Across the Southwest / Adam Schallau

If you are looking for a unique experience and a different view of the Grand Canyon, you may want to consider a scenic helicopter flight. Flights depart the South Rim heliport and make either a quick trip across the canyon, or circumnavigate it in a counter-clockwise direction.

My wife and I chose the latter. After liftoff from Grand Canyon Airport you head east 500 feet over one of the world’s largest Ponderosa Pine forests as you make your way to Desert View and the eastern canyon. For the first few minutes of the flight, the canyon is barely visible off to the left as the pilot follows the FAA approved corridor for helicopter operations. Just before Desert View the helicopter turns north and within seconds the world drops out from underneath us as we begin our experience over the Grand Canyon. Continue Reading »

It has been 8-years since my last visit to the Grand Canyon and on my first day there Mother Nature treated us to a wonderful rainbow. Unfortunately the storm was a sign of things to come. During our 5-days, 4-nights (camping) we experienced everything from sunshine to snow, with more bad weather than good. The storm system that parked itself over the Four Corners provided excellent conditions for dramatic photography of Grand Canyon and I can’t wait to share more images with you.

A fast moving late May storm brought low clouds and snow showers to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. As the storm cleared I was treated to this Brocken spectre and glory that lasted for only a few seconds. A Brocken spectre is an optical phenomenon where the sun casts a long shadow into the mist and fog below, and a glory is the rainbow halo that appears around the head of the person’s shadow and is caused by light refracting of water droplets in the atmosphere.

If you happen to pickup a copy of the June 2008 issue of New Mexico Magazine you will discover a few of my images in the articles “Taking the High Road” by Katie Arnold, and “Keeping Current” by Steve Shoup. I’d also like to mention that I was impressed with the magazine’s art team and their ability to faithfully reproduce the colors in my images.

The photo of chile ristras hanging from a turquoise beam was shot last summer in Chimayo near the santuario. The other photo of cat tails and red willow was shot this past March along the banks of the Rio Grande River in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area near the village of Pilar, New Mexico. There is a third photo in the magazine shot this past July from the rim of the Rio Grande River Gorge west of Taos.

Ever since I got my first ’serious’ tripod, a Bogen 3001, I have been wrapping my tripod legs with foam pipe insulation and black duct tape to add a little padding for when I’m carrying it over my shoulder. I’ve recently made the switch to a Gitzo GT3540LS Series 3 Systematic 6X carbon fiber tripod (wow, that’s a mouthful) and the first thing I did after drooling over it was add the foam, giving it a nice ‘Mad Max’ look. I also make one other addition to my tripods that I’d like to share here on Across the Southwest.

I commonly use a remote release in my photography so I don’t have to actually touch the camera to fire the shutter, which provides me with a more stable shooting platform. Even though I live in the desert-southwest I often find myself shooting with the tripod in the water, whether it be a mountain lake, or the Rio Grande River. Several times now I have discovered my remote release dangling an inch or two above the water, and it’s gone swimming once. What I needed was a place to stick my release where it couldn’t go swimming (again) while I’m composing my shot.

My solution was to adhere a piece of 1/2″ Velcro around one of my tripod legs with a small piece of Velcro on the back side of the release. Now I’ve got a place to stick the remote release that will keep it out of the water, and out of the way when composing a shot.

If you find this tip useful or have one of your own that you would like to share, I’d love to hear about it.

I had to dig into my archives for this one, all the way back to my days of shooting Fuji Velvia slide film. I’ve shot countless photos in the Taos area over the years, but this is still one of my favorites.

For my first two years living hear I rented a small place in Ranchos de Taos, one block from the historic Saint Francis de Asis church which is easily one of the most photographed buildings in North America. When the light was good I’d make my way to the church with camera in hand. On this particular evening I was being shadowed by a dog (probably looking for a handout) as I explored the light on the church. I kept tripping over him as I’d back up to reposition my tripod, or he would wonder into the shot often getting right in front of the camera. The dog was frustrating the heck out of me.

Then it came to me. I’ve got plenty of photos of the church, why couldn’t the dog be the subject? I couldn’t believe it when I patted the top of the adobe wall that surrounds the church’s plaza and the dog obediently jumped up onto it. He sat there very patiently as I took several photos of him basked in the late afternoon light with the church in the background. What a great dog and another great moment in Taos.

If you explore the wilderness you know that having good maps is as essential as having a good tripod for photography. This has always meant having to buy the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5′ topographical quadrangles which gets very expensive once you’ve purchased all the maps you’re going to need. Fortunately nowadays we can get those same maps in a digital format direct from the USGS, and the best part is it’s free!

Go to USGS link at the end of this article and type in the place. Then click the red information bubble showing the maps that are available. Next click on “download” to get the maps that you want in a convenient pdf format. Then print. It’s that simple.

>>>Click here to download USGS topo maps<<<

I have a few new images to share from my outing to the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, and the southern tip of the San Luis Valley. The weather was less than cooperative for most of the day with strong wind and some smoke from wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado.

At Great Sand Dunes, Medano Creek has begun to flow and was creating some very interesting patterns in the sand. With the wind blowing sand everywhere I elected to shoot with one lens to avoid lens changes and introducing sand into the camera body. For the two shoots presented here I used the Canon 24-70 f/2.8L which allowed me to frame compositions from wide-angle to short-telephoto. I had planned on photographing at the dunes all day and staying for sunset, but the wind continued to get stronger and I quickly grew tired of getting sand blasted.

After leaving the dunes I headed for a spot that I have photographed once before, the Lobatos Bridge over the Rio Grande River near the Colorado - New Mexico state line. I spent the afternoon hiking along the river looking for petroglyphs and enjoying bird watching. Near sunset I moved up into the San Luis Hills just west of the river and scouted a location to shoot across the hills looking back towards the Latir Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Mother Nature cooperated and provided me with nice clouds, some sweet pink light, and the wind subsided for a few minutes.

After sunset I packed up and started the long drive across the desert back to Taos. Along the way I had to cross back over the Lobatos Bridge just as the moon was rising over the distant mountains. With my headlights illuminating the bridge and the moon ahead I had to stop and create one more photo. This last image was shot with the 24-70mm lens, ISO 100, and the exposure was 30 seconds at f/11.

All things considered I think it was a successful day. I love to hear what you think.

I know it’s spring in Taos when my tulips blossom. And to think that just 1-week ago we had fresh snow on the ground.

Photographed with the Canon G9, raw, macro mode, and manual focus.

On my recent river trip down the Rio Grande River through Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park I carried with me my Canon 5D along with 4 lenses, the 17-40mm f/4L, 24-70mm f/2.8L, 70-200mm f/4L IS, and the 300mm f/4L IS. In addition I had numerous filters, extra batteries, and of course memory cards. My biggest concern on the trip was water. I was going to be surrounded by it for three days navigating through rapids and hopefully I wouldn’t capsize the canoe.

The guide service that I hired would be providing dry bags for my clothing, tent, and sleeping bag, but I needed something more to protect my camera gear. I contacted Lowepro and told them what I was going to be doing and they graciously provided my with a DryZone 200 AW camera bag.

If you’re not familiar with the DryZone series of bags let me give you a quick run-down. The DryZone bags are soft sided camera backpacks that feature a waterproof inner compartment known as a drypod that is sealed with a TIZIP™ zipper. This bag will float even when fully loaded! Continue Reading »