Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 18 - 20

Gallery (25 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 18 - 20

This final set of photos from my 2010 trip include a hike through the windy and dusty Bisti Badlands in Northern New Mexico, then some shots on the drive home through Colorado (the above being one of them), Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, steaming in the cold morning air and finally, a shot of the Columbia River at Vantage in Washington. That is the last "daily" gallery from this trip... coming in the near future will be a best-of with highlights...

All posts from this trip: Southwest 2010

Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 16 & 17

Gallery (115 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 16 & 17

This large gallery has a few images of El Malpais at the start, but the majority consist of the amazing ruins at Chaco Culture National Historic Monument, sometimes just called Chaco Canyon.

All posts from this trip: Southwest 2010

Spring 2015 in Vancouver!

Gallery (35 images): Spring 2015 in Vancouver!

A beautiful evening of wandering around, enjoying the warm spring weather with my Fujifilm X-E2 and the outstanding XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4R LM OIS kit zoom lens...

Gallery: Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4R LM OIS Revisited...

Gallery (35 images): Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4R LM OIS Revisited

Before I get into this main topic of this post, let me point out a few changes I made to this blog today. The separate links section on right side of the page has been removed and in its place, a list of image galleries has been added. These will filter the blog and only show postings that have links to image galleries for the relevant year. In addition, I have edited the main "SHOW" menu at the top of the blog, to remove the beauphoto blog entry link and put in its place, a "Major Trip/Event" link which will filter the blog to show only entries relevant to either a major photography trip I have been on, or for a major event I have photographed, like galleries related to the 2010 Olympics for example. The links have now all be moved to a "Links Elsewhere" page, which has been revised as well. Okay, so now to the main topic...

Above is a link to a gallery of images from Fujifilm's XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4R LM OIS zoom lens. I used to own that lens but sold it along with my X-E1 body well over a year ago. After selling it, I actually missed having a mid-range "walk-around" zoom, but had decided to wait for Fujifilm's XF 16-55mm f/2.8 pro-series zoom to arrive. As impressive a lens as the new 16-55mm is overall (a review of that lens is also coming), after testing it I decided not to get it after all. It was simply too big and heavy for me to have any interest in carrying it around on a regular basis! So, when I recently ordered myself a second X-E2 body, I decided at the last minute to order it with the 18-55mm kit zoom. I am actually quite impressed with the little 18-55mm and it seems better optically than I remember it being...

Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Day 15

Gallery (45 images): Southwest 2010 / Day 15

Three interesting places, visited in one day! Firstly, the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Preserve (with lots of basking turtles as above), next the Very Large Array (VLA) facility, a part of the NRAO, or National Radio Astronomy Observatory and finally, an evening photographing the bluffs at El Malpais National Monument.

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Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 13 & 14

Gallery (40 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 13 & 14

The above photo was taken at sunset, near Chisos Basin in Big Bend National Park. The gallery contains images taken in the park, along the Rio Grande River and then also further north at McDonald Observatory, featuring the huge 10 meter Hobby•Eberly telescope.

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Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 10 - 12

Gallery (50 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 10 - 12

The above photo was taken in Big Bend National Park, however the gallery starts with two more observatory visits. Day 10 saw us first visit Sacramento Peak Observatory and then Apache Point Observatory. We decided to take a back road out towards the south to return to the campground near White Sands, however this proved a very rough and long route, pretty much killing the rest of the day. In addition, we ended up accidentally driving through a military range and at one point, a convoy of Hummers and other military trucks came up behind us, thankfully just driving by when I pulled over to let them pass. The next day we did more driving than photography, first over to Carlsbad Caverns and then, at that point, we made the decision to head south towards Big Bend National Park. The next day was mostly driving as well with some gorgeous evening light and storm clouds which greeted us, once we reached Big Bend NP...

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Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 8 & 9

Gallery (90 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 8 & 9

Two major National Monuments in New Mexico comprise this new gallery of images from days 8 & 9 of our trip, the first being Gila Cliff Dwellings, the left image above, and the second White Sands on the right. For more info on White Sands, see the description in the gallery.

The dynamic range of photos taken at the Gila Cliff Dwellings was a challenge. The ruins were in the shade under a deeply overhanging cliff and yet the beautiful exterior landscape was often visible in wide-angle shots, with lovely blue skies and trees that would be a shame to let blow out. I remember working on these images back in 2010, with a much older version of Adobe Lightroom, and found it challenging to get anything that looked decent from many of the shots. The sky was often bleached white and the lifted shadows were noisy. I must say, Adobe has come a long way with its image processing in Lightroom over the years, and while I am not a fan of how it handles my more recent Fujifilm X-Trans raw files, it does do a pretty good job of my older Canon EOS-7D raw files with their standard Bayer-pattern pixel layout...

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Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 6 & 7

Gallery (50 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 6 & 7

On day 6, we travelled east from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, over to Kitt Peak National Observatory, with an interesting view of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope shown in the above shot. This was a trip of visiting observatories and there are many more photos of telescope domes to come in the following days. After Kitt Peak, it was over to New Mexico, where we camped at City of Rocks State Park...

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Gallery: Southwest 2010 / Days 4 & 5

Gallery (65 images): Southwest 2010 / Days 4 & 5

The next two days of travel took us through Arizona, from Yucca and Wickiup in the northwest, to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, bordering on Mexico. There was lots blooming; cacti, shrubs and even Giant Saguaro.

At the backcountry campsite in Organ Pipe Cactus NM, there was an opportunity to photograph a time-lapse of a Saguaro blooming at night. I set my Canon 7D up with a 430EXII flash, and photographed the Saguaro for a few hours, with the blurred stars moving in the background. Photo 62 in the above gallery shows a wide view of the cactus I photographed. It is hard to tell, but if you rapidly sweep the movie slider back and forth, you can see one bloom opening. Click below to open the time-lapse in a new window (you will need to have Quicktime installed)...

Finally, since it was so warm and dry, I decided to set up the camera to do an overnight time-lapse which captured the Milky Way rising behind a lone Saguaro, all the way through until morning...

All posts from this trip: Southwest 2010