Rincon Colorado in northern NM exhibits almost the entire color palette of Nature in New Mexico : geology (sandstone in white, yellow, peach; shales in white, g...
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Rincon Colorado in northern NM exhibits almost the entire color palette of Nature in New Mexico : geology (sandstone in white, yellow, peach; shales in white, gray, and a spectrum of maroons); vegetation (grasses in light green, sage in blue-green, Ponderosa pines in mid-green, Pinon-Juniper in darker greens); all set off by NM's azure sky highlighted with silver clouds.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on the Santa Fe National Forest, about 11 miles north of Gallina, New Mexico, USA. This is generally in the northwest quadrant of NM, perhaps 20-30 miles WNW of the better-known Abiquiu area.Time
This photo was shot in mid-afternoon, about 4:00 p.m. (daylight savings) in mid-summer. This is a remote area in rural northern New Mexico. It is 7-8 hours from where I was living at the time. And the nearest motel was about 2 hours away. When I first got to the location, the sun was brightly shining, pretty much head-on to these formations with no shadows; and there were few clouds in the sky. So I waited until later, when the sun had moved to provide some shadows and, more importantly, summer cumulus clouds had developed. Mid-summer might not have been the best season for this location, but I had to meet the submission deadline for a photo contest.Lighting
The clouds proved to be critical for getting the right lighting at this time of year and time of day. When the rainbow-hued shale layers in the mid-ground are directly lit by the sun, they are so bright that they overpower everything else. Since clouds were forming, as usual, in the summer mid-afternoon and were drifting with the breeze, I was able to get this shot when the shale layers were partially shaded by a cloud, while the background was still in full sun, which provided shadows to reveal the shapes of the cliffs.Equipment
At this time, my digital camera was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1, which is an advanced-beginner pocket camera with a cropped sensor and a 5x zoom lens. I was also carrying my old Pentax KX film camera, loaded with slide film; I have a slide that is a virtual duplicate of this shot. With this much light, I was able to shoot 1/500 sec at f/5.3. So I did not bother with a tripod (though I had one in my vehicle). The non-photographic equipment included water, maps, and my dog.Inspiration
I first came across this location back in the 1980s, when I was working for the US Forest Service. At that time, I was still using a little Kodak Instamatic camera which used 126 film cartridges. I got my boss to stop long enough for me to jump out of the truck, and I took a couple of quick shots with the Instamatic; one, though, was good enough to give as a gift. But the location and the name - Rincon Colorado - stuck in my mind. In 2015, the NM Museum of Natural History sponsored a photo contest with the theme "The Colors of Nature in NM." Although I had done a lot of photography in the intervening years, and had many good shots, this location called out from my memory. I pulled out some maps, and after considerable searching, found this location and the route to it. To my eye, it truly represents all of the colors of Nature in NM - sandstone cliffs in white, grey, yellow, and peach; shales in gray and a rainbow of reds-maroons; greens from light-green of grasses, mint-green of sage, mid-green of Ponderosa pine and Pinyon-juniper in fore-and mid-ground, and dark-green of the forest above the cliffs; NM's azure sky, all set off by clouds in silver and white. Nature did the artistry here; I just found the right camera angle to get the yellow cliffs and mid-ground Ponderosas at two of the rule-of-thirds intersections.Editing
When I took this, I was using the software provided with the Panasonic camera (Silkypix), which for a beginner is not user-friendly. I do not remember doing much beyond fine-tuning the rule-of-thirds cropping. Later, after learning a little about Lightroom, I used it to add some blue to the sky, and adjust saturation and luminosity of the reds-maroons. Even though partially shaded, I had to decrease the luminosity of the shales. This photo perhaps could use more editing - some clarity for the clouds and the forests, some lens correction for the corners - but I wanted little intrusion into Nature's handiwork. A personal note - I edit on a photo-editing monitor (Dell U2415), and my finished product does not look as good on my everyday cheap monitor, and looks somewhat blah on my cheap laptop screen. I suspect that this is a problem for most VB members - those editing/viewing on lesser monitors/screens may add too much PUNCH to their shots, while they do not get the full effect of other members' shots. I have no idea how to address this discrepancy.In my camera bag
In 2015 when this was shot, I usually carried my Pentax KX film SLR with 28-mm, 50-mm, 100-mm macro, and 70-200-mm zoom lenses; I also carried the Panasonic Lumix DFC-LX1 digital. These days I carry a Pentax K-30 DSLR (cropped sensor), with 50mm f/1.8, 100-mm macro, and 70-200-mm zoom. I now usually carry the DFC-LX1 as a back-up. I have a great Sigma 18-35-mm f/1.8 wide-angle for the Pentax; but it is very heavy, and I only carry it when I think I'll need it. I have an old Slik-U212 tripod, and carry it in my vehicle, but I rarely use it (mostly for full-moon shots). I always carry UV, Skylight, and polarizing filters, extra batteries, and lens-cleaning materials.Feedback
This location is so photogenic as to be almost frustrating. On the one hand, you can almost always get an acceptable grab-shot anytime - witness my jump-out-of-the-truck Instamatic shot 30-odd years ago. On the other hand, the possibilities are so unlimited that it calls out for dawn-to-dusk attendance on several consecutive days for each season over a few years, to see all that it may offer. For a landscape this complex and rich, I would recommend at least one day with three shooting times: early morning, late afternoon, and sometime in-between (late morning, early afternoon, or mid-afternoon, depending on the season's weather). I have tried getting some closer shots of the shale layers, but they are not effective - the colors get obscured by surface textures, and the rainbow-spectrum of reds-maroons is not as clear; and both the contrasts with the sandstones, and the general landscape context, seem to add considerably to the aesthetics of the shales and their colors. Be prepared with rough clothing and boots - climbing these shale-clay slopes is tough and dirty. And avoid wet weather - the clays become slippery as grease and also cling in 4-inch-thick layers to the soles of your boots. I have recently been frustrated in five attempts to photograph this location with a light layer of snow. The area is so remote that even calling the local Forest Service office (15 miles away) does not provide good info on snow presence and/or depth. These formations are south-facing, so light snows melt off too quickly; and heavier snows render the single access road impassible to my vehicle.