#blue badlands

[bizarepistachio]

One of my favorite places to visit on my 2022 road trip would have to be Petrified Forest National Park. The sheer amount of petrified logs is so cool, it really does look like a downed forest, the logs sawed into chunks. Strange and beautiful. The uniqueness of it all. The blue badlands too! the colors of those hills.. Purple, blue/teal, green, pinks!

After that I went to White sands National Park. Those sands can really white! Probably got a little heat-stroak-y, Drew a couple barn swallows and bats that were around the visitor center.

Image ID: The drawing done in watercolor is of some of the blue badlands within a wash of dark beige and brown pebbles. the bottom layer is a  light purple, above that a dark purple, above that a medium blue-teal, above that a sage green, and above that is a pink. Atop some of them is dark brown chunks of rock. a chunk of yellow and red petrified wood sits within the wash as well.    A pencil drawing of a chunked log of petrified wood.    A series of small drawings of standing barn swallows and huddling little brown bats.

[thorsenmark]

Badlands and the Blue Mesas (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A view looking to the east to badlands hillsides while hiking the Blue Forest Trail in this part of Petrified Forest National Park.

[thorsenmark]

Nature's Power to Heal After What One Sees in Wonder (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While standing at a roadside pullout and overlook along the Blue Mesa Scenic Drive and looking to the east across badlands and eroded formations. What I wanted to capture with this image was two things: one was the shapes present in the badlands to my front. Another was kind of like a layering but not just to the landscape, but also in the badlands themselves. In one way, a person could look across the history of this part of the planet with the different eons of time layering one upon the other with the different minerals and elements present. I felt that angling my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward helped to create a sweeping view across this landscape. But I also wanted to keep a little bit of the blue skies above as a color complement to the earth-tones present in the lower portion of the image. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 4 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

[thorsenmark]

Keep Moving Forward to Explore (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While taking in views along the Blue Forest Trail and looking to the northwest across badlands and eroded formations present in this part of Petrified Forest National Park. This was about 30 minutes into the hike along the marked trail looking back to the start point that I had started prior. I felt that angling my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward would create a more sweeping view across this landscape and bring out a layered look and not flattened the badlands present in this wider angle image.

[thorsenmark]

A Morning Stroll Finished with Badlands Along the Blue Forest Trail (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: With a view looking to the southwest to a large colored badlands and eroded formation present while walking the Blue Forest Trail in Petrified Forest National Park.

[thorsenmark]

Petrified Logs and Fragments in Blue Mesa (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A rather giant chunk of petrified wood on a natural sandstone pedestal I came across while walking the Blue Mesa Trail in Petrified Forest National Park. In composing this image, I decided to use the badlands present as a backdrop while centering this petrified piece of petrified wood more or less in the center of the image. One can see fragments of petrified wood and other rocks scattered across this national park landscape.

[thorsenmark]

Tall, Colorful Badlands While Walking the Historic Blue Forest Trail (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A view looking to the west to badlands hillsides while hiking the Blue Forest Trail in this part of Petrified Forest National Park. With this image, I pulled back a little on the focal length to include more of the badlands formation to my left, while keeping a more even-on look in that direction. The earth-tones in the lower portion of the image would be balanced by the blue skies above.

[thorsenmark]

We Need More Wildness (Petrified Forest National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A view looking to the east-southeast across eroded formations to distant badlands while walking the Blue Forest Trail in Petrified Forest National Park.