Pinnacles

These images are from a trip to Badlands National Park in September of 2017.

We went to the Pinnacles Overlook area on three evenings. My last post described a lucky double rainbow. Here are some additional images from the same location.

Feature Image Details

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon 24-105MM F4 L Lens at 58mm, F16, 4 seconds, ISO 200.

People pull up to the Pinnacles Overlook parking lot, walk down the steps take a few shots and walk away. One of the best area to photograph is just up main park road. There is no parking, you have to walk up the road. That’s where this set of images is from.

Pinnacles Panorama

That is a panorama stitch of seven images, stitched to make a single horizontal image. The focal length was 32 mm.

I overlapped the images greatly. At least half of every frame was in the next frame. This makes it easy for the stitching programs to align the images properly. It also ensures the center of each image is what goes into the final composite. The center of the lens always provides the best resolution. You get super-sharp images this way, also very large file sizes.

Milky Way

That is a composite image taken in the waning moments of sunset with the milky way about three hours later.

Pinnacles Sunset

The above image and the panorama image were taken on the same evening. This image was taken with a Canon 11-24 F4.0 L lens at 15 mm. I am right on top of that formation in a very steep and precarious spot, somewhere up in that ridged area visible in the feature image and Milky Way image. Some of the places I wanted to get too were simply too steep.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

Additional Badlands Articles

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock

These images are from a trip to Badlands National Park in September of 2017. As is typically the case, sunrise and sunset images provide the best light, but there are exceptions.

Feature Image Details

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon 11-24 F4.0 L lens at 12mm, F16, 1.3 seconds, ISO 160.

The feature image and the next three images that follow were taken minutes before sunset.

There are at least six cars in the parking lot that I can make out in the feature images. At least another six left within ten minutes of these images.

It was raining hard the sky was 99.5% overcast. No one else got out of their car.

If one was not down at the canyon edge, there was no shot except for the parking lot and road.

The image immediately above was taken right at sunset. You can see the sliver of a hole the sun hit to create the rainbow. When I got out of the car, the only hole was way to the right. The gap lengthened horizontally just as I arrived at the above location. I did not expect this to happen, nor did anyone else, but I took a chance, and I got wet.

Just as the sun hit the sliver of a hole, it stopped raining on me but it did keep raining in the distance. That’s what it takes to make a rainbow. You do not see rainbows looking towards the sun. The apex of the rainbow is 180 degrees from the sun.

Decision Time

I walked down to the location with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens on my camera. It was not wide enough to catch that complete rainbow. When the sun hit the hold, I did not know if I had 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or two minutes, but I knew I did not have longer than that.

I wanted that full rainbow image badly, so I took a chance and changed lenses. Taking an extra 15 seconds to change lenses in fleeting light is a huge gamble but it paid off. I grabbed two quick shots, changed lenses back again, and rushed over to the ledge where I took the second rainbow image.

Note the foreground. Imagine the image without the railing. Extreme wide angle lenses must have a strong foreground. I used the railing because it was all that was available on the left side of the frame. I hopped over the railing to take this image.

Seconds later the light faded. I estimate I had about 90 seconds to photograph the rainbow. Had one been in their car, it would have taken most of that time to get down to the location where I was.

I had more time for the third image, as in several minutes. The rainbow was gone but the clouds in the West started glowing. It’s hard to tell from these images, but it really was 99.5% socked-in gray. That little hole provided the magic.

The third image is an exposure composite, one of the foreground, the other of the sky.

More Badlands Images

This is my second in a series on the Badlands. Please also check out Badlands National Park – Castle Trail and Notch Trail Images.