Chasing Down an Old Photo

When I looked at my computer this morning the background was the old photo below that my father took on a family trip in the summer of 1971. I decided to see if I could find where the photo was taken.

Trilobites and the House Range

Two Species of Trilobites at the Same Time!

My son, Evan, and I went out past Delta yesterday to go dig fossils at the U Dig Fossil quarry near Swazey Peak in the House Range.  The quarry is located where a very rich vein of the Wheeler Shale is exposed and one can find very well preserved trilobite and other fossils from the Cambrian era (half a billion years ago).  It costs $28 per adult for two hours and you get a 20% discount if you can show them a Utah driver's license.  They give you a rock hammer and a bucket and you are allowed to cart off as much rock as you want during your stay.  The quarry is dug out periodically with power equipment so there are fairly fresh shards of shale to work with.  You try to split the rock along a seam layer and hopefully expose a fossil when you do so.  Most of the fossils are trilobites and are very small and often just pieces.  Sometimes you find only an impression because the fossil itself is fragile and breaks up when you split the rock.  The biggest ones we got were an inch or two long.

Hell's Half Acre

Hells Half Acre is a lava field in southeast Idaho near the town of Blackfoot.  Interstate 15 passes through the southeast corner of the field for a few miles and there is a rest stop about a mile from the southern entrance.

Favorite Photos from The Week's Four Corners Trip

Here are some of my favorite landscape photos from this last week's trip to the Four Corners Area.

Shiprock

December in India, Part 5

At the Taj Mahal in Agra

On Monday morning, December 23rd, we checked out of our hotel in Karol Bagh early in the morning and began our three day "golden triangle" tour to Agra and Jaipur.  We had a car and driver for the next three days and stayed at a couple of nice hotels.

New Camera and Photo per Day

 

I bought a new camera and lens this summer.  The lens is a Tamron Di II 18-270 F/3.5-6 made to fit the Canon EOS mount.  I used it for several weeks in Korea with my old Rebel XT.  The new camera body is a Canon T3i.  I started using it when I got back and I love both the lens and the camera.  I like the extended ISO with the T3i.  It goes to 6400 while the old XT went only to 1600.  The 18-270 range on the Tamron means I don't need to switch lenses like I did when I was using the 18-50 and 50-200 Canon kit lenses.  This is a big plus when I am out in a sandy environment like the San Rafael Swell.

Cliffhouse Arch

I recently put up some photos on Photosynth from my earlier hike down the Escalante River in 2008.  This is a really cool way to look a scenery, especially rock art.

Here is the link for this set of photos.  For more of these, especially rock art, try this link.  Enjoy!

Shooting Photos through Welding Glass

I got a piece of welding glass in the mail recently to use as filter for long exposures.  It seems to be working pretty well, but does require a few adjustments.

The first issue was how to mount it in front of the lens.  I've seen blog posts where some people have taped the glass to a screw-on UV filter.  This means you can only use it for lenses of the same size as the filter.  Another option was to use a tulip lens hood reversed and hold the welding glass in place with rubber bands.  This will work for any size lens providing it has a tulip lens hood.  I had a flat lens hood that fits onto my EFS 18-55mm zoom via a bayonet mount, rather than the filter screw-in.  so I taped the glass to the lens hood with electrical tape.  It mounts and unmounts easily with a quick twist.

Comparing Yeongdo in 1980 with 2011

I served in the island of Yeongdo as an LDS missionary from May through November of 1980.  I served with Glenn Leewright, Peter Stewart & Jed Hill as companions.  Other missionaries that lived in the same house at the same time were: Chris Morin, Jim Falconer, Dan Mitchell, Charles Cook & 김학수.

I went back this week with copies of some of the photos I took then on my iPhone.  I went back to many of the same places and took photos of what they look like today, after 31 years.  Here a some of the comparisons.

