Desert Sunset - Tucson Mountain Park

Kitt Peak in the distance

I drove over Gates Pass road into the desert just west of Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park for the sunset yesterday.  This first image is the view looking west with Kitt Peak in the center of the image.  This is an HDR combine of 5 images showing not only the brighter sky and distant mountains, but also the darker foreground plants.  I used Aurora HDR program for the combine.  The image was taken with my Canon 6D and the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.  Exposures ranged at f/4 at ISO 800 from 1/1600 seconds to 1/100 seconds.

Gates Pass to Golden Gate Mountain

 This image is looking back along Gates Pass Road with the pretty mountains ranging from Golden Gate Mountain on the right to the dip of Gates Pass on the left edge of the image.  The image is an HDR combine with 5 images taken with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/4, ISO 800 with exposures ranging from 1/200 seconds to 1/13 seconds.

Saguaro Cactus and pretty sunset clouds

 This image looks west into the setting Sun with silhouetted cacti and bushes in the desert.  This HDR combine of 5 images taken with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens and exposures of  1/1250 to 1/80 seconds.

Saguaro Cactus, sunset clouds and the Moon

This last image is similar to the previous one but in portrait mode to catch the crescent Moon in the sky overhead.  It is also an HDR combine of 5 images with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens and exposures of 1/800 to 1/50 seconds.

HDR Sunset

I was out playing with my new camera again at sunset tonight.  Here are a couple HDR combines (using auto exposure bracketing in the camera and a sequence of 5 shots and Luminance HDR on my Linux box for the combine)  of the desert landscape looking west into the sunset.  It's amazing how different the combines can be.

 I liked this shot because it has a lot of color saturation.  Most of the foreground detail are only visible in the longest exposure so I was very pleased at how it appears here.  With the bright sun, the shortest exposures that show the halo of sunlight show very little else.  This view is not too far from what my eye saw while composing the shot - the human eye and brain is excellent at being able to see this type of scene.  The shortest exposure was 1/8000 seconds at f/8, ISO 100 using my 24mm f/1.8 lens on my 70D.  The mid exposure was 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.  The longest exposure was 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.  The HDR combine was a fattal operator.

This HDR combine is a Mantiuk '06 combine of the same 5 images as the previous image.  The low saturation almost gives the appearance of there being snow on the ground.

Desert hike photography

I took my new Canon 70D out on its first desert hike along the Encinas trail in the Saguaro National Park West on Saturday.  The trail hooks up with a wash and an old dirt road which was active in 1935 when several NGS markers were placed along its length - I used one of them as a location for a Geocache called "Surveying the Desert" that is still active as a virtual - that location was a goal since I haven't been out to that site in quite a few years, but the desert hike always presents lots of plant and sometimes animal life and this time of year is a good time to visit when the desert isn't so hot. Yesterday's blog posts IR in the Desert and Saguaro Moonrise has some more shots from later in this hike.

This multi-armed Saguaro cactus was nicely displayed against the shadowed hills in the distance.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto at 150mm focal length and an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/6, ISO 100.  I used the Landscape scene mode while trying to figure out different parts of my new camera.

Did I mention that there are lots of Saguaro cacti and other plant life along this trail?  Not to mention lots of hills and mountains to serve as backdrops for the nearby scenery.  This area is in the northern parts of the Tucson Mountains west of Tucson.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/350 seconds at f/11, ISO 200.

I mentioned that this desert area is a great place to see wildlife or at least the evidence of it.  Here is a deer hoof print in the sandy wash along the trail with the toe of my shoe for scale.  The exposure was 1/90 seconds at f/11 and ISO 200 with my telephoto lens at 75mm focal length.

The "bones" of a dead Saguaro are surprisingly photogenic.  Sad to see the remains of one of these magestic and long-lived desert plants but with at least a few arms, it must have lived a fairly long life, almost certainly more than 100 years.  This image was taken at 135mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.

Saguaro Forest

At the visitors center of the Saguaro National Park West, you can see one of the most dense "forests" of Saguaro Cacti there is.

 With a little bit of telephoto compression it really makes it seem like there's no room for anything but Saguaro Cacti in the desert.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 150mm focal length and an exposure of 1/6000 seconds at f/5, ISO 200.

There aren't just lots of cacti in this area, but many beautiful multi-armed cacti as well like this one, taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/4000 seconds at f/5, ISO 200.

IR in the desert

I took my new Canon 70D out for a little day hike in the desert and decided to see how it does with an infrared filter (a Hoya R72).  Here are some samples:

 This is a white light image showing the Moon rising over the hills nearby.  This exposure was made with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/11, ISO 200.

This is the same composition with the Hoya R72 IR filter in place.  The exposure was 2 seconds at f/4, ISO 200.  I converted the original to B&W with the GIMP and a simple desaturate followed by a little curve stretching.

This is the original frame before desaturating the image.  The exposure was 2 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400 with my 50mm f/1.8 lens on my 70D.

This is the same frame, desaturated and stretched a little with the curves tool in the GIMP.

This is the white light version of the above.  The exposure was 1/350 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 with my 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Snow covered Saguaro

Still from last Monday's snow day, here are some snow covered Saguaro. This image was taken at 168mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2500 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Snowy Trail

Another snowy picture from last Monday morning, looking down a snow covered trai at the distant mountain peaks. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/6400 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Desert Snow

The early morning fog started to clear out to reveal the snow covered mountains. Golden Gate Mountain in the Tucson Mountains west of town is the subject of this image. A cholla cactus stands on the right in the foreground - looking much less dangerous than normal. Several Saguaro cacti stand in the distance and an Ocotillo is in the right foreground. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with my Canon 20D. The exposure was 1/40 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.