Santa Elena Canyon is my favorite location in Big Bend National Park. It is a location I visit every trip. If you follow my WildernessPhotographer blog you have seen many entries about this amazing location.
After witnessing a spectacular sunrise where I did not even try to use the 4x5, I set up my tripod and the Arca-Swiss and decided to work with black and white.
The amazing light show of the sunrise not only ended but the clouds were rapidly fleeing the sky. Some shadows were still sliding across the canyon and I hoped that monochrome was the way to.
I worked on two compositions.
First thith the canon centered and then with the canyon left and the the bulk of the Mesa de Anguila as the main subject.
Luckily the few clouds were making just the right amount of shadow and light. I worked with Efke 25 and then had it processed by DR-5.
These are the best two.
The Chisos Mountains rising out of the desert in Big Bend National Park. The Chisos are a small compact range of mountains that are in the middle of the park. From the river elevations of around 2000' they reach heights of 7800'.
Mountains like this are known as a "sky island". The desert is hot, gets little rain, and has limited plant/animal life. The mountains provide cooler temps, gets more rain (the mountain helps generate the rain), and has significantly more plants and animals. The desert is harsh, the Chisos has pines, aspen, and bears. It is an island in a desert sea-hence the name "sky island".
I love the view of the Chisos rising out of the desert and usually hope to find some images that can show them for a backdrop of a desert scene. On an afternoon of exploring on was on western side of the mountains and some clouds were starting to build in the sky. I thought it would be a good chance to photograph the Chisos in black and white. I found a location with a good view, however I had limited foreground and since I was west of the park, I was limited by a fence from searching for the right element.
Working with what I had, I set up the tripod and framed the view to take in the clouds with the Chisos anchoring the bottom of the frame.
I used Efke 25 that I had processed in DR-5 to a chrome.
Santa Elena Canyon is my favorite location in Big Bend National Park. It is a location I visit every trip. If you follow my WildernessPhotographer blog you have seen many entries about this amazing location.
