Shiprock Sundial.

The most compelling thing about Shiprock is the solitude of the experience of being there.  One can be alone in a room but to be alone in a huge empty space with light and air is quite another experience.  Beyond that, its a visual feast.  Canyon de Chelly is like being inside a sculpture, Shiprock IS a sculpture.

  It's also a heck of a sundial, and I've structured most of the many days I have spent there around being in position for the early and late shadows forming up and making a run to the rock or to the horizon.

A little platinum contact of the afternoon shadow from the pulpit.

Morning shadow over off the West Dike.

Late evening shadow about to jump into the atmosphere as the powerplant fires up.  Pulpit in foreground.

Afternoon shadow with Pulpit in foreground.

Molly's Nipple and the East Dike in the afternoon.

East Dike from the North Buttress.

East Dike from the North Buttress.

East Dike.

Afternoon shadow from the North Buttress.

North Buttress view.

The Wing and afternoon shadow.

Road, shadow.

Road and shadow #2.

West Dike and Morning shadow.

Morning Shadow, 1996

Morning shadow, 2012

Morning shadow and West Dike.

Morning Shadow from Climber's Cave Ledge.

Large Format Print Exchange Printing.

  10 prints of one negative for a print exchange at the Large Format Forum.  I finished off my France Negatives to look at them but instead picked a newish image, (last fall), from Shiprock.

  I've seen this scene several times.  You have to sleep up there to witness it, as it happens first thing in the morning.  I was up early and saw the shadow coming and going on the far mountain range.   It just flashed like this twice for about 10 seconds but I was set up and ready with the slide pulled.

  Easy to print negative with very little spotting- that's part of the key when doing an edition.  Some of my prints take a tremendous amount of spotting....which would be multiplied X10.  Exposure for an 11X14 paper image was 30 seconds with a ten second burn of the sky.  I printed it pretty soft but it has good blacks and a nice range of tones.  Now I have to flatten them, do the other work and get them in the mail.  Can't wait to see what 10 prints I get back.

Same shot from about 1995.

A gorgeous morning.  Just the second time I had been up there.

I love this scene but you have to spend the night up there to be ready for it.  Pretty sporty.  One night I got in position just as a storm rolled in.  The wind took my hat and nearly got me.  I managed to get around the corner and into the only shelter on Shiprock- the climber's cave.  Safe and dry back there....then the lip of the cave- fairly large, turned into a waterfall with me behind it.  I watched the lighting flash through the roaring water...but finally rolled out my sleeping bag cover and went to sleep.  

  Everything that happens..happens for the first time, the last time and the only time.

Mont St Michele, North Shore Video.

Just a couple minutes of video shot by Katie on the North Shore.  Still working on negatives.

Eiffel Tower.

View from the top.  There are several levels to stop on, including a fancy restaurant level.

First place we visited after we got checked into hotel in Paris.  There on a breezy cool night right at dusk.  They light the thing up.  Took an hour to get tickets and get up.  When we came off we walked down the staircase.  20 minutes.  It's quite an assembly.

Each leg has an elevator.  I think they are run by water power, judging by the machinery we saw.

Rosie, le riveter had been busy.

First lowest big section is a restaurant.  The next segment up is an observation deck.  You can ride the elevator to the very top.

Photographing around the rock.

North shore, Mont St Michele.

Beachcombing between shots.

In the cloister up on top of Mont St Michele.

On the plaza in front of the abbye.  9 euro tour.  Opens at 9:30.  Need to be there at about 7:00.

I am in the shade of the mont.

Photographing tourists.

Spent a lot of time trying to set up a fairly extreme photo, then called it off.

I got it sorted out but it just wasn't...beyond a skillful photo.

In the cathedral shooting the bell rope.  Very nice.

Hanging out in construction zone to watch the afternoon shadow cross the mud flat.

On this afternoon I got to watch the shadow run all the way to the horizon.

This view lasted about six seconds on a cloudy afternoon with a cloud bank behind me.  It came and went four times over about a hour or so and then went dark.

Black hole down in the abby.

Street walking in the evening.

In front of our little hotel, the Mouton Blanc.

North Shore on the Chapelle St Aubert.

View from a very tough scramble.

Got impressionistic early in the morning over the high tide.  I saw seals out near the point.

Chatting up the locals with a little Tarzan-level French in the cloister.

Le Blizzard.

  Katie has gotten very handy with her iphone.  She must have read my book:  The Blackfork Guide, on blurb.com.