I just thought I'd throw out some more shots from my cute blue camera and all it's plastic-ey goodness.
Beautiful evening sky (in b&w)
In Search of Great Pictures
(yes, that's a light leak in the top right hand corner. You learn to live with them rather than fight them when shooting with a toy camera).
Thanks for looking and Happy Friday Everyone!
I have to say, out of all my southwest Diana shots, this one has to by my favorite.
Taken in Utah during one of our "baths".
It only took me three weeks to get all these pictures, but it took me 3 months to get them all done. Here are the last shots from my southwest trip.
canyon wall 4 (arches) canyon wall 3 (arches) canyon wall 2 (de chelly) canyon wall 1 (de chelly)
paranthesis for location of shot
If I feel a little spunky later in the week, I might upload some of the interesting things I got out of my diana from the trip, but for now the trip is officially over. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback and critiques on all of my posts from this trip. I hope you enjoyed looking at the west through my camera!
Just a few for today. I've finally finished scanning all my negatives. Well... not all. I've finished reviewing all my negatives and selectively scanning and being even more selective after that as to which ones I finished processing. So out of 288 frames, I scanned 50. Out of 50 I only edited about 20.
So today, I'll bring you three from Arches National Park that I liked. And I would like your opinion on which is the best out of the two Arch shots (one's just a shot of the fins I got to walk across).
Sometime next week I'll conclude my southwest trip with one last post. Thanks for looking and have a great weekend everyone!
Just two more from the few I scanned in last week. I hope to get back to my negatives on Monday. So more should be coming next week... sometime.
I'm finally getting to my film shots from my southwest trip. School has picked up faster than I anticipated and although I've had my film developed for many weeks I haven't been able to do anything with it. I've scanned some negatives here and there but haven't gotten to print (I thought I'd be able to do that today, but alas work has called to me and I'm here instead).
But I thought I would share some of the ones I've scanned. I've found that scanning the images that I think I may like from the contact sheets really helps confirm or dismiss my original liking of an image. By doing it this way, I save grief, money and time in the darkroom. I never thought digital would help me so much. I still intend to print a lot of these by hand in the darkroom, but the digital darkroom is definitely helping me narrow my selection. And also enlightening me on a small mini series I have in the making:
Most of these were taken in Canyon de Chelly (and as you can see in two there are a few ruins. They look like toy buildings and it's hard to imagine they're big enough to house whole families from the pictures) although one is from Chaco. And these are just from 3 out of my 8 rolls of film. Like I said... a mini series in the making. I wish I could print today... after scanning these in yesterday (I had the lack of motivation to print, so I decided to still be a little productive in my endeavor) I got excited about a few. Oh well, guess I'll have to start Monday.
All taken with Ilford FP4 iso 64, developed 1:3 in ID-11, negatives scanned digitally.
And in my case... Black and White or Color?!?!?!?
So far out of ALL the people I've asked I still have a freaking tie between the two shots! I just don't know which to do. I need to choose one, and soon. I'm going to enter one of them in the county fair this weekend along with a few more shots from the southwest that I've already narrowed down. I just can't seem to make up my mind on this one.....
Thanks in advance for feedback! I'll let you know monday what all I put into the fair -- we're allowed up to 6 pictures so long as none of them overlap smae division (digital or film) and category (portraits, animals, etc.).
But it's not over totally. For the time. I've finally gotten my one roll of slide film from my diana developed. I've developed and made contact sheets of all 8 rolls of 35mm and I have a practice roll before I start my 5 rolls of 120. So soon, there will be film shots. For now, we will finish up at Little Molas Lake, Colorado and the beautiful sunset we were given the first night after a shower... which became the ritual every night for the 3 nights we were there. Only, we didn't always get these nice sunsets... just the rain and cloud cover by 2 pm..........
Bonus: Little Shop in Ouray
Hope you guys have enjoyed my digital tour. I can't guarantee a ton more shots from the trip, but I do promise to get some of my film shots that I really like up here as soon as possible. Thanks for all the great feedback. It's really helped me with deciding which ones I should really spend my time on and print.
Thursday, some editorial stuff!
Just 3 more shots from Mesa Verde and then we're off to Little Molas Lake and our last stop of the trip.
A few views of Cliff Palace
And then a few more tomorrow, after that the last stop of the trip: Little Molas Lake, CO. I think we might finish my digital shots by the end of the week. I hope you've enjoyed my trip so far. I've developed all but 2 of my b&w 35mm, but have yet to start developing the 120 (there's only about 5-6 of those, so it won't be too bad). My one roll of 120 slide film should be ready for me when I get to the photo building today and hopefully I can drop off my one roll of color negative 120 film this friday. Only then will all of the pictures be developed. Now... I just have to print them :-/
Mesa Verde was our last puebloan stop and our second to last stop of the trip. We had visited Chaco and Canyon de Chelley's ruins, but these topped the cake. Why you ask? Because we actually got to crawl inside! And there were times where I literally mean crawl. But mostly there were ladders to climb. This is the entrance to balcony house and the shortest ladder I climbed while there.
The wood sticking out is the actual remains of a balcony (hence the name of the ruins) and the inside of a kiva (a ceremonial space). They were a bit fearless and would build almost to the edge of the coves.
While here we learned that the ruins were used by pueblo people who originally lived on the mesa tops above, but eventually moved to these natural coves to build their dwellings. Men would literally scale the mountain (like we had to to get out of the dwelling) and tend to the crops up above while the women stayed in the dwellings. There are actual smoke stains on the ceilings from where they had fires in thier homes. Men averaged between 5'2" adn 5'4" and women around 4'9". Men lived longer than women, typically ranging around 35-40 (at this time they became the "story tellers" and quit working the fields) while the women's lifespan was only around 25.
