Ever since I saw images of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness for the first time I wanted to visit the area and see these interesting rock formations for myself. A road-trip this fall via Arizona to Albuquerque gave me finally this opportunity. Unfortunately for me, my planning for this area was thrown out of the window when my GPS stopped showing my previously researched locations and my only choice was just to go out there and find them. It is so easy to get lost at Bisti, you just go over one Badlands and from there it looks all the same in any direction. After hiking for 45 minutes, I arrived at this location and was trying to figure out some compositions in this mess of a landscape - there were just too many hoodoos to get organized into a frame. At the same time thunderstorms started to brew in the East and South and then bang suddenly this super beautiful light arrived out of nowhere and I had to even more panic about finding a decent composition and get my tripod in place just in time. This is what I got! Due to the bad weather, my wife and I decided to stay overnight at a different place, so in total I had about 1.5 hours at Bisti!! Certainly a reason to go back there and be more organized!
Kirkjufell was my first location in this year's Iceland trip after I arrived in Reykjavik around midday. I made the drive to the location rather reluctant as I had been to this location before and had quite already some satisfying images in my portfolio of this iconic mountain. However, it was my first evening in Iceland and I was somewhat exhausted to search for other locations and the weather forecast for sunset was miserable for the whole island except the Snæfellsnes peninsula. My strategy for this year's Iceland trip was to completely follow the weather and not any pre-planned itinerary, even if this meant a lot of driving. I arrived at Kirkjufell with plenty of time, so I could even splurge on a $45 meal at the local restaurant. The light that then developed during sunset was one of the best I have ever witnessed, it just wouldn't stop, which allowed me to explore all sorts of possible compositions (good and bad ones!) along the waterfall. The place unfortunately turned to a 'zoo' later on with lots of photographers and workshop groups arriving incl. the local farmer who rightly got upset. I learned then for the first time that apparently this waterfall is actually on her private property. Nevertheless, I was very happy with this first night in Iceland and to top off my day I spotted my long-time friend Raymond in the crowd and we continued to take images at a different location until 4am in the morning.
With the recent closing of the Mountain Light Gallery I bought two of Galen's books to have more knowledge of and be inspired by his work. Once I saw his image 'Sierra Wave Cloud over Petroglyphs' I decided that I need to see this wonderful place for myself. Due to recent vandalism damage the location is rightfully not publicly disclosed/discussed, so it took me some time to research the location and get some pointers. Last weekend I embarked on a camping trip to find this place and I was lucky. I had given myself a lot of time before sunset, so it was great to just sit there and contemplate the history and meaning of this place. I find it really mind-boggling to think who had visited this place before, their life experiences and circumstances, their beliefs and what made them draw these petroglyphs. It was very easy to get lost in the spirituality of this place. The compositions for this location are limited - at least if you respect the artwork/history as I do, so I never dared to walk across this huge panel. I decided to follow the compositional direction that Galen had chosen as in my opinion it provides the most balanced view. I was lucky to get some good light in this direction too.
