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ziphius Posts: 911
2/28/2014
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Alex and I spent one night in the desert last weekend. Some of you will recognize the area, but I'm declining to name it because I don't want it to become popular. The area has come on the radar of group hikes now.  No need to share it with entire internet anymore. [do we have a ‘grouch’ emoticon on this forum?!] I played around with my new camera (Sony NEX6) and we enjoyed a scramble up the west rim of the valley. Saw an owl in broad daylight, getting harassed by some Phainopepla birds, too distant for a photo, could only narrow it down to a probable Great Horned Owl (the other option is Long-Eared owl).
Clouds racing and sun rising before breakfast on Sunday (1st attempt at desert time lapse)
View towards a peak I climbed once before:
Another peek at the peak from a cool cavern:
First attempt at night-sky photography (I need to use the self-timer next time so the long exposure isn't blurred by my initial pressing of the shutter):
Nice day in the neighborhood:
Interesting piece of pottery I found on a walk back to camp. Has a hole drilled into it near the rim and grooves carved into the rim edge:
Above the valley, looking east towards ???? Canyon:
edited by ziphius on 2/28/2014
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hikerdmb Posts: 423
2/28/2014
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Good first effort on the night pic. Did you wave a flashlight to light up the ocotillo? Very interesting pottery piece too.
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Florian Posts: 129
2/28/2014
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Jim (ziphius) wrote:
Some of you will recognize the area, but I'm declining to name it because I don't want it to become popular.
I know exactly what you mean. I almost didn't mention the name of the wash i was camping in in my post earlier today. I know it's "just" a wash but it's "my" wash and i'm very protective of it. And your night shot is very good!
-Florian
edited by Florian on 2/28/2014
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ziphius Posts: 911
2/28/2014
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hikerdmb wrote:
Good first effort on the night pic. Did you wave a flashlight to light up the ocotillo? Very interesting pottery piece too.
Yep, I used my headlamp on the octotillo. Next time, I'm going to try the red light setting on the lamp. Florian, remember the days when folks protected their favorite fishing spots with utmost secrecy? 
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
3/1/2014
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That pottery is a companion piece to the one we discussed via email. Always love an Orion shot, nice work, doesn't the Nex have some kind of remote shutter mechanism? Anyway, one my favorite areas for sure, thanks for posting.
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ziphius Posts: 911
3/1/2014
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dsefcik wrote:
That pottery is a companion piece to the one we discussed via email. Always love an Orion shot, nice work, doesn't the Nex have some kind of remote shutter mechanism? Anyway, one my favorite areas for sure, thanks for posting.
Daren, interesting that I found the other piece. They are a few hundred yards apart.
You can get a remote for this camera, just like this one: Amazon remote. The NEX6 also has 2-sec and 10-sec shutter delays, which I should have remembered while messing around with the night photos. A good excuse to go back out there! It's macro capabilities are great too. Here's a pic of baby spiders I took the 1st week I owned it. The spiders are about 1/2 the size of a sesame seed and the photo was heavily cropped.
edited by ziphius on 3/1/2014
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Florian Posts: 129
3/1/2014
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Wow, that spider shot!! Just wow!!!
-Florian
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
3/1/2014
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Nice trip and pics, Jim. With your night shots and the Sony, at least you don't have to worry about the mirror up vibration problem! Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc right when you push the shutter to avoid shutter bounce? Liking the size of your camera as well. Full size DSLRs are like carrying a lead brick around with you. Thanks. Tom
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ziphius Posts: 911
3/1/2014
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Tom, you give me too much credit photography-wise. I had to look up "shutter bounce" to find out what it means. Thanks for the advice, I like the size of this camera too! It was recommended to me by a coworker who has used it to photograph whales and penguins from a unmanned aerial system (a glorified toy hexacopter). The NEX6 was light enough to get the job done: Unmanned Aerial System Page
I would guess that these systems could be used to conduct bighorn surveys in remote areas, to replace the light aircraft filled with biologists. I've heard the bighorn aerial survey census is defunct because of safety reasons. See, I'm bringing this thread back to an Anza Borrego theme...
