Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy

Dawn at Beale's Point, on Folsom Lake in northern California.

I’m definitely a morning person.  Mornings are awakenings, new beginnings, a clean slate of possibility.  The nostalgia of sunset and the thrill of the night have their appeal; but the still silence of morning carries a certain clarity of being that other times of day lack.  Mornings are pure.

Those of you who know me will agree that I seldom stop moving; I am always on the go, and generally if my schedule isn’t at least slightly overbooked, I’m bored.  But morning photography without conversation, absorbing the new day with observation and without comment, is my zen, my one place of quiet that I reserve for myself every now and then.

Near my parents’ house in El Dorado Hills, CA is Lake Natoma.  Some months ago, I took the XT and my tripod out there.  I always underestimate how cold the pre-dawn darkness can be nearly everywhere (though it is especially acute in dry climates, be warned).  Fortunately I had some thin gloves, but it never seems like I can manipulate the camera controls accurately or fast enough.

Still reflections in the morning light at Lake Natoma.

A sturdy tripod is essential to good morning photography.  Even still hands and image stablized lenses can’t cancel the blur from the long exposures necessary to get the ethereal effect from not-quite-still water.  And you’d be surprised at the often surreal look of a a night time shot that has been “soaked” for a long exposure in the low ambient light.

Winds are typically calm or non-existent inland, though near large enough bodies of water this is not often true.  When you can get still water in the mornings, look for the multitude of reflection shots you can get in anything, from little pools, to puddles, to lakes or the ocean.  In the shot at right, the water is so still adn the reflection so clear that it would be difficult to tell whether or not the image were upside-down.  That shot taken with as wide an aperture as I could get to offset the twig in the foreground, and a relatively fast shutter speed for this time of day (1/10) to give the focus point a crispness through which I tried to convey how mornings make me feel… and this shot comes pretty close.

In the half light of just before dawn is one of the best opportunities for bird shots as well.  Most birds, especially those who feed in or near water, are going to be early risers for breakfast.  I’ve got a few photos in the queue to be processed of birds in the morning… as usual, I’ll get to it “eventually.”  In the meanwhile, may I recommend sampling some of the zen a weekend early morning gives you!

Camera: Pentax ME Super
Lens: Pentax-M 50mm f/2.0 manual
Film: Ilford Pan-F 50
1/125s at f/8

We started the day early, leaving Palmcaster around 6:30am. I knew sunrise was at about 7:30, but wasn’t really looking to catch the event itself… that magical morning light that photographer always rave about on forums is what I was after. From previous experience, my Nissan Sentra I knew was not the best offroading vehicle, so this time around I managed to convince my friend Andrew that we should take his truck and try it out on the rugged roads of the Red Rock backcountry, on the CA-14 just north of the California City junction.

About the time we reached Mojave, everyone in the truck (Andrew drove) was in a bad way for some breakfast and coffee, so we stopped and acquired a hefty supply of both. When we arrived at the cliffs, full and caffeinated, the soft light of the early to mid morning was perfect. We left the truck in a clearing and began walking the blasted terrain.

It was like an alien world… dead silence but for a slight beeeze and the occasional conversation, fantastic rock formations, and all over specimens of those hardy yet beautiful species that want to live enough to thrive in the desert. A large part of the park, especially near the cliffs, was closed to visitors due to raptor breeding season…. note to self, bring the telephoto in the summer!

I chose this photo to blog about because you can see the range of capability for the film. There are some possibly more interesting shots on my Flickr gallery.

I LOVE THIS FILM!!!! Note the wide range of tonal detail; exposing for the middle tones, this film gets you true black in the crevices at left, and a nice luster on the brighter cliff walls at right. What grain you might be able to make out probably reflects more on the quality of my scanner than the film, as the prints I have are brilliant.

Ilford Pan-F 50 cost me $7.50/36 at King Photo. Post-processing true black and white film is more expensive than normal 35mm color film. If I recall right, it was about $12.00 for developing and a contact sheet, and something like $1.30 per 4×6.

I just bought another roll…. can’t wait to use this film again!

Red Rock Canyon at dawn.

Last month I took a trip up to Red Rock to try out this new film I found, Ilford Pan-F 50. But wouldn’t you know it, I left the film at home… Doh! Luckily I had taken my XTi along as a sighting/backup body, so I was still able to shoot. Here is one of the better ones.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM
Red Rock Canyon State Park, California

Last weekend I made up again, remembering the film this time. Scanning as I type this, so stay tuned….

Sorry no posts in awhile, its been the month from hell so far.

The moon tinged orange from the eclipse.

For those of you who didn’t look to the sky on Wednesday, you missed a great show. A total lunar eclipse, which won’t happen again for three years, bathed the full moon in a red hue… spectacular hanging up there on a clear desert night.

