Shiprock (Tsé Bitʼaʼí) "rock with wings" or "winged rock

 Canon 1DsIII 24/70 (70mm) f/8 1/125 ISO 50

We arrived in the Shiprock area around 2-P.M. on Friday and were greeted with perfect conditions, blue skies and beautiful cloud coverage.  The conditions were so good we decided to drive out to the area before we even checked into the hotel as we wanted to take advantage of the conditions while they lasted.  We ended staying in the area for several hours before finally heading out to find our hotel.

 Canon 1DsIII 24/70(68mm) f/8 1/125 ISO 50

Canon 1DsIII 24/70(48mm) f/8 1/100 ISO 50

Saturday wasn't near as good as Friday afternoon; we woke to clear skies and very little clouds and a lot of wind.  It was also 28 degrees in the morning warming up to the low 50's by afternoon.  We made the trek to the Shiprock area once again and concentrated on the western view whereas we had been on at the eastern view the previous afternoon.  Once you drive off BIA 13 the roads turn into dirt and gravel with some ruts.  It's been dry so far this trip however we can see where rain could seriously affect the conditions of the dirt roads.  Then there are for lack of a better term, trails.  These trails are heavily rutted in places and you'll need a high clearance vehicle throughout.  In other words if you're driving a rental car don't do it.

Canon 1DsIII 24/70(35mm) f/8 1/80 ISO 50

Canon 1DsIII 135mm f/8 1/100 ISO 50

Yesterday, Sunday greeted us with red skies as the sun rose in the east and we had some of the clouds we had Friday afternoon.  We decided to return to the original area we visited Friday afternoon stopping several times to capture images.  This time we followed the trail which in some places was very faint and others just a couple of ruts.  However we managed to drive completely around the rock ending up at a stop we liked from the day before.

 Cambo WRS/P45+ Schneider 72mm f/8 1/250 ISO 50

Cambo WRS/P45+ Schneider 120mm f/8 1/250 ISO 50

Cambo WRS/P45+ Schneider 120mm f/8 1/250 ISO 50

Today we have clear skies with zero clouds.  We've decided to take it easy today and maybe see some of the other sights near the Shiprock/Farmington NM area as well as catch up on the images from the past couple days.  Tomorrow and Wednesday are rumored to be better days with a chance of snow and cloudy skies so we'll hit the area once again before leaving the area.

Leica M9 24mm f/8 1/350 ISO 200

Leica M9 24mm f/8 1/350 ISO 160

Enjoy the images and Happy Holidays!



Sandy & Don

Shiprock - Tsé Bitʼaʼí - Rock with wings"

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/9.5 1/500 ISO 160

Leica M9 Summicron 50mm f/6.7 1/500 ISO 160



Shiprock is a rock formation 1,583' (482.5 meters) above the high-desert plain on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.  Shiprock is also the most prominent landmark in northwestern New Mexico.  Shiprock got its name from white visitors from the 1870's as it resembles a 19th-centry clipper ship. 

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/5.7 1/350 ISO 160

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/5.7 1/350 ISO 160

Shiprock is actually composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock called minette.  That's the official description,  the other description according to the Navajo is that this peak had a role as the agent that brought the Navajo to the southwest.  Shiprock holds a significant religious and cultural significance to the Navajo and thus visitors should act accordingly.

Leica M9 Summarit 90mm f/9.5 1/350 ISO 200

P45+ Schneider 35mm f/8 1/250 ISO 200

We first saw Shiprock 5-years ago during our first visit to the area and again on our way to Jackson Hole earlier this year. This is such a unique site that we decided to return in hopes of capturing Shiprock during a winter storm.

Canon 1DsIII 24-70(34mm) f/7.1 1/125 ISO 50

We left Tucson driving straight through to Farmington NM passing Shiprock on the way Friday afternoon.  The skies were all in our favor as we experienced blue skies and loads of clouds all adding to a very dramatic viewing.  While the weather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies today we've learned from experience to capture what we want when we can which turn out to be very prudent.  We woke this morning to very little clouds and what clouds there were, were way off in the distance.



Canon 1DsIII 135mm f/7.1 1/125 ISO 50

The samples of Shiprock were taken either late yesterday or this morning and with a variety of equipment including a Canon 1DsIII, Leica M9 and Cambo WRS1000/Phase One P45+.  The images were processed using a combination of Phase One Capture One Pro, Photoshop CS5 as well as Nik Software Silver Efex Pro and Viveza 2 (both 64bit).

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/9.5 1/500 ISO 160

We'll be here several more days which are calling for a combination of sunny to mostly clouds days. We're keeping our fingers crossed so please stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting,

Sandy & Don

Happy Holidays from Iron Creek Photography

We've been home from Jackson Hole for slightly over a month and in that time we've been busy. We celebrated Thanksgiving with dear friends having the usual too much fun and food. We've also been busy sorting all the images from those we liked and those we didn't, those we wanted to work on to offer as prints and those we'll include in our net DVD. We've printed several images one in particular is stunning - "Aspens". The Aspen image has been printed on canvas and stretched to 20x40 and is currently being displayed at Claire's Cafe and Gallery in Catalina AZ.

We also been busy adding images to our on-line gallery and so far have added Aspens, Old Warrior and Old School. We've also decided to slowly revamp the on-line galleries to include a price for the image; you see the recent results if you visit the "New Works" portion.

We aren't anywhere near done with the Jackson Hole images and look forward to several months before we are. In the meantime we leave for Farmington NM shortly where we'll be spending time at Shiprock and the Bisti Wilderness. We'll be back in the Tucson area before Christmas where we'll remain till late February when we make a return trip to Yosemite.

The Leica 135mm lens has been at the doctors now since shortly after returning from Jackson and no real timeframe of its return. We had hoped to have it for this upcoming trip however we're confident we'll have it for Yosemite. We could have kept the lens as is with the ever so slight oil on one of the shutter blades however we felt we had more than sufficient time to get it looked at. We sent the lens to Sherry Krauter for the inspection and repair who had to send it on to Leica due to a unforeseen problem in disassembly. Sherry has been great keeping us in the loop and we hope to offer a write-up after the lens is returned.

Our next post will be from the Shiprock area.


Sandy & Don


On a slightly different note: Our main "on the road" computer has been a Dell M6400, Extreme Q9300, 2.53GHz Quad Core with dual disk drives, 16GB RAM and Windows 7 Ultimate (upgraded from Vista 64). This thing is a beast! It's is the first laptop computer that is as close to performance as our studio computer thus allowing us to process images while still on the road. The only and major drawback to this computer is the power brick it takes to keep it running and charge the batteries. The term "brick" is not misleading as it's the same size as a brick and weighs slightly more. I expected the computer to weigh what it does, I didn't expect the AC power adapter to weigh as much as it does not be the size it is; makes packing this thing a serious pain. I've done research off and on for the past 2-years trying to find a suitable replacement and finally came across the new Slim-Line Laptop AC DC Adapter Charger (click here for more information). I ordered it off Amazon.com and it arrived this afternoon. Simply put - it works! It has the same footprint as the OEM however it's half the width and weighs much less. I plugged the computer in and it powered it up right away and it shows it charging the battery just the same as the OEM. Anyone out there who has the M6400 and is not satisfied with the size of the power brick should look into this. I believe Dell is shipping somthing similar to this with their new M6500.

Just wanted to pass on the good news.

Don