Citrus Glow

The Broken Eggs in the Bisti Badlands near sunset. I wanted to include the color in the sky on the right, and have the crack leading to that area. In retrospect it feels crowded on the left, and if I had it to do over I would try angling the comp to the left more.

I found a surefire cure for a lack of depression. First, drive by an awesome photography location for 30 years without knowing it's there. Second, when you do finally discover it and visit, accidentally set your camera to a low quality setting for many of the photos.

That's the trick I pulled. About a year ago, after seeing some images here on NPN, I finally looked up where the Bisti Badlands are. My in-laws live in Aztec, New Mexico, about 60 miles from Bisti.

My father-in-law and I did an overnight backpack trip there last week, and I had the camera set on Basic JPG for all of my afternoon/evening shots (long story as to why). Fortunately I bracketed a lot, and the D80 seemed to do a reasonable job even at the basic setting so the photos are usable.

Since stumbling into that amazing Arizona flower patch in April I've had a long drought of getting out to photograph, so I had a lot of fun playing in the Broken Eggs and the hoodoos. Now that I know Bisti a little, I need to return for a better planned attack in the future.

Nikon D80
Nikon 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 at 14 mm
Hand Blend of four photos at 1/8, 1/4, and 1 sec at f/16 and ISO 100