Three Boulders

Three boulders on the edge of the Llano Estacado.

Driving across eastern New Mexico one will come across the western escarpment of the flat topped Llano Estacado. There the flat suddenly drops off 200-300' to the plains below.

Just the sort of place to make an image and when I saw these three I knew it was a great place to stop to capture the open country and the dramatic edge.

Caprock Canyons

I was out at Caprock Canyons State Park in the Texas panhandle on a cloudy, rainy day. What great conditions for black and white!

Actually this whole summer has been a black and white event for me with my b+w to color film ratio about 8:1. It has allowed me to do much more daytime photography where my color work is always around the edge of the day. That makes it ideal for the long days of summer.

I am looking forward to fall and some fall color, which will tilt me back toward color and then winter may see me shift again to more black and white.

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.