How about another photo of a ruin? These particular ruins are actually found right around the corner from the famous Moon House ruins on Cedar Mesa. What stuck me about this ruin was actually the nice glow of reflected light off of the golden-colored ceiling. I just had to take a photo that emphasized the lines and color of the ceiling above this ruin, and I really like the outcome.
One of my favorite photos from our trip to Chaco Canyon back in June with a short story to go along with it. On the day we were leaving the park to head home, Amanda and I were at the gate to get into Chaco Canyon about ten minutes before 7:00am – which is when they were supposed to open the gate (don’t even get me started about them closing the park in the first place….I would have loved to take some night shots in the park!). Then 7:00am came and went, yet no one was there to unlock the gate. I was getting anxious to get inside the park because I knew I would only have a small window of time to photograph this setting before the sun would be too high in the sky! Finally, about ten minutes after 7:00am, a truck drove up to the gate and finally unlocked it. I quickly drove into the park and headed straight for Pueblo Bonito. Once I parked the Jeep in the lot, I grabbed my camera gear and walked swiftly right to this spot. I setup my tripod and framed the scene and quickly took a few shots. I tried a few different compositions and then ventured further into the pueblo to get a few of the different doorway combinations. About 15-20 minutes after arriving in the pueblo the sun was too high in the sky and light was shining directly onto parts of the interior walls. Luckily, I had made it inside and got the shots I wanted before it was too late! Surprisingly, I was also the only one there during that time – I was expecting there to be other photographers showing up for similar shots.
Since I posted a photo of the Wolfman Panel earlier today, I’ll post this photo of the small ruin located across Butler Wash from the panel. I’m not sure if this particular ruin has a name, but I’m going to go ahead and call it the Wolfman Ruin because of it’s proximity to the rock art. You can spot this ruin across the canyon from the old parking area for the Wolfman Panel (I say ‘old’ because the BLM closed off access to the slickrock parking area sometime over the last year or so). Getting across the canyon to visit this ruin is a little bit trickier, but well worth the effort. There are also some faint petroglyphs found near this ruin if you spend the time to explore the area.
Let’s finish off the week with another photo of a ruin. I visited this ruin back in January with my friend Rick when we hiked to Cave 7. This little ruin is tucked away in an alcove near the head of the short side canyon the houses Cave 7. I named it the Pastel Alcove Ruin because of the pastel colors found in this particular alcove that really stand out to me. One of the more interesting parts of this ruin is the separate wall constructed from small wood beams and covered with mortar that is still standing next to the main part of the ruin.
>> Cave 7
Even though this blog was mainly created so that I could share my rock art photos, I will occasionally share some of my photos of ruins as well. They kind of go hand-in-hand since I am usually out searching for both at the same time.
Here is my first photo of ruins posted on this blog, and it is actually one of my favorite photos taken so far this year. Back in April, my friend Jared and I headed up to the Mule Canyon Towers on Cedar Mesa just before sunset so that we could stick around for some night photography. I had this particular photo in mind when we went up there, so shortly before it was really dark out, I composed this shot on my tripod and waited for it to get a little bit darker out. My goal was to get some nice star trails behind the tower and through the window opening. Once it was dark enough out, I locked my shutter release cable and started the waiting. After about ten minutes a few clouds started to move across the sky and right into my shot! I was a bit upset by this and almost gave up, but fortunately I let my camera keep going. After about thirty minutes I finally decided to end the shot and pack up my gear. I had pretty much written off this shot as a failure at that point.
A few days later when I was back at home and going through all of my photos from the trip, I came across the shots that I took that night. I decided to process them and see how they turned out. To my surprise, I actually liked the way the clouds added some interest to the sky and was glad I did not give up on this shot!
For those of you wondering how the tower was lit, the almost-full moon was rising behind me and provided plenty of nice light on the tower so that I did not have to add any additional light to the scene.
>> Mule Canyon