tommy750 wrote:
Nice trip and pics, Jim. With your night shots and the Sony, at least you don't have to worry about the mirror up vibration problem! Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc right when you push the shutter to avoid shutter bounce? Liking the size of your camera as well. Full size DSLRs are like carrying a lead brick around with you. Thanks. Tom
edited by ziphius on 3/1/2014
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
3/1/2014
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tommy750 wrote:
Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc I tried that once, to try and get star trails with a fireball point....only problem was I started drinking and talking with the other guys and totally forgot to remove the hat so in the morning I had a 16 hour exposure of my hat 
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
3/1/2014
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BTW, cool spidy pic....
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ziphius Posts: 911
3/1/2014
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dsefcik wrote:
tommy750 wrote:
Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc I tried that once, to try and get star trails with a fireball point....only problem was I started drinking and talking with the other guys and totally forgot to remove the hat so in the morning I had a 16 hour exposure of my hat
I knew there were multiple reasons why you are one of the more-respected photographers here.
edited by ziphius on 3/1/2014
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
3/7/2014
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Jim (ziphius) wrote:
Tom, you give me too much credit photography-wise. I had to look up "shutter bounce" to find out what it means. Thanks for the advice, I like the size of this camera too! It was recommended to me by a coworker who has used it to photograph whales and penguins from a unmanned aerial system (a glorified toy hexacopter). The NEX6 was light enough to get the job done: Unmanned Aerial System Page
I would guess that these systems could be used to conduct bighorn surveys in remote areas, to replace the light aircraft filled with biologists. I've heard the bighorn aerial survey census is defunct because of safety reasons. See, I'm bringing this thread back to an Anza Borrego theme...
tommy750 wrote:
Nice trip and pics, Jim. With your night shots and the Sony, at least you don't have to worry about the mirror up vibration problem! Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc right when you push the shutter to avoid shutter bounce? Liking the size of your camera as well. Full size DSLRs are like carrying a lead brick around with you. Thanks. Tom
edited by ziphius on 3/1/2014
A drone is definitely on my wish list! That sound like an amazing way to see large chunks of the desert-like the CIA If anyone has any footage of ABDSP from a drone, it would be neat to see. Tom
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
3/7/2014
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dsefcik wrote:
tommy750 wrote:
Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc I tried that once, to try and get star trails with a fireball point....only problem was I started drinking and talking with the other guys and totally forgot to remove the hat so in the morning I had a 16 hour exposure of my hat
I think that is the funniest post you've ever made, Daren! The two times I've stumbled across your campsite out in the desert at night, I know I've ruined your time exposures with my headlights. Now, you have a perfect solution! Tom
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rockhopper Posts: 668
3/13/2014
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Re: Pottery
I found this: " Southern Diegueno ceramics were sometimes decorated by incising and painting, with incising being the older of the two techniques."
From: Background to prehistory of the Yuha desert region.
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ziphius Posts: 911
3/13/2014
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rockhopper wrote:
Re: Pottery
I found this: " Southern Diegueno ceramics were sometimes decorated by incising and painting, with incising being the older of the two techniques."
From: Background to prehistory of the Yuha desert region.
Thanks for the detective work rockhopper. First incised piece I've ever found out there. Sometimes pottery that *is* painted doesn't appear to be so due to weathering or lack of moisture. The author Craig Childs describes a pretty amazing encounter with an Anasazi pot years ago. He found it during a dry season and declared it to be unpainted. Years later, he revisited the site with a partner in winter. They found the same pot, except this time, it was painted. Sitting in the snow that had blown into the crevice where the pot was hidden, the pot had drank up the snow's moisture, revealing the design. Plenty of pots in museums in climate-controlled conditions might look unpainted.
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