Author: circadianreflections

My name is Deborah Zajac. I'm a photographer living in Nevada at the base of the Eastern Sierras. I am a passionate nature, landscape, night/astro photographer. I shoot predominately in color and use Nikon Digital Cameras, and lenses. I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos I've taken while on my travels. Please feel free to leave a comment I'd love to hear from you.

Bathed in Pink

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Bathed in Pink, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

The High Desert in beautiful evening light. This is an area between The North and South Windows and Turret Arch. I stopped here just after the sun set. The light was so beautiful on the La Sal Mountain tops, and desert. How blessed we were with so much color this evening! More so because it lasted for what seemed a long time. From here I made my way over to Turret Arch to capture some of the richest colors in the sky.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm @ 20mm, f11, 1.0 second, ISO 200, On a Tripod, Triggered with a Remote Release Cable/Intervalometer

Sunset at Turret Arch

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Sunset at Turret Arch, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Turret Arch is in the Windows Section of the Arches National park. It’s about a 126ft ascent with a gentle grade most the way up. There are a couple of spots it’s steep, but not too bad.

I normally don’t like people in my landscapes, but I have to admit I like them in these photos because they give you a sense of just how HUGE these arches are.

Underexposing this frame I was able to bring out the rich colors my eyes were seeing. I recovered the foreground using the Fill Slider in Adobe Camera Raw. I do have a hot spot- or blown out spot here. I am wondering if using my Reverse Graduated Neutral Density filter would have helped…
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm @20mm, f11, 0.5second, ISO 200, On a Tripod, triggered with a remote release cable/intervalometer

The Golden Hour

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The North and South Windows, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

The Golden Hour at North and South Windows with the shadow of Turret Arch falling them. It was a pretty neat site to behold.

” The park lies atop an underground salt bed that is basically responsible for the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths of this sightseer’s mecca.”
~ National Park Service, US Department of the Interior

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm @ f13, 1/13s, ISO 200, On a Tripod, 2 stop Graduated ND filter

The South Window

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The North Window, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This is the beginning of the Primitive Trail Loop. A 1.5 mile loop with views of North and South Windows and Turret Arch.
Theresa and I spent hours here. We hiked the loop, and stayed to for the Golden Hour and Sunset.
This is a popular destination for visitors of the park. While here we met a Photography Club from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a local Photographer out here for a workshop. It’s always fun to meet fellow photographers.

Do you get a sense of how huge these arches are? They’re HUGE!

100 million yrs of erosion created this land…

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Continuing down the main road in Arches National Park my friend Theresa and I were in awe of this landscape with its huge rock formations, vast views, and the wonderful colors of the Southwest.

Here some of the Petrified Dunes covered in Sage brush that gently roll through this part of the park:

“Nature and Science
The forces of nature have acted in concert to create the landscape of Arches, which contains the greatest density of natural arches in the world. Throughout the park, rock layers reveal millions of years of deposition, erosion and other geologic events. These layers continue to shape life in Arches today, as their erosion influences elemental features like soil chemistry and where water flows when it rains.

Arches is located in a “high desert,” with elevations ranging from 4,085 to 5,653 feet above sea level. The climate is one of very hot summers, cold winters and very little rainfall. Even on a daily basis, temperatures may fluctuate as much as 50 degrees.

The plants and animals in Arches National Park have many adaptations that enable them to survive these conditions. Some species are found only in this area. The diversity of organisms reflects the variety of available habitat, which includes lush riparian areas, ephemeral pools, dry arroyos, mixed grasslands and large expanses of bare rock.”
~Moab Adventure Center

 

 

Marking the many trails both well trod, and those that are not are Cairns like this one . Theresa and I found these invaluable as we missed one on the Trail to Delicate Arch and NOT seeing one after a little while I knew we took a wrong turn.

Here’s a closer look at The Three Gossips, and Sheep Rock. I zoomed in on this shot to try get more of the details. This view is from the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint.

In the next blog post we’ll continue down the road to The North and South Windows area where we hiked a little of the Primitive Trail and shot the sunset.

Star Trails over Pigeon Pt Light Station

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Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

After the lighting of the Fresnel several of us went over to the North side of the Light house to try and shoot Star Trails. Looking north and aiming at the North Star gives one that nice circle, but the foreground wasn’t interesting in that direction. So I chose this Southern view. When you shoot Star Trails looking South from here you get an Arch or a slant, but not a circle.
The fog was coming in and the low stars weren’t visible, then the wind, and dew came up. My lens was beginning to get condensation, and I was getting cold. I bumped my tripod once and had to start over; after 10 frames I lost interest. Once I uploaded them I found only 8 frames were usable and not all together. *sigh* I wasn’t “feeling it”. 😀

It may look like I’ve got ghosting around the Fresnel, but there is another light behind the Fresnal lantern room. That’s the areobeacon. The light that is on all year to guide the mariners at sea.

This is 5 frames stacked in CS5.
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 18mm f/3.5@ 18mm, 151seconds, f3.5, ISO 200, Manual Mode, on a tripod.

An Evening at Pigeon Point Light Station

Posted in California, Landscapes, NikonTagged , 6 Comments

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac.  All Rights Reserved.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening in Pescadero, California with several friends from my Night Meet-up group for the lighting of the Fresnel at Pigeon Point Light Station. It’s normally an annual event, but due to California’s budge woes they didn’t light it last year. We got here several hours early anticipating a huge crowd. We set up along the edge of the first field south of the lighthouse. There were already a lot of people set up down here. Fortunately Sunset was before the lighting of the Fresnel so it didn’t compete with the lighting.  This sunset was gorgeous! I haven’t seen clouds like this here ever before. I loved the texture, and colors. It was breath-taking!

I brought only one wide-angle lens with me for this shoot. My new/ Used Manual Focus Nikkor 18mm f/3.5 AIS prime lens. I do love how wide this shot is! I settled on this lens instead of the newer AF-D 20mm f/2.8 because it’s wider. I was afraid 20mm wouldn’t be wide enough all too often.
I’ve only had the lens since Monday this week, but so far I’m pleased.
The colors are good, it’s seems sharp, and I’m getting used to selecting my Aperture on the lens rather than with a wheel on my camera. Setting up the Non-CPU data in my camera was simple- thankfully.
The weight of it at just over 12 ounces is just what I was looking for.
This evening was a good outing to give this lens a good trial run.

La Pièce de resistance

This was my second location of the evening. I started out in the south field, but struggled there with the light, and I wasn’t getting the points of light I wanted from the beams. After the crowd thinned out some we moved up here and I bumped up my ISO and finally got the shot I wanted.

Using this lens I will have to learn new things like Hyperfocal distances. I have found calibrated Infinity on this lens. What do you think- is this sharp? I think so. I hope in the end I become a better photographer, and have a better understanding of photography through this lens. It is a lot different from sliding the switch over to Manual on my AF lenses.

I had a wonderful evening with good friends. I hope the Park Service is able to get the funding to this again next year. Perhaps I’ll have better luck down in the south field then.