| The Retired Photographer

Anasazi Progression Panel Petroglyph

During our workshop, in the four corner area of UT, we had a free afternoon to photograph anything we wanted as long as the light held out. Well, there was a place that had a petroglyph panel called the “Progression Panel” and was located not to far from where we were discussing all of this. The only problem was, it was years since one of the leaders was at this site. After about 30 minutes discussing plan A, plan B, and plan C we decided to try and find this site which was plan C as I recall. After leaving the paved road we traveled approximately 8-9 miles on this dirt road to what looked like a parking area. Now we had to decide which direction to head out…the first attempt was wrong. The second attempt found us walking through two ravines, the first having water in it and we, trying not to fall in getting our camera equipment soaked, didn’t care about ourselves. Once across the ravines we hiked up one side of a mesa to the top then through a small saddle to the other side. Once we all got through the saddle we were told to hold up while one of the leaders went ahead to scout for the panel. Well, the panel was right around the corner from where we all were sitting…great job Tom. This panel is approximately 35-40 feet long along on one big ledge of the mesa. To get this panoramic image we stood on rocks to get the whole thing in. The name “Progression Panel” is from the line of figures from one end of the panel to the other. What this panel really depicts, no one really knows…

This panoramic panel was stitched together in Photoshop CS5 from four images then tweaked in Lightroom 3 to bring out the correct color as seen through the eye. If I printed this out, lets say, 2 feet high, it would be approximately 11 feet long.

This panel would look great in a conference room or lobby. If anyone is interested in purchasing a print of this panel, please contact me.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f4L at 55mm

ISO 200, 1/60 sec at f/11

Circular Polarizer

admin :: Dec.17.2011 :: Panoramic Photographs, Southwest :: No Comments »

Sandhill Cranes Seeking The Mornings Warmth

This image shows a group of Sandhill Cranes walking towards the new days sun to warm themselves in the Cosumnes River Preserve in the central valley of California. The first two have already walked into the sun’s rays while the second is just about there, as his coloration is about to change from the coolness of dawn to the warm tones of sunrise. You can see the frost on the foreground vegetation letting you know that it is cold. The temperature was about 34F (1.11C) and, as you can see, didn’t affect the ducks feeding around the cranes. When all the cranes got into the warmth of the sun, they milled around for about 15 minutes before flying off to feed.

These Sandhill Cranes were right across the road from the visitors center, which made things extremely easy lugging our equipment across the road in the early morning cold temperatures. The cranes fly off to flooded field corn fields, rice fields, and plowed fields to feed during the day then fly back and, basically, sleep standing in water for protection from predators during the night.

Some of these birds have come down from Homer, Alaska to California’s central valley wintering grounds, where this preserve is. They will return to Alaska mid to late February. To see these great birds, December and January are the best times before they head back north.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon 1D Mark III

Canon EF 70-300mm f4.5-5.6L at 300mm

ISO 800, 1/400 sec at f/11

admin :: Dec.10.2011 :: Birds, Wildlife :: No Comments »

Double Rainbow

There was a light rain falling as we approached Hwy 163 on a little dirt road from Cedar Mesa. We were doing two things. First, to get off the wet and muddy dirt road before the rain really started to come down and second, race back to Monument Valley to hopefully catch a rainbow over the Mittens. From the right side of the vehicle, we saw this beautiful double rainbow…of course we had to stop and rush to get our cameras and tripods out before the rainbows disappeared. People were running all over the place while trying to extend tripod legs looking for an appropriate spot to photograph the rainbows. No problem, we all had enough time to photograph away, but you did need a very wide angle lens to get the full rainbow arc. Yes, I did have one on my camera, but it just barely covered the full length of the bottom rainbow, so I decided to photograph the most photogenic end of the double rainbow. No, unfortunately, I did not find two pots of gold, let alone one pot of gold.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f4L at 28mm

ISO 200, 1/400 sec at f/8