Colorado landscapes: Black Canyon - dealing with an overcast

 

My first photo gives you an idea how we saw the Black Canyon of the Gunnison the day after the shots in my last blog post were made. There is nothing exciting about this photo, except maybe for the location itself, but the light is just not very flattering. There wasn’t really a need to make photos that I wouldn’t use anyway here in the blog, in a book, or most important as a large print on the wall. However, I still make these clicks for my own documentation and memory. I want to be able to remember locations and shooting angles in order to be better prepared if I go to the same place another time.

The landscape on the rim of the canyon is desert-like and fresh colors are not there in abundance during an overcast, as easily seen in the first photo. There is much more to the canyon than just the rocks and looking out for other subjects is important on a day like this. The south rim of the canyon is at an altitude of about 2500 m (~8,300 ft) and fall comes early. The first leaves started turning yellow already in the first half of September during our visit and pointing the lens into this gully lead to the photo above.

Painted Wall, the highest cliff in Colorado, with its patterns is probably the most iconic view of Black Canyon National Park. These patterns were created more than a billion years ago when molten rock was intruded into fractures and joints in the existing rock, then cooled and hardened. I made several clicks and because of the gray overcast I was thinking black & white for a final image. Everything changed all at once when the sky broke and the sun sent its rays through the layer of clouds to the bottom of the canyon. Suddenly the gigantic rock wall revealed its beauty and told the story why people called it “Painted Wall” much better.

East Portal Road leads to the bottom of the Black Canyon, down to the Gunnison Diversion Dam. A tunnel through the rocks from there to the Uncompahgre Valley delivers water for irrigation since 1909. The water of the Gunnison River at the dam is more quiet and after spending hours up on the dry rim it was a pleasure to see green and yellow reflecting in the cool water...

Great subject for overcast day

 

We drove by several times at the Arched Bridge in Somesville on Desert Island, Maine. It is a busy place because most tourists like to visit and snap a picture. We chose to stop there on the only "bad weather day". This was actually a good decision. First the light on this wonderful bridge and the little museum was very soft because of the heavy overcast, and second, there were a lot less people than we have seen on other days. With other words, it wasn't so difficult to make an image without someone in the frame. The small village of Somesville is a National Historic District and the bridge is not the only interesting structure there. Overall we saw very few houses in Maine that were not in good shape. If you go there, don't miss to have a look in the little museum. It is a nice display of the local history.

The top image needs actually a little more head room above the roof. I have a few more photos of the bridge without that little flaw, but really liked the reflections on the water in this one the best. Walking around and working the subject a little more led finally to photos two and three. They leave no doubt about what time of the season we visited this nice piece of architecture, and I can tell you, I didn't miss the sun a bit this day...

Nature clicks #168 - Cliff Swallow

 

The cold and rainy weather continued today but it didn't stop me from going out and paying a visit to the Green Island Wetlands. It seemed everything slowed down in the rain. You can hear the birds but they seem to stay away from the open water. I tried it anyway and was even blessed with another first sighting of a bird. It was a dark day again with a strong overcast and I knew light would not be sufficient for working with the long lens in the wetlands. Just putting on a flashlight does not do the trick either because the distance between the camera and the birds exceeds quite often the range of a flashlight. The solution for today's shooting conditions was the attachment of a flash extender. This is basically a fresnel lens, made out of plastic, that is mounted about 8 inches away from the  front of the flash head. I'm using the Better Beamer flash extender and this inexpensive device is able to increase the flash output by about 2 to 3 f-stops. Using the flash in TTL mode helps to get the right amount of light to your subject.

When I saw the Cliff Swallows flying around my "car blind" I was first a little confused. I saw swallows with squared tails and I also saw swallows with deeply forked tails. It wasn't until some of them were sitting down in a bush right beside the water that I realized that some Barn Swallows were among the Cliff Swallows as you can see in the second image.

It is 9:30PM and I just checked the weather forecast for Memorial Day. It looks like it is not a good idea to stow away the flash extender, and oh, there is a "flash flood watch" in effect for our area.... What a lovely holiday weekend.... ;-) Enjoy yours anyway!