Bluffs And Bush - Why, When, Where

Another from the favorites gallery - this badlands picture was made in 2003. The bluffs translate very well into gray tones of great richness. The badlands themselves are sufficiently different from our usual day to day scenery to catch one's interest.

I first visited the badlands, specifically Dinosaur Provincial Park in 1985. I'd taken a workshop from Bruce Barnbaum here in the Rockies of Alberta and a group of us decided to keep meeting after the workshop. One of the women was able to arrange access to some of the restricted areas of the badlands (off limits to preserve fossil beds). At that point I was shooting with my 4X5 although by the time of the above image, I was well on the way to being a digital junkie, using my Canon 10D, stitching with about five images to get a result just as good as the work I had previously produced on large format. I have a suspicion that this says something about my less than stellar 4X5 work, but none the less, I have made prints up to 36 inches long from this - never did that in my 4X5 days - ah the joys of digital and roll paper.

This particular image is actually on a guided tour path near the research lab. It was necessary to remove a considerable number of skid marks from the bluffs in Photoshop, not a problem if you get there early in the year but there's a nice campground nearby and a lot of boyscouts...