'm getting my gear out of the truck and a cop pulls up. I thought he was going to site me for making an improper u-turn, but he just wanted to know if I was in trouble...said he doesn't see many people pulled over like that???
Press "L" will work for the long view.
Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8 ”L"
Lens Focal Length, 24mm
Exposure, 0.6 sec.
Aperture, f 9
ISO Speed, 100
Tags: white-sands-national-monumnet sunsets parks national-monuments audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
© All Rights Reserved