R. L. Wolverton Photography

Thoughts on photography from R. L. Wolverton

Posts Tagged Utah

Oxygenating metal

Jan 8

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On this trip I made several new friends. One is named Rusty. So I can’t really say these are from Rusty cars. I’ll just say there are some interesting things that happen when steel oxidizes.

You can see shapes, themes, ideas, images that look like roadmaps or portraits. Here are a few nice oxidation shots I found in the treasure trove we stopped at:

The first one looked to me like a fried egg on a green plate. Maybe I was just hungry (click to see full size and proper color).

 

egg

egg

 

Then I saw what looked like a pair of eyes looking back at me. OK, that’s fair. I stare at the car, the car stares at me:

 

eyes

eyes

 

And some of the oxidation patterns looked a lot like a map. This one reminded me of the maps we used to use when running rivers: it shows the islands and shoreline in detail.

 

River map

River map

 

Kind of fun to look at these abstracts and try to figure out what they remind me of.

More to follow,

Bob

 

 

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One person’s treasure is…

Jan 4

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We stopped at the junk yard. Rick told us not to call it a junk yard, the owner might be offended if we referred to his treasures as junk.

We found cars. Lots of cars. Lots of old cars. It was kind of mind boggling. Between shooting the nameplates of long-discontinued vehicles, logos that are no longer used and flat tires, I started to see the detail in the metal and paint. So many painted, repainted and over painted spots. Lots to look at and lots to photograph.

I like abstract fotos of nature, so decided that this would be the way to approach the cars. Looking for color anomalies and rusted-out portions of fenders and frames, I came up with several that I think are interesting. Today I’ll show you some interesting paint schemes. Next Wednesday will show some oxidization patterns. Be sure the check back in.

I’m not sure how or why some of the paint jobs happened. But in the first one, it’s obvious. Used to be that in Utah we had to put the gross vehicle weight on the side of the truck, even if it was a Datsun pickup like I had. Most of us got decals and put them on, but some just used a paintbrush. (click on the images to enlarge and see the color correctly.)

U

U

 

And some people were never happy with the color of their vehicle, but this seems to have been owned either by a patriot or by someone who kind of liked red, but wanted to experiment.

Red Car

Red Car

 

I’d like to go back to the junkyard treasure trove and start all over again with a new set of eyes. There might be a lot more interesting paint jobs available.

More to follow,

Bob

 

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You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to…

Nov 30

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This was one of those days: up at 4 p.m. then driving nearly two-and-a-half hours to get to the spot we decided would be our sunrise location. Worked out pretty well.

I’ve never been a real fan of Goblin Valley State Park. Oh, it’s interesting and cool. The first time. It’s just that I never really had much interest in going back. It’s hard to photograph in any unique way and kind of all the same stuff. But our gang wanted to go there for sunrise, so go there we did. And I’m glad. I have a new respect for Goblin Valley after the morning shoot. It was still hard to get a unique photo, but not as bad as I’ve seen it.

And, of course, if you’re a photographer, Sunrise is a good thing.

(click on the images to see the real size and decent color)

 

We had a very old moon that morning. It would be new the next day. But as it was there at sunrise, the moon and Earthglow added some interest to a dark blue sky.

Sunrise, Goblin Valley East

Sunrise, Goblin Valley East

 

Of course, if we looked north, we could see some clouds and the morning sun gave them a nice color boost.

 

Sunrise, Goblin Valley North

Sunrise, Goblin Valley North

 

More to follow.

Bob

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More from the past

Nov 20

Posted by admin in Nature, photography | 1 Comment

As I said the other day, I’ve been doing a little time travel. Here are a couple images from long ago that I kind of like.

 

I went to False Kiva with a new friend last October, but couldn’t get a decent image (it looks like someone sneezed on my camera’s sensor, so the sky had all sorts of awful marks in it). This old file worked out pretty well. It came from my first visit to the Kiva. (Click on the images to see them at the right size and with the right colors.)

 

False Kiva

False Kiva

 

Mesa Arch at sunrise has become almost a cliché foto. So many people have done this image. I have been there a couple times, but wasn’t really happy with my results. Then I got to looking in the file where this foto was stored and realized I had for some indefinable reason decided to make a two-image High Dynamic Range (HDR) image of the arch. Beyond that, I had, for some unfathomable reason, never processed the HDR. Maybe it was because HDR was the subject of a lot of bitter arguments when it first started to gain prominence. Some thought it was the best thing ever, some thought it was some sort of sin against nature to use that method. I just never got a good HDR image until a little while ago. I always had some concerns about the ‘HDR look,’ a sort of over-saturated, over-contrasty look that was pretty noticeable at the beginning.

 

I think this is pretty much under control.

 

Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch

 

More to follow.

Bob

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Looking at the past

Nov 17

Posted by admin in Nature, photography | 1 Comment

Well, a couple things have changes. First, I’ve tried to get rid of the hacks that trash my RSS feed, but can’t seem to find a way to do that. So I changed my theme, hoping that might make a difference. We’ll see. I don’t like the new theme that much, but I’ve tried to modify it and it doesn’t seem to want to work either. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, I’ve been going through some old fotos after receiving a request for prints of a couple that I really couldn’t find. I’ve still got a bunch of new ones to go through, but this request got me started.

