Clip of the Week
September 28, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Clip of the Week
Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah
As the trees begin to turn yellow and red here in Eastern Iowa, I’m reminded of another place where the reds and oranges are not just temporary Fall colors.
Before the turn of the century, mustang herds ran wild on the mesas near Dead Horse Point. The unique promontory provided a natural corral into which the horses were driven by cowboys. The only escape was through a narrow, 30-yard neck of land controlled by fencing. Mustangs were then roped and broken, with the better ones being kept for personal use or sold to eastern markets. Unwanted culls of “broomtails” were left behind to find their way off the Point.
According to one legend, a band of broomtails was left corralled on the Point. The gate was supposedly left open so the horses could return to the open range. For some unknown reason, the mustangs remained on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.
Dead Horse Point is a fantastic place to visit. While Canoyonlands and Arches National Parks are flooded with tourists, Dead Horse Point, is a great escape from the crowds.
The morning I was there, I had the entire view of the point to myself. The Fall morning was cool and crisp and the the silence was something I had not experienced in the nearby National Parks.
Eventually as the morning wore on, a few people stopped for brief moments then continued on. Only when my desire for peace and solitude were filled, did I venture on and leave the beautiful colors of Dead Horse Point behind.
The Broken Silence
September 23, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Commentary
I was reading another filmmakers blog the other day about people purposely creating noise to ruin their shots.
I’ve run into the same situation myself on numerous occasions. Mostly it seems to occur when I’m shooting close to a road or in areas where larger groups of people happen to be.
Some people take great delight in honking horns, yelling, peeling out in their vehicles, whatever they can think of to be disruptive.
I’m not quite sure what the reasoning is behind it all. It seems that whenever you’re in an area that is easily accessible to the public, you have these issues.
As soon as you get fifty yards off the road and hike down a trail, people suddenly develop manners. They’ll wait for you to finish a shot. They will stop talking if it looks like you’re filming. They’ll take a different path to not scare away your subject.
I think it all boils down to these people have respect for nature and wildlife. It’s like they feel you’ve taken the effort to go beyond the being tourist driving down the road with their camcorder hanging out the window as they talk on their cell phone.
When you lose sight of the roads, the general stores, the ice cream shops, you enter a world where the horn honkers are too lazy to venture. You only come across people that truly respect nature and enjoy the solitude it can provide.
Of course, it’s a two way street. If I see people approaching, I’ll hold off on taking a shot or I’ll take the time to explain what I’m shooting and why.
Off the road, people have respect for you and your gear. I wish that were true everywhere and not just off the beaten path. I don’t know how many times I’ve been to places like Mt. Rushmore’s observation deck and had people grab my camera on the tripod and start turning it try and get a better view of the Presidents. I usually point the camera down or away from the subject to discourage this practice. One guy was even upset that I had the lens cap on and he couldn’t see anything.
Sometimes you can’t help but shoot near the road or on a boardwalk crowded with people. You just have to grin and bear it. Most days though I find myself grinning. Not because I think these people are funny but because I tend to record a lot of my footage in slow motion. When I do that, my camera doesn’t record any audio. So they can hoot and holler all they want, they’ll never ruin a shot.
But, sometimes whenever it gets to be too much, I just step off the road and enter a world where people have respect for each other and their surroundings. If only the rest of the world could be that way.
Clip of the Week
September 21, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Clip of the Week
Artist Point Yellowstone National Park Part 2
A very different clip than last weeks close-up view of the Lower Falls from Artist Point.
This clip is a time-lapse of the entire canyon with the falls off in the distance.
Artist Point is one of the most spectacular scenic areas in the Canyon Area of the Park. The sheer walls drop 700 feet to the bottom of the canyon.
Upriver the powerful Lower Falls are still in view. Down river the canyon widens and deepens to maximum of 1540 feet.
The canyon walls are predominantly yellow, but colors of blue, red, orange, and brown are also present. The colors are ever changing and intensified especially when the sun shines after raining.
Clip of the Week
September 18, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Clip of the Week
Lower Falls, Artist Point Yellowstone National Park
One of my all time favorite spots on Earth has to be Yellowstone National Park.
I’ve been coming to Yellowstone since the mid-eighties. While Old Faithful is certainly the most famous feature in the park, one of my favorite has to be the Lower Falls.
At 308 feet, almost twice the height of Niagra, The Lower Falls is truly breathtaking to behold.
This clip was shot early one June morning before most of the people had even had breakfast.
The sun rises early that time of year and the best light is over about the same time people are just starting to arrive in large numbers.
There was only three or four other people at Artist Point that morning. Everyone was scattered enough that it felt like I had a private audience with the falls.
It’s moments like this that you can almost imagine how it was in 1872 when painter Thomas Moran first painted this scene.
Moran’s painting was the first landscape painting by an American artist bought by the American government.
Moran’s painting along with photographs by William Henry Jackson, convinced the US government to set aside this land to become America’s first national park.
The Big Picture
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Commentary
On a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park, I was stopped by a park ranger who was directing traffic around a slew of vehicles pulled over on the side of the road. From my car window I could see still photographers lined up alongside the road with their 600f4′s and 800f5.6′s all trained in the direction of a nearby rock formation. Driving closer I saw that they were trying to photograph coyote pups whose mother had created a den unusually close to the road.
Orange traffic cones were placed to corral the photographers into a more manageable area. Cones were on the other side of the road to keep them from getting any closer than they already were to the den.
As I watched the photographers jockey for position, tripod legs intertwined, elbow to elbow, each trying to get just that one step closer to the den, it got me thinking about my own work.
For years I was cut from the same cloth as those still photographers. It was always “Have to fill the frame. Need to get in closer.” When I had a 300mm lens, I wished for that 600mm so I could fill the frame that much more. It was always about getting in as tight as I could to get that animal right in your face.
I still flip through still photography magazines to keep up with what’s going on in the still world. While there have been huge advances in camera technology, the song is still the same. How to get closer, how to fill the frame. I see it a lot in film and video too. Everyone’s trying to get just a little bit closer than the next guy.
But I discovered by doing that I was only getting part of the picture. I realized that day at the coyote den that I had been changing my shooting style without really being conscious of it. I had discovered the big picture.
I’m not even sure when it started to happen but I was starting to back up, to open up the frame, to let a little more in.
It became more important to me to get the animal in its environment than to get a frame filling shot.
An animal and its environment are so intertwined, it made no sense to me to include one and not the other.
Whenever I see imagery of a farmer, they’re always shown next to a barn or tractor. Businessmen are always shown in front of a fancy building or behind a big executive desk. Why isn’t it the same for wildlife? Why do most people chose to ignore the habitat that wildlife call home?
Is it because most people never get a chance to see wildlife up close and personal?
Whatever the reason, I continue to see people driving wildlife away by trying to get just one step closer. As for me, I’m content to step back away from the crowds in order to see the big picture.
Clip of the Week
September 6, 2008 by Kevin Railsback
Filed under Clip of the Week
White Dome Geyser, Yellowstone National Park
Whenever I travel to Yellowstone I can never resist stopping by White Dome geyser. It’s not a huge geyser by any means, only erupts twenty to thirty feet.
But oftentimes, I’m the only one there to watch as it puts forth its best effort.
It’s usually upstaged by its neighbor Great Fountain Geyser.
This clip was shot one cool morning around the end of May. As usual, people would stop for a few minutes and then continue on, hoping to catch a bigger geyser going off somewhere in the park.
So, I sat alone and kept White Dome company as it performed for its audience of one.
To watch White Dome in action, click on the link below.
