Lichen Rock, Bisti Wash, New Mexico
The Bisti is a trackless wilderness area in Northern New Mexico. There are no marked trails, or reliable maps that I am aware of. Only myriads of very interesting hoodoos and washes that change every time there is a big rainstorm. It would be very easy to get lost out here, especially if you are uninitiated. You must be able to read a compass, and being able to read a Topo map would be very helpful. There is no cell service. There are rattlesnakes and scorpions so caution is advised.
I used a Toyo 45A camera with a 150mm Sinaron lens and a #61 Dark Green filter with Kodak T-Max 100 film. FYI, I used a very slight back tilt of the film plane to increase my depth of field and also to increase the "presence" of objects that were nearer the lens.
7 Comments
🙋♂️ Maps, compass, and shoot an azimuth. I even know what the six colors mean. I can even recognize a distributary.
You photo sure makes me thirsty. Is the mottle color on the rock forms of mineral deposits? Looks too dry to be lichen. You have quite the layer of different minerals.
I think the pattern is a combination of desert varnish and possibly lichen. I see those often out in the desert, especially over around the Vermilion Cliffs area in Arizona. The small rocks in the upper part are a very curious thing for me. I have seen them out in the desert in Nevada, especially in the Valley of Fire. They are almost like bee bees or ball bearings. I don't remember what the actual color of the rock was for sure, but there is a lot of very dark, reddish brown which is why I used the darker green filter. The filter also gave more contrast to the whitish patten in the dirt. That place is very dry, but when it rains it could drown a toad. The rain comes down in bucket loads.
I made it to Valley of Fire SP a couple years ago and struggled for a mid day composition.
Same happened at Goblin Valley SP with the addition of six school buses of teens EVERYWHERE. Kids and Hoodoos.
Hoodlums and Hoodoos. Sounds like a docudrama title.
I love the range of textures in this Nathan, and those cracks in the mud leading to the rock work perfectly.
I’m not sure I’d be so adventurous though - I’d be lost without cell service!
I did get lost in there once. Complete overcast so I couldn't find directions by the sun. I had my i-Phone and it has a compass so I could use it to reckon my direction out. Turned out I was one small canyon to the east of where I should have been. The canyon I was in ran north and south, which would have gotten me out except that it dead ended and the climb out would have been almost impossible with a full pack.
For some reason the way this is composed it reminds me one of the eyes of a trackless wilderness - nicely composed.