The park was founded on a basis that it be open to the public and that the public be able to walk through the ruins. They still allow people into the ruins, however to keep erosin to a minimum they only open certain houses up at certain times of the year. And lastly, they are still finding more ruins in the Mesa Verde Park but the debate is whether to excavate them or leave them as they are to avoid anymore deterioration.
Coming soon, shots from Cliff Palace. One of the largest dwellings in Mesa Verde.
I know I said we'd be moving on to Colorado, but I lied. Not intentionally, I swear. But I had these two images from Arches and I just wanted some opinions on them. I haven't quite figured out if I really like them or not.
Thanks for any comments, critiques or suggestions. Tomorrow, to Mesa Verde!
.... who's the arch that's most delicate of all?
For those of you who have seen the delicate arch... Yes, you can actually go up to it. But after 2 1/2 weeks of camping/hiking and the fact that I did hike the entire length of The Devil's Garden, I opted for just hiking the very small trail of the Delicate Arch Viewpoint rather than the very strenous climb to the arch itself. I'm satisfied with my results for now because I really hope to go back there soon. And if you look really closely in the color shot, you can see people at the arch.
Have a Happy and Safe Labor Day Weekend Everyone!!!!
We had some of the clearest and most beautiful nights while at Arches. I think out of all the campsites it's the only place that we didn't get rained on every night we were there. And because of this clear beautiful evening sky, we got clear beautiful sunsets. Here are 3 of my favorite sunset shots from Arches.
More Arches tomorrow and then I believe we will start our final state of my three week trip next week. Hope I've at least lived up to some high expectations as of right now. We still have 2 more stops to go!
We couldn't just abandon our journey just because the sun went away. We had seen the map, we had read the names of all the arches in this pass and at the end there was a thing called "The Dark Angel." And by joe, that just sounded freaking awesome! We were on a mission, whether the sun was behind clouds or beaming down on us. We had cameras, snacks, water and determination to get to that Dark Angel, whatever it may be.
As we journeyed we talked about film, photography, school, life and eventually started to wonder just where this thing could be? It's name just oozed awesomeness, yet all we know is it's at the end of the trail. We passed by fins and arches. Climbed through "primitive" trail (aka you scale a rock the best you can without any kind of guide except stacked stones to reassure you you're still on the right path) and even got to walk across fins. Which was awesome.
It was about two people wide and one side you looked down and thought to yourself "Wow, if I fell off I just might break an arm or leg." Then you looked down the other side and you thought to yourself "Oh dear God, Please don't let me fall off that side and die!"
But we had fun joking about it and trekking along all the same. Finally we came to the Double O Arch (I know I have a better shot with my film) and we knew we were close. Because on the map there was only one arch left before the Dark Angel and that was the Double O. So we kept trekking and trekking and trekking, only to find that the Dark Angel was a huge Monolith that you could very well see from the Double O it was so big. Yes, cool. But at the same time, with a name like The Dark Angel we were expecting a little more....oomph to it.
So we had a story to tell everyone back at camp and we can officially say out of the 8 of us there we were the only two who touched The Dark Angel. I guess that's about as good as it can get.
Arches probably accounts for the largest number of favorite images. I'm not sure it's because we were there so long or because it's just so freaking cool! The first images I'll have up our from the Devil's Garden pass, which we woke up at 6 am just to get good morning light for this trail. Unfortunately by about 8 the sun was behind the clouds for the rest of the day. But we did get to shoot for a little while in the beautiful warm glow.
Tomorrow more from devil's garden, only not as much light.
Thanks for looking!
As I mentioned, you can't actually go down into the canyon without a navajo guide. Luckily for us, we were staying with a very nice navajo who gave us a jeep tour for a very reasonable price. Most of my pictures from the canyon floor were with my 35mm b&w (which I get to buy and mix up my chemicals develop today because it's the first day of my last semester), but I did take my digital and my 650mm lens in order to get some awesome shots of all the pictographs and petroglyphs. I'm the only one of my group to have shots like these. And I took a lot of them, but I'm only going to show two of the more interesting ones (in my opinion).
Battle (the shields are actually drawn on with gun powder)
And just as a bonus because I love the walls of the canyon so much: Canyon Wall in b&w
Tomorrow, Utah and Arches!
A few more from the Canyon overlooks, but I have two today from the highest point in the canyon, Spider Rock. Also taken while walking around the spider rock overlook were these creepy trees. I found them and the on coming storm to evoke an unsettling mood.
And a bonus, my tent mate Jenna at one of the overlooks.
Some details from de Chelley in my next post and then we're moving on to Arches! Comments, critiques and suggestions taken with open arms.
Have a great weekend Everyone!
Unfortuntaley there's not a lot to Canyon de Chelley except the designated overlooks they provide for you. Because it is Navajo land, there aren't many hiking trails that you can take and the only way to get to the canyon floor is with a navajo guide. So sorry if these seem touristy, that's all they give you there. But I thought a few were worth sharing.
Some Canyon Overlooks: 1 2 3 4
Tomorrow some more canyon overlooks... only I think they're just a bit different. And I want to thank everyone who's been leaving such nice comments on all my other posts. Keep 'em coming, any kind of comment is welcome!
A few more in b&w from bisti and the reason I say it looks like the moon:
The Rock Formations!
Well..... That's all from bisti for now. I'll make sure to post my film shots as soon as I get them developed, printed and scanned in, but until then you guys will be entertained tomorrow with Arizona and Canyon de Chelley!
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