Petrified Forest National Park

• Russell Baker.

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Many places in the united states take pride in describing themselves as an alien landscape. I have been quite lucky to visit a few of these places, but none of them fit the moniker better than the Blue Mesa in Petrified Forest National Park. A short trail winds through a truly alien-looking landscape and an overlook that affords the mesa to contrast with the rest of the landscape.

My visit did not coincide with the best light, and this being a flat desert, the effect of the harsh light was brutal. But even in an unforgiving light, the landscape didn’t lose any of its strange charms. I was spellbound, and in my mind, I knew I would return here one day and photograph this beautiful, peculiar landscape in light that would do it justice.

The soft light of a slightly overcast sky allowed me to get the shadow detail in this gully. The banding of the different layers on the distant hills also adds interest and draws the eye right to the grasslands of the "expansion lands". This area is as beautiful as the park proper.

F16 at 50ISO for 1/4 second. No filters. Shot at "Crystal Forest".

The "Expansion Lands" is a vast area east of the Petrified Forest National Park proper. It's accessible by 4WD only. I have been working for the Park documenting some of the awesome natural wonders out in this part of the park. These wonderful sandstone sculptures are just one example of what can be found in the park. Canon 5Dmk2 with Zeiss 50mm.

• Paul Klee.

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In an earlier post about our trip to Petrified Forest National Park, I mentioned the lack of any distinct landscape features as you dive to the southern entrance to the park. In today’s post, I want to talk about a fantastic viewpoint that provides a stunning view of a significant area of the park. The outlook point right by the painted desert inn provided a view of the beautiful painted desert portion of the park. These badlands are pretty massive and is best accessed from the Petrified Forest NP.

I took this photograph by pointing my camera west but had to think a bit about the right focal length. It was tempting to use a wider focal length at this location due to the expansive nature of the landscape. But I noticed that the details of the desert were getting lost in all the chaos. The light was still quite harsh, but the clouds provided some diffusion. Moving to 70mm did wonders for my framing. The compression merged the puffy clouds while bringing more prominence to the desert's impressive red color and shapes. I also like the play between dark and bright areas in this scene.

8 image pano. Simple- hiked out, waited for sunset, pressed the button.

• Annie Besant.

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While driving up to Petrified Forest National Park, I had this impression of a desolate desert landscape with many petrified tree remnants distributed here and there. But what greeted us was a park with a multitude of different landscapes and rock formations. I believe only about 10 percent of all my images at the park had any petrified wood in them. We drove the park road in the north to south direction, and the landscape started with a lot of interesting rock formations and brightly red-colored soil, but as we got more south, the landscape turned flat, and the overlooks started getting higher.

Finally, I took this image closer to the park's southern border at a viewpoint near the agate Bridge. By the time we reached this viewpoint, the sun had gone down a bit, so we had the beautiful golden light characteristic of the American West's deserts. The vastness of the land sprawling in front of me attracted me to this image. Make you feel a bit small.

5 vertical shots with a 24mm tilt shift lens stitched together in PS6. I climbed up onto this log and walked to the end hanging over a cliff. I carefully balanced my tripod and set up my lens to capture the background and foreground in sharp focus. The sun had already dropped below the horizon and the sky turned a purple-blue. There was still enough warm light on the horizon from the sunset to light the scene. I love this time (called civil twilight) because the shadows lighten up and the light softens - natural HDR if you like. I used a Lee 2 stop ND filter to hold the sky and the exposure was set at 13 seconds at F16.

Found at the side of the "Long Logs" trail.

This is the view right off the Blue Mesa ring road -looking east over the expansion lands. I shot this on a Canon 5D mk2 with a super sharp Zeiss 50mm Makro Planar. 8 vertical shots stitched together to make a 1Gig file that I can print 24" by 60" at 300DPI and still retain great detail. This looks way better on Moab Somerset Museum Rag than it does on the Web. I spent a week in the park shooting at sunrise and sunset (working for the park). The park closes at those times of the day so I had the whole place to myself. I gave all my images to the Park Service to use to promote the park. It's an awesome place.

7 vertical images stitched together in PS. Lee 3 stop ND filter. I hiked an old road to a part of the park called Petroglyph Canyon. It's an are not frequently visited. I suggest you talk to a ranger if you want to visit this area. The rock formations are pretty incredible- one in the image I made looks like a skull- and there are some interesting petroglyphs in the area.

• Gustav Mahler.

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I often try to exclude any human-made items in my landscape images, but sometimes they help make a better image. When I was at one of the many outlook points that dot the beautiful Petrified Forest National Park, I initially composed the picture with the top part cut off—focussing more on the details of the rock formations. I don’t think the image worked very well, mainly due to the lighting. I took the shot while the sun was still high, and the strong sunlight meant muted colors on the terrain. Also, by removing the cars and the vista point, the image had no scale reference, and it failed to convey the scale of the place. I admit there was a bit of reluctance to add the cars and the railing into the image, but I like the overall balance and look of this image better.

I hiked out into the painted desert at sunset and waited for the sun to disappear. This photograph was actually taken about 10 mins after the sun set. You can see the Painted Desert Inn on the hill in the background. 6 vertical shots with a 85mm tilt shift lens. I used an 85mm to compress the scene so that the Painted Desert Inn would not look so far away. I stitched all the pictures together in PS6.

Keystone Arch is about 200 yards off the road on Blue Mesa in Petrified Forest National Park. Most people don't leave the road. It's difficult to photograph because it's arch is pretty low to the ground. I had to take this shot lying on stomach with my tripod set as low as it could go. I wanted to highlight the arch by showing some of the light from the setting sun through it. I took 5 vertical shots with my 24mm Tilt Shift lens set at 2 degrees of downward tilt to get the foreground sharp. F11 for 2 seconds at ISO 50 with a 2 stop ND to hold the sky.

Die Painted Desert im Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona).

Die Painted Desert) at Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona).

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