Photo Compilation - The Many Faces of the Chiricahua Mountains

Over the past 8 years during my tenure in the San Simon Valley, first with the Sky Gypsies then as estate manager for the Painted Pony Resort, I have been taking pictures.  The incredible landscape here is inspiring and just begs to be photographed.  I'm not alone in this view as evidenced by the Facebook photography group Cochise County and its Wonders which showcases imagery from southeastern Arizona. One of my projects has been to collect photographs of the Portal Peak and the Chiricahua Mountains from the same vantage point over time.  The eastern flank of the Chiricahua Mountains predominates the view from everywhere in the valley so I began collecting images of this familiar view, mostly from the same location out in the valley looking west toward the mountains.  So every morning starts with the camera in hand and a sunrise check of the Chiricahua Mountains and the day ends with another check of the sunset.  I quickly noticed that every time I looked at the view there was something new to see, a new rock formation or shadow I had never seen quite that way.  I have also noticed the scene changes by the hour, the day, and the season.  With the colors changing at sunrise and sunset, light and shadow patterns constantly in flux through out the day, and with storms that come during the winter rains and summer monsoons I find something new each time I look.  I have put these together into a video format as a way of showing casing the same scene that residents and visitors alike see on a daily basis.  Created for the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon the video may also be found on their Facebook page.

Addendum:  Here is another image of the same scene I made after finishing the video, I just can't help myself with the views and a camera.

A partially desaturated view of the Chiricahua Mountains taken with a tablet camera.

An Image From a Guest

The recent 2015 All-Star Telescope star party at the Painted Pony Resort always brings a host of talented astrophotographers out to image the sky, but the landscape also draws attention.  Recent experiments with black and white photography motivated some others to experiment in capturing the Chiricahua mountains in black and white.  The image below is a view of the Chiricahua mountains in black and white taken by the talented Canadian astrophotograher, John McDonald.  While I get images when and where I can, this is an example of what someone who knows what they are doing and captures the Chiricahuas in a completely different light.  The small puffy white clouds contrast nicely with angular mesquite in the foreground with the 8000' Portal Peak and eastern flank of the Chiricahua mountains in between.  Truly a spectacular image and thanks to John for allowing the reuse of his image.

Other images by John McDonald may be found on his RSAC Victoria Centre Zenfolio astrophotography page

Portal Peak and the Chiricahua mountains in black and white.  Image and copyright by John McDonald.

Photographing the Same Subject Over and Over

I frequently take and post images of the eastern side of the Chiricahua mountains as seen from around the Painted Pony Resort outside Rodeo New Mexico.  I have so many images of the same subject that a slideshow entitled "The Many Faces of the Chiricahua Mountains" was created.  The goals in constantly photographing Portal Peak and the eastern Chiricahuas are to create the perfect image as well as photo-document the changes in the landscape that create different moods I experience when observing the mountain range over time.  But what constitutes a perfect image of the Chiricahua mountains?  

From my perspective, several factors are important.  The first is scale.  Scale in this case refers to the physical distance encompassed in the image.  The landscape image below spans 5.75 miles in length, Cave Creek Canyon south to Sulphur Canyon, and 4000' in height, the floor of the San Simon valley to the top of the 8000' Portal Peak.  Since most cameras do not capture scale without forcing the subject into the background my landscape images require construction in a post production process.  A good image editor is required to piece together segments of the landscape taken closeup into a final product that recreates what I see with my eye, is pleasing to view, and encompasses the whole scene.  Since I shoot hand held with an inexpensive point and shoot camera this takes composing the final image in my mind and then collecting the individual elements for later construction.

The second factor is lighting.  Early morning just at sunrise is always the most productive time to capture images of the eastern flanks of the Chiricahua mountains.  The long light of the rising sun creates a series of colors, some lasting only a moment, across the flank of the mountains.  Starting in the reds the colors move in shorter and shorter wavelengths through the blues until the reflected colors begin to wash out.  

The third is color.  This is of course related to the lighting.  But in some cases, especially when clouds are present over the mountains and the shadows stark a presentation in black and white is more striking and evokes stronger emotions so I choose to desaturate the image after increasing contrast to to further enhance the elements of light and shadow.  

Finally depth.  A number of tools are available to enhance depth in a photograph and perhaps the most common is depth of field.  I have chased after techniques that enhance depth in 2 dimensional images to create a more realistic 3 dimensional image in the belief that good depth enhances the viewers experience. The image below shows good depth with dark clouds creating shadow over the ridges in the background while the foreground ridge line is complete sunlight.  This contrast in shadow naturally enhances the appearance of depth in the image making the almost 6 miles of ridge line stand out and away from the shadowed background.  This difference in shadowing was the result of the partial cloud cover present at that time and in combination with an old photographic technique developed in Germany in the 1930's, further enhances the depth.  Unsharp masking creates an apparent increase in resolution and is a useful tool for creating an image with increased depth helping the foreground ridge line jump out of the image. 

These are all easy to apply tools that anyone can implement to create images that capture the imagination and convey the emotions generated when viewing the scene.

Almost perfect, click on the image to see a larger version or follow this link.

Addendum:
More work with the original panoramic image data set has resulted in this new image.  Spanning further south and north, both Portal Peak and Darnell Peak are visible and the scene shifts from just Portal Peak to the whole east flank of the Chiricahua mountains. 

Barfoot Lookout Panorama

A 360 degree panorama from the Barfoot Lookout atop Buena Vista Peak in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. Hosted by Microsoft's Photosynth, several highlights of prominent peaks surrounding the lookout were labeled to help orientate the viewer. The map to this hike is located in the sidebar or click here.