Pavithra's Photography: desert

Showing posts with label desert. Show all posts

Jul 4, 2010

Moon Walk on White Dunes

Movement of the Dunes
Focal length: 47mm
Shutter speed: 1/50
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

The title says it all. It was a beautiful day at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. White sands with distant blue mountains and beautiful puffy clouds on a blue sky, rainbows, lightning storm and an almost full moon rising..it really made me feel like i was on another planet or on the moon.
On our way to Texas from San Diego we decided to stay at Las Cruces, NM and spend a day at White Sands. It was beautiful day...hot (b/c its still in the desert)...but beautiful. The park was small so not many trails but it was out of this world kind of experience. I say this because it feels like you might be walking on the Moon. And to put more funk...NASA have their missile test range close by. Definitely a must visit place...i hope i get to go again! Enjoy the pictures!

Standing Still
Focal length: 58mm
Shutter speed: 1/1250
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/7.1

Driftwood
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/22

Blue Mountain Majesty
Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 0.8
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/22

Moon Rise over the Dunes
Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 1/2
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/22

Bleached Earless Lizard
Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/7.1

A Clear Reflection
Focal length: 40mm
Shutter speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

Jun 5, 2009

Cliff Dwellers

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/20

Located at Navajo Tribal land is a White settlement based on the barren land. These structures provided a cool shelter with the help of unique shaped boulders at the foot of the Vermillion Cliffs. According to the Arizona travel website, these unique White settlers used such rocks to adjust to the harsh weather and barren land. Here are some pictures of the quick stop i made at this location:

Native at the house

Focal length: 24
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/20

Boulder Balance

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/20

Unusual Rock

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/20

Cliff side

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/20

Jun 2, 2009

Monument Valley

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 0.5secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

A scene seen in many Wild West movies, Monument valley lies in the Navajo Indian reservation on the Utah and Arizona border. We visited Monument Valley around four o'clock, after seeing Antelope Valley. Its about a 3 hour drive and goes through flat desert where all u have is the road in front of you and nothing else on either side. And then when you get to the Monument Valley you see these huge rock formations on either side. These buttes each have different formations and during sunset plays with light and shadow. This place is a definite must see and best for sunrise or sunset. Monument Valley pics:

Hand in Hand

Focal length: 45mm
Shutter speed: 1/3
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

After Sunset

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 0.8secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

Dusk at the Valley

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 30.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

May 31, 2009

Antelope Canyon at Navajo Nation

Upper Antelope Canyon Colors

Focal length: 47mm
Shutter speed: 3.2secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

The narrow canyon slots in Antelope Canyon, near Page Arizona, offers to the travelers and photographers the unique opportunity to enter the Navajo Land and experience an incredible view of the colorful sand formations with its swirls and waves. Antelope Canyon is a breathtaking place to see in summer when the beams of light pierces the darkness of the canyon slots at noon. This canyon, I have noticed recently, is crowded with tourists and photographers all trying to capture scenes of the canyon. Maybe its the digital world and the use of Internet that these remote locations have become famous for people to travel to. With digital cameras to share pictures with family and friends and Internet photo sharing websites like Flickr or Picasa, these destinations have become popular for tourists to travel too and share the same vision as the initial discoverers. Due to the timing on the sun, there is only a short amount of time in which there is light into the canyons and this is the time when you find the most crowd in these areas. This is my second visit to this canyon but first time with my Canon 5D. Its great to visit over and over because the canyon never has the same lighting or the shapes due to weather conditions being different from the day before or past. I traveled to Antelope Canyon for the Memorial day weekend 2009, having enough time to cover Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Monument Park, Vermilion Cliffs- Cliff Dwellers, and North Rim Grand Canyon. It was a big trip for a three day weekend but since some where time based we prepared ourselves for the next right away. I definitely recommend all these places to be visited if you ever travel to Antelope Canyon. Everything is close by so its best to set aside couple of days for it. So here are some shots from Antelope and I will post the rest according to each post.

Canyon Welcome beam

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/4
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Canyon Main

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 2.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Subtle Colors

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 0.5secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

George Washington in the Canyon

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 4.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Monument Sunset on the Sandstone

Focal length: 50mm
Shutter speed: 1/3
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Sunlight beam

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 3.2secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Sun spotlight

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 4.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

Looking up in the Canyon

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 2.5secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4

HDR trial of the Canyons

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 3 different for HDR
ISO: 100
Aperture: 3 different for HDR

Pockets in the Canyon

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 6.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

Candle light Pathway

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 4.0secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/20

Enjoy! and PEACE not WAR!

May 27, 2009

Horseshoe Bend

The Horseshoe Bend
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/10

Located in the outskirts of Page, Arizona, Horseshoe Bend has become a popular hike for tourists. I myself have been there twice already and this time with my Canon 5D. Horseshoe Bend is called such because of its river pathway following a bend like an impression left by a horse's shoe. The river that runs this path is the Colorado river. There are no rails or barricades at the viewpoint so its definitely a scary place for those who fear height. Of course it takes brave photographers ;) to take a picture of this overlook. Anyway, I love this spot for its beautiful rock formation as well as the colors of the river traveling this path. These pictures are taken on my last trip to Antelope Canyon Navajo Preservation during spring, where the sun is at its best and there are no storms in the path. I tried my first few trials with HDR photography, High dynamic range imaging. HDR with tone mapping is a form of photography to create different dynamic ranges with my camera's AEB setting to bring out all the ranges of exposures. I used different tools, like photomatix (which puts a watermark) and Jaspers DRIMaker aligning tool (which aligns the images with out tone mapping) to create my amateur HDR trials. HDR is a hard technique to master. I hope my next few tries are better. Check out my trials and comment! thanks! :)

Relaxed Feet
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/18

Campsite at the bottom
Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/6.3

Rugged Rock

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/18

Horseshoe Overlook
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/50
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/18

Overcast Bend
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/25
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/18

Photomatix HDR trial
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 3 different
ISO: 100
Aperture: 3 different

Jaspers DRIMaker aligning tool HDR trial
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 3 different
ISO: 100
Aperture: 3 different

takecarez!

May 4, 2009

Death Valley Desert

Death Valley National Park is located in the east of Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. It is known for its dry and hot conditions, and is probably considered the Desert of North America. It has its lowest point in North America at the Badwater Basin, below sea level at 282ft. Surrounding the Basin are the snow cap Panamint range mountains standing 11,000ft tall on one side and the Black mountains on the other side. It is the largest park in the United States, not including Alaska, and is rich in minerals like borax and different salts. Death valley is a perfect place to capture photos of desolated areas with its numerous ghost towns and vast areas of nothingness. I visited the Death Valley National Park at the end of April 2009 and beginning of May to get a good glimpse of the park when the weather conditions were not too hot or too cold. Here are some pictures from the trip: