Jansen Gunderson Landscape Photography

It has been quite some time since my last post, which seems to be my M.O. Anyway, summer has finally led way to Autumn here in the Tetons and I am getting more time out photographing. Also, the new website for the photography project is finished and I invite you all to take a look at my Wyoming Landscape Photography Project. The project is tentatively titled “Wyoming Revealed” and I feel like it is going quite well. Any questions or suggestions are appreciated.

Did a 20 mile overnighter in the Wind River Mountains recently. The film is off at the lab but in the mean time, here is my mountain puppy, Kingsley, learning to be a mountain dog.

I made a short overnight trek up the Middle Teton via Garnet Canyon in Grand Teton National Park. Instead of hauling the large format equipment I brought a Canon 10d digital camera and Kaidan QuickPan panoramic head and the Mamiya 645AF medium format camera. The reason for the 10d was to take a 360 degree panorama on top of the Middle Teton for VirtualJacksonHole.com. The Mamiya is nearly as heavy as the large format system so in retrospect, I probably should have just hauled the large format camera up. Below are a few images I made during the trip.

Spaulding Falls and the Middle Teton, Sunrise.

Grand Teton as seen from the Middle Teton

All of the research and airborne reconnasance paid off as we were able to have a very successful trip. We used ATVs to cover the larger distances on the few roads which crisscross the Red Desert; then it was on foot as much of the area is contained within wilderness study areas. We stayed mainly in the northern section of the Red Desert around the Oregon Buttes, Continental Peak and Honeycomb Buttes. The Killpecker Dunes and Boar’s Tusk will have to wait for another time. As I showed in my last post, a sunset photograph of the Oregon Buttes wasn’t ideal, however a sunrise photograph was, as shown below:

Though quite spectacular in their varied colors, the Honeycomb Buttes texture demands a black and white treatment as shown below. Fujichrome Provia is an excellent film for color to black and white conversions due it not being as contrasty as Velvia. I’m glad to have made the switch to Provia.

To plan for the Red Desert photography expedition we took a flight over the red desert to check out some potential landscape subjects. Areas of particular interest included the Oregon Buttes, Continental Peak, the Honeycomb Buttes, Killpecker Sand Dunes and the Boar’s Tusk. After the flight I was able to consult National Geographic Topo! and Google Earth as well as the LargeFormatPhotography.info Sun and Moon Calculator to determine optimal subjects for evening/morning light. For instance, the image below is of the Oregon Buttes, looking south east. I’m very much interested in photographing the buttes but would like to know exactly where the sun will be illuminating them at any given time and what other landforms might potentially obscure the sunlight from hitting the buttes.

Locating the coordinates on Topo! I am able to determine the azimuth of the sun at sunset and predetermine weather this will be a potentially good photograph of the prominent southern butte.

From the topo I can tell that the buttes to the north west will be obscuring the sun on a large portion of the southern butte so this may not be the ideal subject to photograph. A quick check in Google Earth affirms this.

So I’ll have to look at other potential subjects.

After nearly 3 months, I was finally able to get around to scanning some photos I took in Akumal, Mexico in February. It makes me wish I took a digital camera instead of a medium format. Oh well, I still very much like film. Some of these are pretty tourist-ish but whatever, I was a tourist… More here.

Half Moon Bay. This was the view from our condo.

A Mayan performer at the Mayan Ruins of Tulum.

I spent my 30th birthday hanging with Schuyler and Whitney and the dogs at the Bobcreek and Drycreek properties. Drycreek is among my favorite places on the planet to it couldn’t have been a better birthday. I shot a roll of 120 black and white film and finished off some provia left over from Mexico in February. Some photos below and more here.

I’m all settled in here in Wilson, Wyoming. The snow is starting to melt and there is an abundance of mud. The weather has been hit or miss but I’ve managed to get out and take a few pictures. I made the Receding Snow picture up on Togwotee pass. I was hoping for something much more grandiose like a sunset photo of the Pinnacle Buttes but the clouds had something else in mind. I’m rather pleased with how this photo turned out as it alludes to the changing seasons which is similar to the events in my life at this time.

We took a 6 day trip to the east side of the Wind River Range over the New Years holiday. The weather was amazing and the ice formations along the rivers turned out to be spectacular. Below is a photo I made in the Grotto; a place that never ceases to amaze me with it’s subtle and quiet beauty. Being inside this cave was a surreal experience and it was quite difficult to set up for a photograph. I had to be very careful not to disturb any of the ice formations as I fumbled about for trying to get my exposure settings correct on the lens (I had forgot my headlamp, unfortunately) as it was quite dark in the cave. I bracketed my exposures and the shot at f/32 for 1 minute turned out perfectly.

The Light and the Land show has been extended for a few more weeks so if you haven’t had a chance to see the prints, they’ll be up for a while longer.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the reception last Friday. A reminder: the prints will be on display until January 5th, so make the trip out to Tooele to check them out!