Old Rock Church

The Old Rock Church near Cranfill's Gap is one of my favorite places to photograph in north Texas.  It sits alone outside town on a small rise.  There are no powerlines.  It is a neat old church.

It makes a great photograph.

It is a place my friends and I will visit several times a year to photograph.

Here is one of our warm weather trips we made.  

Our usual plan is to get there at dawn and photograph it at sunrise.  However, when you have good clouds, then mid morning becomes great for working in B+W with large format film.

This was one of those mornings.  Nice clouds moving by with some bright blue sky showing through.

Set up the camera to frame the church and the sky.  Because it is out alone, it is usually quiet here unless they are setting it up for a wedding (which people do here sometimes).

This old church is a perfect spot to bring the big camera, take your time and explore.

It is just as neat on the inside, although I always get my best shots outside with some sky in them.

Spring Sky

Spring time in Texas means four things: Wind, Bluebonnets, Thunderstorms, and Tornados. Luckily the last one is still the rarest.  Now for the photographer it also usually means clouds. 

Last spring, I went out with a pack full of gear to a local park to see what kind of flowers I might find.  It was past bluebonnet season but I still had hopes for some.  What I was really treated to was some great clouds moving across the sky at sunrise.

So I shifted gears from flowers to clouds and set up this image. of the hills in the park with the great morning light.  In the early soft light I photographed the softer colors of the sky, the moon, and a trail running through the park.  After a couple of images and the light warmed up, I switched over to a black and white shot to capture the scene in monochrome.

The different look each one has is great although I like them both at the the same time.  One of the things I do notice on looking at the results is the wonderful colors and glow that Velvia has.  There is always colors in the early mooring and classic Velvia 50 always impresses me.

I miss that film.

The Chisos from Desert Mountain Overlook

My most visited viewpoint in Big Bend is the Desert Mountain Overlook.  I stop here every day as this is the closest view to where I camp at Cottonwood.  It also has a several possible compositions in different directions.  It has a great view east to the Chisos that is good for sunrise as well as sunset.  Across the road are a couple of views west and south along the Rio Grande and the Sierra Ponce.  Those varied possibilities make it always a place worth checking out.  

It also has a good view of the entire sky.  Meaning when I leave the campground every morning, I always drive here in the dark.  With a clear view of the sky I can judge what the clouds are and use that to help me decide my morning location.

There are several great possibilities within a 15 minute drive so by stopping here I can judge the light and then pick the best of several possible locations.  Sometimes that means driving a little, other times it means staying put.

This was an afternoon and it was a chance to photograph clouds over the Chisos in the afternoon light.  Again, that afternoon light offers a view with the Chisos front lit.  Add in some big sky clouds and you have a great shot.

This is very different from the morning view here with the back lit peaks that truly earn the name "Ghost Mountains". 

With the clouds like they were I went with both color and b+w, figuring each might be good.  The color was ok, but honestly the wider view I was able to make with my DSLR at 17mm was better.  However the b+w image had something the digital did not.

Here is that shot on Efke 25 with DR-5 processing.

Tule Mountain

One of the unique mountains on the west side of Big Bend National Park is Tule Mountain. It is a solitary flat topped peak near the west entrance to the park at Maverick.  Geologists will tell you that it is related to the Burro Mesa which is just east of it and that faulting and blocking caused the space between the two to fall.

The result is a peak that stands alone and makes a great subject for the camera.

After spending the middle part of the day west of the national park along the river in Big Bend Ranch State Park, I stopped near Tule in the afternoon to try an image.

Being the afternoon and having another location for sunset, I decided to just do a black and white image of Tule.

The view is looking south, so I put on a polarizer to see if it would help the clouds pop slightly.  I also used the orange filter to see if that might help darken the sky a little.

Otherwise, it was simply metering and adjusting the exposure for the two filters.

Here is the result on Efke 25 with the DR-5 process for a b+w chrome.

I made two exposures to allow for a little safety in case I was off and then it was pack up and go for a sunset location.

Clear Sky Morning at Santa Elena

I made a second morning stop at Santa Elena Canyon a few days after my first visit.  It was a completely clear sky day.  This morning I decided to photography from a different vantage point to the south and downstream of the canyon and see if I could get the light on the canyon walls.

As soon as the light started to come up I began to make images.  When the pink predawn light of a clear sky is in the west before sunrise I was able to get this image.  Velvia capturing the softness and delicate color in the sky.

I photographed on through the sunrise and I had hoped the orange light of the first rays of the sun would be stunning, the final results on film lacked the qualities of this image here.

That sometimes unknown is one of those fantastic things about photography, you have to try and then see what works.