This shot was taken in a great hurry believe it or not. I was late for rehearsal (starts at 7pm on Wednesdays) but I couldn’t resist grabbing the tripod out of the trunk to set up a few shots. I only got six or seven before I had to run, and I think this is one of the best.

Had I time, I would have tried to set up a shot of it with the mountains as a foreground, or perhaps a Joshua tree… oh well. Do what you can right? Good thing I had my camera with me on the off chance the shuttle might land at Edwards that day… no luck on that, but got this shot out of it!

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Tv(Shutter Speed)
1.3Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F5.6
Exposure Compensation
-2
ISO Speed
400
Focal Length
300.0 mm

More photos from this and other collections are available at QuantumCowboy’s Flickr Gallery.

One Tree Hill

This is the famous One Tree Hill in Auckland, New Zealand. The hill area is lush and green, much like most of the rest of the country, and one climbs a narrow road winding through grazing sheep to reach the spectacular panoramic view of the city from the top. Apparently, there used to actually be a single tree at the top of One Tree Hill, but for some reason or another somebody cut it down. Oops. I’ll bet everyone hates that guy. In any case, the monument they put up in its place is fairly impressive.

More photos from Auckland can be found on my Flickr gallery, in the New Zealand collection.

Sunset from the Channel Islands backpacking trip… these from Del Norte Camp.

Elan + Fujicolor Superia 100
Tiffen Circular Polarizer

Emily and I recently went backpacking on the Channel Islands, hiking to the Del Norte campsite on Santa Cruz island. A wonderfully romantic weekend of 1,200 ft climbs into the middle of nowhere carrying 35 lb packs so that we could get up at the buttcrack of dawn to photograph sunrises. And she hasn’t broken up with me yet! See why I love her?

It was fantastic really. The whole time it really felt like we were the only ones on the entire island… there were only two other campers we saw. There is no fresh water along the trail or at the campsite (except maybe during a few weeks in spring). Pack in plenty of water and supplies, because the boat doesn’t return until the next day! We took 7 liters of water, and used the better part of six with the hike in and out, normal drinking at camp, as well as for coffee and oatmeal in the morning.

These photos with the Elan + Fujicolor Superia 400.

The trail is arduous, especially with packs. The net 1,200 ft elevation gain over 4.5 miles includes descending into and climbing out of two canyons along the way. We were almost bushwacking at points.

A few signs along the way helped.

Spectacular mountain views… less spectacular on the way up than down as I recall.

Sunrise at Del Norte Camp.

A couple of weeks ago I went out to Mt Waterman at the butt-crack of dawn in an attempt to photograph the sunrise from the top. We left Palmdale at 4:00am… oof. Didn’t quite make it to the peak by sunrise, but definitely got a lot of good photos. I’m still scanning the ones of the actual sunrise, but here are some B&W shots I took about an hour after sunrise in the slanted light.

Elan + 28-105mm + Kodak BW400CN

Is it me or is there a face in the one at left?

A curiously leaning tree. I like how it came out as a silhouette.

A stump.

Someone had built this contraption in attempt to extend the standing room at the peak, overlooking the valley. I didn’t trust it, but it made a good photo in itself.

B&W is all about interesting exercises in contrast and luminosity.

TRAIL STATS:
Mileage: 7.0
Elevation delta: ~1,300 ft
Time on trail: 5 hrs (lots of photography stops)
Nearest highway: CA-2, mile marker 58.00

Finished off the roll of Fujicolor Superia 100 with the sunset from Barrel Springs, just on the south end of Palmdale.

Andrew and I decided to hit the lake last Saturday for some relaxation. He spent the day exploring the many mountain biking trails in the area while I hiked into the hills surrounding the lake and played photography. I took a small notebook this time to keep track of my settings for interesting shots.

Camera: Canon EOS Elan 7ne 35mm
Lens: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM
Film: Fujicolor Superia 100

Many boats and jetskis use the upper part of the reservoir. Being an easy drive from LA as well as the AV, this place is pretty popular. We were almost alone when we arrived (~6:00am) but by mid-morning the upper lake was roaring with engines. Oh yeah, and one really annoying waterskiing group that was blasting music loud enough for me to rock out over a mile away and roughly 500 ft above in elevation.

A feather fallen on branches. I’m glad I caught it before the wind picked up and blew away the photo opportunity.

About half an hour after sunrise, looking over Castaic Lake.

Interesting color balance on this one. I think its the scanner, because the print doesn’t have the weird blues at the top… I’ve noticed a weakness in differentiating blues on some others as well. I may pull back the cyan saturation and lightness in PSPXI and repost later.

There are many shaded groves up in the hills, which provided a welcome respite from the heat once the day got going. I caught this interesting light pattern on the rocks next to me… the blur may be a bit much here, I had it opened to f/3.5 intentionally to get some blur in the background, but it may actually almost have worked better with more of the rocks in focus. (shrug).