Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
I’m nowhere near completing my first 10,000 photographs, even counting all that I’ve ever taken. I can’t imagine how difficult and expensive that must have been in the age of film.
I had a trip to the desert planned already. Since I had only the plan to escape from the world for a few days, I could use the location to practice photography.
Typically, my retreat trips consist of days starting with an early morning walk. As the heat rises, I stay close to camp listening to short wave radio, laying in my hammock, and reading. At night I sit by a fire and read aloud stories of the desert people, while watching bats swoop and circle my camp. I revel in being in the wild lonesome.
This trip I would return to Ram Lake; the headwaters of the south fork of the Crooked River. This sounds real grand for what is now a desert playa. I doubt that any water has flowed from it in the past 80 years. When the lake finally overflows again, the excess will end up in the Crooked River.
I like this area. Here the desert meets the juniper forest in a relatively small basin. Deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, and coyotes are frequently seen here. I’ve watched both peregrine and prairie falcons nesting along the escarpment and golden eagles hunting the forest edge. I find it incredible to wake to the sounds of falcons leaving their nest on a morning hunt.
Although I’ve tried several times, I’ve never gotten a good photo of them. The peregrine nest is tucked in rocks on the face of the surrounding escarpment. It’s not visible from above, and from below the nest is concealed by brush.
There is a waterhole maintained for livestock out in the middle of the playa. No plants grow taller than ankle high for hundreds of yards around it. To photograph animals at the waterhole I would need some kind of a blind. Even then the blind would likely have to be setup for weeks before they would get used to it. Instead, I crouch in the sagebrush and try to catch a quick photo as they come and go.
I finished my initial reading Sean Tucker’s book The Meaning in the Making. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of how Jung’s theory of the journey of life relates to the experience of learning a new skill. In photography, I am in the morning of my experience. I’m learning the skills that will allow me to create more meaningful images.
Sean advocates for prolonging the learning experience and focusing attention on enjoying it. He feels that if you really enjoy the process of making pictures, you will persist when the going gets tough. I admit that I’ve been focused on learning the equipment and the principles of composition with the goal of producing quality photos as soon as possible. I’ll have to work on slowing things down, and just enjoy the act of taking pictures.
In the afternoon I was drawn to a discussion of Polish history on my short wave radio. A Canadian operator was talking to someone in Oklahoma about the atrocities committed by the Russians in the Second World War, specifically the Katdyn Forest massacre and its effects on Polish society. He was very critical of the US and particularly the Red Cross for their inaction. I was positively impressed that he didn’t use this to excuse the actions of the Nazi’s. Rather he acknowledged the restrictions of US action due to the tense relationship between the allies at this point in the war. His big beef with the US and Britain was in not following up after the cessation of hostilities.
The discussion was very civil and quite informative. At one point the Oklahoman stated “you seem to view the Polish people as some sort of superior race” then he asked “what was their biggest failure?” The answer was one that I might have given: the Liberum Veto. It was the purest form of democracy, even a single contrary vote was all it took to defeat any proposal. This system failed to account for human foibles. The votes of Polish nobles were bought by Polish adversaries. This rendered the Polish legislature unable to respond to many threats, internal and external. His argument was well thought out and very well expressed. Particularly considering his listener had no knowledge of Polish history.
I spent the remainder of the evening distracted by thoughts of democracy run amok, and the time passed too quickly.
Despite the pending rise of a full moon, I practiced photographing the night sky. The first night, I had about 45 minutes between the time the sky darkened and when the full moon rose. I was able to get good renderings of the galactic center. Here is one using the 24-70 zoom set at 24mm. It was taken as the last of the daylight was fading from the sky. I like the effect. I also like the wide angle of view. It really captures our galaxy. You can even see the dark traces in the galactic cloud.
Not perfect but much improved. This is one of the three photos I never made. Now to replicate it over a more picturesque landscape.
I am beginning to understand the balancing act between the sharpness of the stars, limited by the exposure time, the brightness of the image, limited by the lens, and the sensor noise limited by ISO. I took many shots of the galactic plane at various angles.
I switched to the 105mm f2.8 lens to reduce ISO without increasing exposure time. The purpose was to get a blacker sky. In doing so, I lose the wide-angle view but start to pick up color differentiation.
I found a dead juniper that looks a little like some giant bug reaching for the heavens. I tried using it as an interesting foreground object. Logistics were difficult as I was not setup for the shot before dark. I used my headlamp to illuminate the area to compose the shot. This didn’t work all that well as the headlamp is made for close illumination and didn’t reach neighboring trees. I ended up with a tree I had not seen blocking much of the star cloud.
I moved and refocused. To get some detail in the trunk, I lit the tree using my headlamp. That did make navigating back to the camera somewhat exciting. In the first 8 second exposure, the tree was so bright it dimmed the stars. I placed a tissue over the headlamp to dim it, and the result was too dim. I’ll have to figure out some other illumination method.
The next step to perfecting photos like this one is focus stacking. That should let me render both the foreground and the stars in focus. This, however, is left to a future exercise.
I was very pleased to see the technical aspect of my photos improving. I also know that there is room for much improvement.
I will mention two errors I made on this photo walk. I didn’t bring a hand-held flashlight. I was restricted to using my headlamp on the mile long walk back to the truck. And second, I didn’t leave a light on in camp. Because of the state-wide fire ban I had eschewed a campfire and thus had no light cue for finding my camp. I was within feet of the truck before I noticed the reflection from a tail-light. On subsequent night walks, I left a Luci light on.
A side-effect of lighting my camp was a huge increase in the number of bats flying through. The light attracted moths which attracted bats. These were little guys, probably pipistrels, but perhaps little brown bats. I sat watching them dart into the light, snag a moth, and return to the darkness. It would be super great to photograph them, but I haven’t figured out how to pull that one off yet.
I am very pleased with the results from this trip. I have a long way to go, but I’m really enjoying the journey. Most of the time I now get the settings correct, and I’m getting better at checking focus. I got new glasses so maybe that helps.
I conducted my scorpion search and counted ten scorpions at this site. I noticed they are more common on rockier, west-facing slopes. Also, I learned that it was easier to focus if I shined the black light flashlight just off to the side of the creature. The flashlight isn’t very bright, so now I have to deal with slow shutter speeds. When the critter moves it gets blurred, a faster lens might help. Again, the photograph isn’t perfect, but more detail is visible than was true last time. This is a telephoto shot taken about 7 feet between camera and scorpion.
This was a nice trip with plenty of time to relax and recharge. I enjoyed the completely unexpected radio discussion on Polish history. I was also very happy with the night sky. Next year I will plan more trips during the dark of the moon. Perhaps I’ll even return to the sand dunes to use them as the foreground.