A Nifty Way to View Rock Art

I just discovered Photosynth, a photography software package and online gallery from Microsoft. It turns out to be a really good way to display rock art. It stitches all the photos together for you, and allows you to zoom in on details. The whole panel or gallery of rock art can potentially be linked together and it gives you a good context for seeing how the whole is laid out, while still allowing you to look at the details if you wish.

I put up several "synths", but a good example is the one from the Grand Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon.

Calendars

I made two calendars this year. I used Qoop.com. The calendars are located at the following two links.

I made one with photos from my trips to Coyote Gulch this year

The other is a collection of photos from 2008 & 2009

You can buy them at cost if you really want one, no royalites for poor 'ol Kerk.

My Favorite Photo from 2008

Natural Arch at Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument
Originally uploaded by headlessog

Looking through my photography from last year, I liked this one the best.

This is a natural arch in the Esclante River Canyon a couple mile upstream from where highway 12 crosses the river. I took this photo a few hours before the sun went down from the opposite side of the canyon about halfway up a sandy slope. I was here with the boy scouts on a backpacking trip.
I liked this one so much I put it on my credit card.

Tiananmen at Panoramio

This is my most viewed photo at Panoramio; over 3000 views. You can also see it on Google Earth if you select the right buttons.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2518785

Most Favorites and Comments

Sunrise at Bryce Canyon National Park 1
Originally uploaded by headlessog

This photo is the one that has the most comments and is also the one that has been chosen as a favorite by the most people of all my photos posted on Flickr.

Most Views

The Milky Way from inside a Cave
Originally uploaded by headlessog

Flickr says this photo has been viewed more than any other I have posted there. Almost 200 times, which is still not very many.

Most Interesting

IMG_5826
Originally uploaded by headlessog

Flickr says this is the most "interesting" photo I have posted there.

3D Photos

Click for a larger version

Did you ever use a Viewmaster as a kid? The photo above works on the same principle. You can generate three dimensional views by taking photos of an object from slightly different angles. There are special attachments you can buy for cameras that will split the exposure to get different viewpoints at the exact same point in time. This is really the only way to get action photos. However, if you are taking photos of objects that don't move you can use a much cheaper approach known as the "cha-cha" method. This is what I do for 3D landscape photos. You take one photo and then quickly take a step or two to the right or left and take another. The further you step, the greater the 3D effect. For large objects like the natural bridge above, you can pick out three dimensional details that you would not pick out even being there in person. This is because rather than the parallax from the few inches separating your two eyes, you can generate parallax as big as you want, in effect amplifying the 3D effect. The biggest I have ever done is a hundred feet or so at Rainbow Point at Byrce Canyon.

View of Molly's Nipple from Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park

To view the images I take you need to be able to cross your eyes. If you can do this, then you will line up the two images on top of one another. The image for the right eye is on the left and the visa-versa, so when you line them up by crossing your eyes you create the 3D effect.

If you have managed to do this take a look at the photographs here and on my 3D photo page. Notice how you can easily determine relative distance with this photos in ways you could not with a single photo. For objects that are really far away you cannot tell relative distance with the unaided eye(s) because your eyes are too close together to get any significant parallax.

The technical name for this "amplification" is hyperstereo.

Escalante Photos

These photos are from Thanksgiving vacation in Panguitch, Utah. They were taken in Calf Creek Canyon and Escalante Canyon in Escalante - Grand Staircase National Monument.

Escalante Canyon downstream from the town of Escalante about a mile or so, near the 1st set of pictographs. This is looking east, or downstream, from the wall near the pictographs. The photo was my wife, Yeongmi's, idea and the sky and lighting turned out fantastic.

The same tree as above, but from a different angle, slightly further east and across the river/creek.

A cliff face in the same area.

A butte about halfway between the Calf Creek campground trailhead and Lower Calf Creek Falls.

The "Three Men" pictographs on the east side of the canyon slightly upstream from the above photo.

A cliff house in a side canyon just a bit further upstream on the west side of Calf Creek.

Lower Calf Creek Falls. An unbelievably beautiful location - a bit of green paradise in the desert.