Placeholder Thread: Recent Big Bend Trips

[wclavey]

My wife, son & I have just returned from a 10-day road trip through West TX, where we visited Del Rio, Chisos Basin, Ft Davis Mountains, Marfa and a few other places along the way. But the single biggest part of our time was spent in the Big Bend NP. In addition, I know that TJ and his wife recently completed a trip there, too... so this thread is placeholder for his pictures. LOL!

But until he is ready to share some images, I have accumulated a few on my gallery, with a small sampling here, drawn from all over the stops we made.

Santa Elena Canyon


Contrabando Movie Set


Prada


Seminole Canyon State Park

[KJ Smith]

Do we comment now......or wait for TJ and Wayne to post?


I find it interesting to see what you post vs whats in your Gallery.

From this posting I like Santa Elena Canyon.

Is this inspired by the AA exhibit?

Seminole Canyon State Park

I just like it.

From your Gallery

Chapel 2, Contrabando Movie Site, Big Bend Ranch, TX

I think this is the best from that area. I wonder why you chose the one you did?


Early Morning Angles, Indian Lodge, Ft Davis, TX

Reminiscent of Taos Pueblo. Nice


Marfa Lights? Marfa, TX

How can you not like that. Good catch!

Windmill, Marfa, TX

Another classic. Wish the sky was a little darker, the clouds would pop a little more.

[wclavey]

Kevin, thanks. The Santa Elena canyon was inspired by seeing the Adams exhibit. I tried to select a sampling from all the places we visited to work up and then just selected ones that I thought people would like to see... until TJ gets here with the real shots!

Chapel 2 from Contrabando was my favorite there, too, but Phyllis & Charles liked the one I used here. I was pleased with the early morning shot from Indian Lodge - - especially the way the walls all glowed in the early morning sun. I also personally liked the Stardust Motel - - especially the sky. I wish I could have gotten skies like that when we were in the Big Bend Park... but most days there, it was either overcast, completely empty or pouring rain. Once we left the park, the skies got better. I have some real landscapes from inside the park and a few of them have OK skies, and I will work on them next.

Thanks for looking & commenting.

[tjavery]

Yeh... the SE shot vs. AA. I hadn't thought about it yet. But Wes' shot is PDG (pretty dang good)

Very nice work, Wes. The Contrabando set is looked really ragged these days. (IIRC it was major flooding two years ago that hit it)

Y'all should check out his gallery. There are many more great photos in there, and it seems like a good scattering of locations that represent his trip well.

I'm looking forward to seeing more, Wes. Keep posting!

As for the rainstorms this time of year, well, they usually don't blanket the park totally, so relocating sometimes is a good way to get a better vantage point and get around the rain.

It's a PITA sometimes, but if you get a storm in the right spot, it's pretty neat.

[wclavey]

TJ, the dynamic nature of the sky really gives the landscape shots a lot of "action" - - we had much better skies on the second half of the trip after we left the Chisos Basin. These look great!

[venchka]

Curiouser & curiouser...
You seem to own the only all B&W digicam in existance.
Do you own polarizers for your lenses? Real poalizers. Not the circular kind. A polarizer may have helped the clouds/sky in Marfa windmill.
Eugene Binder. Fav. Cropped tighter from the bottom. Maybe a pano and then cropped tight. Maybe. I would have to play with it. Like it!
The motel in "Flesh & Bone" was also named Stardust. I would have to see the movie again to know if it was the same sign.

[wclavey]

Thanks, Wayne, for looking... I only have 1 polarizer now that I use for all my lenses (35mm through LF), and hence, it is circular... I have 4 or 5 step-up rings so I can use it on any lens. It does have some effect - - I can see it as I rotate it. But it is not as strong as a regular polarizer was.

My largest lens is 67mm and I think my filters are all 67mm. I have red & yellow in the same size, too. I should have gotten a 72mm or 77mm instead, since one of the 67mm lenses is the 90mm SA and I get some vignetting if I shift a lot with the filter on.

Phyllis says the same thing: "Weren't those pictures all in color when you took them? It looked like it when we reviewed them in the camera..."

[jeffkohn]

Real poalizers. Not the circular kind.

And what exactly do you think is not real about circular polarizers?

Wes/TJ, I took a quick look through your pictures and liked what I saw. Wes you've got an excellent variety of images. I'll follow up with more in-depth comments when I have the time.

[venchka]

Based on my very unscientific eyeball testing, a normal polarizer is a bit stonger in it's effect than the circular variety. However, the knee jerk reaction these days is to buy a circular polarizer. I have 2 normals & 2 circulars. I would trade the circulars for normal. Has anyone ever confirmed that the circular variety is really neccessary for autofocus? I figure most of us are focusing manually when we are using a polarizer and tripod.

Westley, I have 82mm & 77mm polarizers if you would like to try one on your 90mm lens some time.

ps: I discovered that my digital color files can be made to resemble a B&W photo last night. Stay tuned.

[jeffkohn]

A circular polarizer is just a linear polarizer with an additional filter behind it; they're no less effective than linear filters (just more expensive). Different polarizers may differ slightly in effectiveness, but it's not a circular vs linear thing, just a matter of different quality/effectiveness of the linear filters used. But compare linear and circular versions of the B+W MRC polarizer, for instance, and you'll find they work just the same. A linear polarizer does interfere with the AF/metering system in DSLR's (it doesn't make them completely inoperable, just less accurate).

[wclavey]

Jeff, that was my understanding about the construction of circular polarizers, as well, from the reading I did before I purchased a new polarizer a few years ago... it could very well be that the difference I was seeing was between the brands - - they were different.

[venchka]

Fair enough. I own 3 B+W polarizers. 1 linear & 1 circular, both pre-MRC & 1 circular MRC. I won't worry about variations any more.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by venchka

...
The motel in "Flesh & Bone" was also named Stardust. I would have to see the movie again to know if it was the same sign.

My bad. Different motel.

Shot at the Sunset Motel in Monahans, Texas, owned and operated by Doris Barker. Daughter Jeanie Barker Scott's stepdaughter got a walk-on role when a young actress called in sick.

[KJ Smith]

TJ,

First shot, I like the use of the IB. Usually I don't go for big cloud scenes, but this on works. The clouds don't overpower the image.

I am undecided if foreground would have helped. Doesn't look as if there was any to use anyway.

Second shot. It looks as if you burned the two right corners, the lower left corner and the hill on the left. Did You?

Even if you didn't, it gives that appearance, I would try to even it out a little.

Probably a little hard to get any contrast in that flat light.

Other than that, I really like it.

[wclavey]

I suspect that there would not have been much foreground on the first one for quite a bit of distance... I like the sense of immensity that it gives the viewer to see that flat of a foreground with that size of sky... the whole time we were there, we kept commenting about how much bigger the sky looked than back here in Houston... and in Houston, it is so much bigger than in CT...