Thursday, May 24, 2012

Santa Elena Canyon and Rio Grande

As the sky remained clear in Big Bend day after day I decided that another morning image to try was to go back to Santa Elena Canyon and photograph from the edge of the Rio Grande.

I made my way down to the river in the dark and walked until I had a decent foreground of water and rocks and not just mud.  The mud was the big concern as I was not keen to be walking back and forth in it.  I found a spot I could bounce across some rocks and hopefully avoid it.

I moved the tripod out into the water and started setting up.

The canyon is so big that the 75mm was the lens to use.  That is as wide as I go and it makes me wish I had the 47XL.

I knew the color would be intense on the rock and decided that classic Velvia50 was the way to go.

I used a soft edge grad filter to tone down the sky a bit and waited.

I set up the camera and worked on focus and then waited.

When the light first hit the top of the wall I got the middle image.  

Then quickly, while I reloaded film the light made its way down the wall and I got the third image.

I added a couple of more images for good measure and bracketed too.  All told I shot 8 sheets that morning.  That was a big day for me.  Luckily I got a couple of nice ones.

If you ever make it to Big Bend be sure to plan for a sunrise from here. You will be glad you did.

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