These aren’t the ones and I may have shown them to you before, but I was just reminded how much I like Factory Butte, so I’m going to show them again. So there.

In addition, I’m experimenting with a different kind of image file, so we’ll see what happens.

 

Two sunrise images (Click on the images for a better view):

 

Factory Butte Sunrise #1

Factory Butte Sunrise #1

Factory Butte Sunrise #1

 

Factory Butte Sunrise #2

Factory Butte Sunrise #2

Factory Butte Sunrise #2

 

More to follow.

Bob

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Kinsee to Kaintsee

Nov 6

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Well, you know photographers are supposed to get up in the middle of the night to find sunrise, then stay up till after dark to capture sunset. Makes sense, it’s when the best light occurs. Generally speaking I’m not a very good early riser. I figure if I get up in the morning the whole world owes me something. Here’s an example of how it pays off (click on the images to view them):

Dead Horse Point, Sunrise

Dead Horse Point Sunrise

Dead Horse Point Sunrise

 

And here’s an example of why you should hang around for the afternoon light:

Fisher Towers, Sunset

Fisher Towers Susnet

Fisher Towers Susnet

 

More to follow,

Bob

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Desert Whirlwind 5

Oct 22

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The desert is a region that’s so arid that you can die from dehydration and become a mummy in a fairly short time. There’s simply no water to be found, except for a few rivers, which become major waterways if they contain water year ’round.

It’s interesting that so much (all?) of the stunning landscapes we marvel at in the desert have been made by water. Oceans draining started the process. Rivers running at levels beyond modern imagination cut the canyons. Prehistoric lakes allowed different minerals to settle out, creating a colorful landscape that sometimes boggles the mind.

When one is in the desert, water is never far form one’s mind. Hoping to find some if you don’t have any with you (a foolish–perhaps deadly–choice). Hoping it doesn’t rain if you’re in a slot canyon. Standing next to one of the existing streams (if you can find one) and contemplating what water has done.

We went into Zion park and took the shuttle bus to the end of the line. Then we walked with about a million other people up the trail, getting a tantalizing glimpse of the river now and then. We finally couldn’t stand it any more and went down to the shore. And made some photographs.

Water in the desert: what a treat!

Virgin River 1

Virgin River 1

Virgin River 2

Virgin River 2

Hard to believe that in a land where you could die of thirst in a matter of days you can find such lush, moist surroundings. It’s magic!

Further magic happened that night and the next day. It rained pretty constantly for several hours and the river changed. There was a lot more water in it and it was red as the sand and mud it was carrying.

Fascinating.

More to follow.

Bob

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Desert Whirlwind 4

Oct 17

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After we got to Zion National Park, we spent a lot of time in Zion Canyon. Hiking from the end of the bus line to the start of the narrows, then up to the Emerald Pools, and other stops.

At one point, we came across a Sacred Datura with one lone blossom on it. The flowers are beautiful, but the plant is pretty dangerous if ingested. If you don’t die of heart failure, you’ll have some serious hallucinations. (I’ve been told.) This is the plant that Carlos Castañeda wrote about in The Teachings of Don Juan among others in his series of Don Juan books. Pretty poison, I guess. Of course, I had to get out the macro lens and get in tight. I think it worked out pretty well.

Datura1

Datura1

Datura 2

Datura 2

Not bad for a weed, huh?

 

More to follow,

Bob

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Desert Whirlwind 3

Oct 15

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I love aspen trees.

I love them when they’re young, when they’re old, when they’re green and, especially, when they’re decked out in Autumn colors. Generally, aspen leaves turn yellow. On rare occasions, they turn orange or red or coral pink. That’s a real treat.

As we drove over Boulder mountain on our race back to Zion NP, we came across some red aspen leaves. Of course we had to stop and photograph them. I did a kind of general landscape shot, then a closeup of some of those great red leaves. I hope you like them as much as I do. (Remember to click on the images to see them full size and with decent color.)

Aspen Forest

Aspen Forest

Aspen Leaves

Aspen Leaves

Then we made it to Zion. I haven’t been here for a long time. Passed through a couple years ago, but I was in a hurry to get somewhere, so I barely stopped to look around. On the way in, I remembered that it was about 35 years ago to the month that I took a photo workshop with my friend Duck. That workshop was with photographer John Telford, who pretty much owned the desert in those days. We came to Zion and did some amazing photography, and that’s when I got hooked. Hooked on both the desert and on photography. So I guess this is a sort of pilgrimage for me.

Stopped in the upper park and I got this photo of one of the spires Zion is so famous for.

Zion Scenic

Zion Scenic

More to follow,

Bob

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Desert Whirlwind 2

Oct 12

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OK, still trying to get to the site of our Board meeting, we pressed onward. From Bryce we traveled up over Boulder Mountain and went across Hell’s Backbone. Hell’s backbone was an interesting engineering feat, but all-in-all, we were disappointed in it.

Of course, we weren’t disappointed by our trip to Capitol Reef, undoubtedly my favorite place in the world.

First we met some of the local fauna while photographing in the Boneyard.

Lizard

Lizard

Then we went to see if we could find a decent sunset spot. The tree you see below is my favorite sunset silhouette.

Sunset Tree 1

Sunset Tree 1

And

Sunset Tree 2

Sunset Tree 2

It’s great to be back!

More to follow,

 

Bob

 

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