From a little-visited part of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness:
We found a couple of massive fossilized tree stumps.
We found a couple of vacant eagles' nests. Here's a video and a couple of pix:
We're not sure if it's legal to get this close. Actually, we're not even sure this is an eagle nest, but that's our best guess. In any case, it is not currently in use.
Another eagle nest can be seen on the top of one of these hoodoos. It was located only 100 yards from the one above. When you google "bisti eagle nest" you see photo after photo of the same nest in the same part of the wilderness-i.e. the place were more visitors go. Here are the floyderdog blog, you get truly unique eagles nests!
Lisa found a dinosaur toe or finger bone. Go ahead: google "dinosaur phalange image," and you'll see a picture just like this one, except ours is a better specimen. Once again, the floyderdog blog comes through!
From the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah WSA:
Each time I go to Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah, I try and try and try to get a decent photo of these yellow/orange hoodoos, but I never quite get the light I want. These are the best pictures of these hoodoos that I've take so far. They're still underwhelming. Someday, I'll have truly great pix of these. One thing I need is a really great sunset, which I have not been lucky have during any of my serious efforts to take a picture of this area.
Lucy was spayed just four days before we I took this video. She's crazy.
It was windy when we got up Sunday morning.
A few months back when we visited Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah, we met a professional photographer named Cecil Whitt who was camped out near us. We chatted with him. He gets up daily before sunrise and goes out and take pictures until the sun comes up. Then he hangs around his camp all day sleeping, eating cold beans, and drinking Miller beer until just before sunset. Then he marches back into the hoodoos and takes pictures until well after sunset. He does it day after day wherever he is shooting. Ah, now that's the life! I was very curious to see what a true professional could do at Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah. He has finally posted his pictures on his website. They are fatastic pictures. He even has some photos of my beloved yellow hoodoos.
I have read some of his thoughts on photography. One thing he admits freely is that to make pictures like his, you need to start off with a good photo, of course, but you also need to tweak them in photoshop. His pictures are fantastic, but I can tell you that the final product looks different than real life. Even with the best light at the twilight, the colors are never so vivid in real life at Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah as they are in his photos. I don't write this to be critical in any way. To the contrary. I wish I could make similar images myself. His philosophy is that part of the art is the way you process the final picture. Also, upon reading his thoughts on photography, I realize more and more that my goal to create a twilight shot at Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah that is almost exactly how it was in real life is not realistic owing to the optic limitations of a camera compared to a human eyeball. Except for very particular circumstances, the light and subject of a given setting almost always have a far greater range of color and contrast than a camera can capture. Therefore, it is usually impossible to capture an image that is "just like it really was" at the time you took the picture. In my pictures above, I have tweaked them minimally in an effort to make them look as close to my memory of the "reality" as possible. In Whitt's photos, you'll see a whole new of range of ideas. Look here to be blown away by his images.
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