Landergin

West of Amarillo is a location I stop at whenever I pass by-the old elevator at Landergin. Nothing much but an old grain elevator and abandoned gas station. Still...then draw me in. There is something about the old elevator being the only thing over 8' tall on the plains.

The clouds were moving and I thought a great image would be a long exposure with the clouds in motion around the old silos of the elevator.

I did a test image with the DSLR to check the effect and then set up the 4x5 for a 30 second image. Waited for the right moment to catch the leading edge of a cloud.

Looking at the chrome I the light table, I got the exposures right but found I lost one because the film shifted in the holder. Note to self, tap and set the film before doing this again!

Luckily, I got the second one. I cut the corners a little with too much rise, but a little cropping and I got the image I was looking for.

On the High Plains

The Texas panhandle is the southern reaches of the High Plains. It can be rolling or totally flat. Neither tend to draw photographers but there is a certain something about the flatlands that really interests me.

The farms, the grain elevators, the small towns, and the endless sky. It is even better when the sky is stormy and over cast.

While driving to Amarillo I passed by this field and turned around so I could stop and photograph it.

The green grass, the flat, the remains of a fence line and the thick clouds. I thought it was something. Out came the 4x5 and the 75mm wide angle lens. I photographed this in color for the green and in b+w for the stormy quality. Here is the scene.

Check out my Wilderness Photographer Blog linked to the right for the snapshot that I was looking at.

Open Range-Tarrant County

The open range of Tarrant County. Not too far outside the city limits but still in Tarrant County one can find ranches, creeks, and a landscape much like a hundred years ago.

I have been driving the roads west of town a lot this summer and have made several stops at this location on the side of the road.

I like the open range view.

Here is the setup one clear morning-actually the same morning we missed the eclipse.

To see what the best image of this area looked like check out my WildernessPhotographer travels blog linked to the right.

Too Late

A few weeks ago there was a lunar eclipse. I had marked the time as being right around sunrise and I decided to meet several friends with the hope of photographing it.

We had a suitable location planned with a great clear western view where we hoped the eclipsed moon would be close to the horizon.

That Saturday dawned mostly clear and we thought we were in for a treat. We arrived at our location early enough but only saw the moon sinking into a cloud on the horizon.

Drat. We missed it.

Well never one to let that spoil a morning we stayed until sunrise and managed to make a few images of the dawn. Here is one with rolling hills and grasslands. It was not the preplanned image but still turned out to be a nice little morning. So I guess being too late sometimes aint so bad.

In Holiday Spirit

Spent a fantastic holiday weekend photographing. Hurricane Alex chased several days of rain our way and along with it some great clouds. Spent two of the three day weekend out with the big camera.

Here is another image of the wonderful Rock Church with flag flying proudly for the holiday.

What a great day drive and a perfect day to do it.

When I have clouds like this, I sure wish I had a 47XL. As it was, the 75mm was about the only lens I used this weekend.

Big camera, big sky, big wide lens.