Alien Eggs

Finally can cross the Bisti Badlands off my photography bucket list. Looked like the sunrise for yesterday morning would be good, so i spent the weekend at Bisti. Turned out pretty good, except when i scouted Sat eve the winds kicked in hard and i got caught in a sandstorm; pretty nasty but nothing i havent experienced many times before at GSDNP. Only 3 other photographers there for sunrise yesterday. A little side jab--im sorry but if you need GPS to find these eggs you have some serious directional issues. I read a couple online stories about people getting off-route or not finding the formations, but really this is about as easy it gets as far as route finding is concerned. Anyhow, the rest are linked below, hope you can check them out--feedback welcome!
http://www.stanroseimages.com/gallery/Bisti/

Nice set! You were blessed with some fine clouds. It's been like that all through the monsoon season down here.
I much prefer your other sunrise images (#'s 4 & 5, esp. #5) to the one you posted here or in the Landscape forum.
The two b&w images with the varied lighting are wicked good!
The last b&w is a pretty muddy 'shades of grey' affair (no bunnies, please ). I also like the lone hoodoo images (#'s 2 & 11). You should be pretty pleased with what you got here, as 90% of the time, this area has clear blue skies.
About the GPS...those come in real handy for finding the parking lot after a sunset shoot.

What a fascinating place. I also think the set is strong as a group and as individual shots. And, I agree with John that 5 is maybe the pick of the litter, and the streaking light B&W shots are excellent. A very productive trip and many fine images to include in your portfolio!

Hey, how's the finger doing? Are you getting movement back as you hoped?

Thanks guys--Morris, im slowly getting back movement, hopefully wont need more surgery but itll probably be another couple months before i know if i can avoid that.

I'm really digging the first two b&w shots. Very nice!

Wow - beautiful series Stan - looks like you had a great trip !!

Very nice set Stan, the B&W, 12th down, really stood out for me, great play of light and shadow over the formations.

A fine set Stan. Looks like you had perfect conditions for your first trip to Bisti.

After hearing tales of people getting disoriented and lost, I bought my first GPS in 2001 just to visit Bisti.
I'm still amazed at how anyone can get "lost" in a wash bounded by significant cliffs on both sides!

For anyone who hasn't visited yet, I suggest avoiding researching GPS coordinates of the popular shots.
It's so much more fun exploring all the nooks and crannies, and being surprised. The area is not that big.

What a great set, Stan! Those clouds were awesome and the formations really looked great. It is the type of landscape that has me looking for two suns (or maybe I watched too much Star Wars this weekend). I am also glad to hear your hand is allowing you to get out and enjoy photography again. Beautiful images!

Good stuff, Stan! That is one place that is on my short list, hopefully I can make it out there in the spring.

Hi Stan, your processing is spot on as always. Im gonna nit pick. Your wide angle shots seem to be lacking a bit in composition. Nothing too obvious but not your usual flare for top notch comp. There's some negative space issues where your subject is all alone surrounded by nothing too interesting...4, 8. Maybe you were prioritizing sky first, then add foreground comp second? In the field its easy to get swallowed up into the beautiful desert skies but Man! Bisti IMO is all about super interesting foreground subjects. In addition in your wides, many of your foreground subjects is cropped too close to the bottom of the image for my taste.. 3,5,6,and 8. You're using extreme DOF (almost 3d looking..focus stack?) in the wides and my eye can't help but go to the extreme foreground object. Then it ends suddenly with a crop.

Your mid range images are all very strong in the comp catagory. Especially 1,2,10,11, and 13.

Just wanted to get in a little critique tonight and hope you know I respect your work big time.

The pastel pinks and "popcorn" clouds of the image posted here make it easily my favorite from your selection. The spotlighting on the black and white images that are second and third from the end of your gallery are also interesting to me because they are a different take on photos I've seen from Bisti. Thanks for sharing these with us Stan!

This is a sweet shot stan. You got some nice light on the clouds and on the eggs. I am not a big fan of this square crop, but I would suggest cropping the egg that creeping on the right. I think this will give more balance to the scene. But other than that, you got some nice b&w too.

Stan, of your set, I like this one and #10 the B&W pano most. The sky in this one reminds me of a pink barred feather. The bottom of the image seems cut a little close though.