Bisti Badlands, De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area thumbnails only

The Cracked Eggs (or Alien Egg Hatchery) rock formations about 2 miles into Bisti Badlands, De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area are an intriguing subject.

This scene called for the classic use of a wide-angle focal length. Move in close to render the foremost egg large while keeping nearly the entire hatchery and a significant amount of interesting background in the frame. This lens can go significantly wider, but 22mm seemed the right choice for the background details inclusion.

Selecting the camera height is typically a necessary consideration for landscape photography. In this case, a high position provided separation of the foreground cracked egg and the one behind it. This position also showed the number of cracked eggs vs. having foreground eggs obscuring them.

Scouting showed that this scene would look great at sunset, and that timing was the photographic plan implemented. As is often the case, the light was best immediately before the scene went into shadows, the optimal (warmest) light only lasted for a few minutes, and the images shot before the best light are seldom seen by anyone else.

Immediately before the eggs went into shadows, I flipped the camera to vertical orientation (Cracked Eggs at Sunset) (an L-bracket makes this change fast and holds the same alignment) to capture a variation. When the eggs went into shadows (Cracked Eggs in Sunset Shade, they were evenly illuminated, and the glowing canyon walls in the background remained attractive.

Immediately after capturing this scene with the camera in horizontal orientation with the warmest light of the day reaching the cracked eggs, switching to vertical orientation captured this image.

When the cracked eggs went into the evening shade, my initial thoughts were that the best shots were on the card. However, I continued shooting because the canyon wall was still in warm sunset light.

In the end, I wasn't certain that this wasn't my favorite of this evening's image.

Shiprock, named for its resemblance to an old clipper ship, is surrounded by a vast desert, with clear views from nearly all directions. While the enormous rock formation provides a dramatic subject over the flat desert, I found the tall, narrow, naturally formed dike leading to it especially entertaining and a great foreground subject to include in the frame.

On a clear day, the first sunrise light casts a golden color on this landscape, and this light angle's contrast emphasizes the texture of Shiprock.

I planned, flew, drove, lodged, got up early, drove farther, and then hiked. That effort and expense meant no settling for second best on the camera and lens. Why were the Canon EOS R5 and RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM Lens selected?

The R5 is currently my preferred Canon camera. It continuously delivers beautiful, accurately focused, high-resolution images.

The light shown in this image only lasts for a few minutes, and the RF 24-105 had the optimal focal length range to rapidly capture a variety of compositions, including some with Shiprock more isolated in the frame. Since a narrow aperture was needed for increased depth of field, a larger, heavier, and wider aperture lens was not necessary or desired, and this L lens feeds the R5 the impressive optical quality required for stand-out images.