Balance In The Bisti Badlands

Title

Balance In The Bisti Badlands

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

Ever since getting inspired by some friends' work in the Bisti Badlands, I've had it in-mind as a great place to visit. It's unique on its own and after focusing on Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming over the past few years, it certainly fit with my hopes to capture a little more variety.

So in my drive back home from Moab, I decided to make time for a little detour through northern New Mexico for a couple nights at the Bisti Badlands (pronounced Biss-Tie). And boy am I glad I did. In-fact, I have no doubt that I'll be back! Miles and miles with no trails and very little light pollution makes for a very happy night photography explorer. :-)

How I Got The Shot
Being my first time at the Bisti Badlands, I thought it was a good excuse to reach out to my friend Matt Payne who lives in Durango to see if he could possibly join me. He was busy with other things at the time but he graciously shared a couple of gps tracks from his visits there - which helped tremendously. And while this gave me a better idea of what to expect, I still did some daytime scouting before I went out at night for the shots I had in-mind.

I started hiking from the south parking lot at about 1 am and within about 45 minutes or so, I reached the interesting rock formations. This one was the last one I had in-mind before heading back for some sleep in my truck. To me, my timing with the Milky Way arcing up at an angle in the sky behind and above is what made a lot of the rock structures seem to come alive.

To get the shot, I focused on just the rocks and I decided to let the Milky Way appear a little out of focus. And for the lighting, I used my led light panel positioned at a distance off to the right side to get some good depth and shadows. Then after I got home, I brought back the image with a curves adjustment after having intentionally exposed to the right out in the field.

Photo Gear
� Camera Body -�Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
� Camera Lens - Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Wide-Angle Lens for Nikon
� Tripod Head -�Acratech GP Ballhead with Lever Clamp
� Tripod Legs -�FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
� L Bracket - Kirk BL-D800 L-Bracket for Nikon D800, D800E and D810
� LED Light Panel - F&V Z96 UltraColor LED Video Light

Exposure Settings - Single Exposure
� ISO:6400
� Aperture: f/2.0
� Shutter Speed: 20 seconds

Uploaded

May 16th, 2016

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