Valle de la Luz

Today I leave to Buenos Aires for two weeks so I won't have any more pictures to post for some time. I do have a couple of shots saved but I don't know when I will be able to upload them.

Yesterday I went out and made some good shoots, but the red and oranges I had been seeing this past weeks are already faded and only brown and dark yellow remain. It is sad, but it also means that winter is almost here, and with it snow!

Those pictures will have to wait, but I do have a picture to upload.

A few days ago, I was showing the trails to someone I met trough couchsurfing.org and we decided to go out even though the weather forecast said it was going to be very rainy and very windy. It was both, and even though we walked 20 km I wasn't able to take my camera out of y backpack for fear of destroying completely. There wasn't a lot to show either.

On our way up I showed here a place were I had been couple of times before at sunrise, but I never got what I wanted, and the light at the moment was pretty flat.

Valle de la Luz

Valle del Rio de las Vueltas, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

On our way back, almost in the town, she pointed to the north part of the valley where the light passing though the clouds left only a small part of it illuminated, and the rest in shadows. Since the rain at that time was very light, I started running down hill to the spot I had selected the days before just in time to take a couple of shots. After that the clouds closed again, and the show was over.

I waited with her for 15 minutes more, but but that time I was soaking wet and without movement I was getting cold, so we decided to leave.

This is the result.

See you around!
Santiago

Hielo y Roca

Today I have four pictures from El Calafate.

The weather was very strange that day, sometimes cloudy and rainy, sometimes completely clear, but always very windy and very cold.

Light was very mixed on the glacier. The front wall was almost always clear, but the back of the glacier and the mountains that surround it were covered most of the time. With those conditions, I always tried to have the glacier in direct sunlight to keep the shadows and textures of the ice, and the background in the shadow. That way I had a nice contrast between the foreground and the background, and the ice wouldn't look flat.

The first one is from the face of the glacier, with the mountains on the back, already covered in snow.

Hielo y Roca

Glaciar Perito Moreno, El Calafate, Patagonia Argentina

The next couple of pictures go together, as both show the glacier with a solid background. In the first case its the cloudy sky and in the second its a forest in the shadow (pushed a little in post-production to turn it almost black).

Recortes I

Glaciar Perito Moreno, El Calafate, Patagonia Argentina

Recortes II

Glaciar Perito Moreno, El Calafate, Patagonia Argentina

And finally, some ducks in Bahia Redonda, just in front of El Calafate. I stayed there as long as I could, but I could never have all four ducks facing forward. There was always at least one turning his head, but three out of four is not bad!

Barcino (Pato Barcino)

Bahia Redonda, El Calafate, Patagonia Argentina

In the next few days I travel to Buenos Aires for two weeks so there won't be any new pictures. However I have three more pictures to upload and I plan to go out tomorrow to camp for a night in camp Poincenot so I might have something more.

See you around!
Santiago

Cascada de Estrellas

I am finally back from my trip to Chile, only with mixed results. I was able to get all the equipment I planned to get which was necessary if I wanted to go out in the winter around here, so that is good.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get to Torres del Paine because the weather was awful. Very strong wind, rain and snow, freezing temperatures, and worst of all, very low clouds meant that going in was pointless (we were going to camp for 4 days and not see a single mountain). In the end we decided to go back to El Calafate early and do some time in the Perito Moreno Glacier, so I will be posting some pictures from there tomorrow.

As for today, I have only a single image from a few weeks ago. Its from Chorrillo del Salto, a 20 m waterfall located 4 km from El Chalten.

Getting there is pretty easy, even at night, so when I saw the clear sky at midnight I picked my backpack and went there. I had been there several time before, and on the last one (a failed sunrise shot) I had found a nice composition I wanted to try.

Once I got there, I placed the camera on the tripod, and with the little light the moon gave (right behind the camera) and my headlamp, I decided on this composition.

Cascada de Estrellas

Chorrillo del Salto, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

After the first test shot I discovered that the town lights were reaching the right wall of the waterfall. Its the orange glow you can see on the right of the frame. The shutter stayed open for 16 minutes (a single exposure this time), the aperture was f4 and the iso was 1600 (the highest I dare to go with my camera) to create the startrails. After that it was time to wait for the camera to do its job while I slowly froze.

The lights from the city were something I hadn't planned, but they do add some color to the image, and in the end I liked the result.

See you around!
Santiago

Calor y Frio

I have two pictures to upload today.

Two weeks ago I went to Laguna Toro, a beautiful lake surrounded with mountains and a glacier. To get there you have to walk 19 km from where I live, so I had to camp there the night. In total, I walked 52 km in two days (including some exploring I did around the place).

It is definitely one of the best places around here, but it is hard to go there. The trails is very long, with plenty of ups and downs, and to make it worse I had to wade a small river (5 m wide!) that I didn't know was there. Since I didn't have anything to put on my feet, I had to cross it barefoot, but with  the temperature the first day it was actually nice. Unfortunately, the next day I was in a hurry to get back (I had to work) and the temperature was very low, so putting your feet in freezing water is not my idea of a nice morning.

Aside from that, the place is beautiful. From camp you are only 1 km from the lake and 3 km from a glacier. I highly recommend it.

Sunset was very disappointing. The cloud were to thick to get any color on the sky, and they stayed there all night long so I couldn't do any strartrails. In the morning the sky looked equally gray but I decided to give it a try and went to a place I had found the day before.

Morena

Laguna Toro, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

This image was taken 15 minutes before sunrise, and like one of the last images I took, it is a blend of two exposures (one for the sky, one for the foreground). Its not what I had in mind, but since the sky never showed any color, it the best I could get.

Calor y Frio

Laguna Toro, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

This one was more accidental than the first. While I was returning to camp I was sunlight hitting some rocks and decided to take a simple shoot (to show once I returned) and saw the different color of the rocks. The ones in the foreground are being hit by the sun, but the ones in the back are in the shadow. and that gives them their different color. I led how the texture of the rocks turned out.

Its not much for such a long trip, but I had a good time and it was my first time there.

Now that the season is ending and I will have 6 month free, I certainly have to go back again, with better weather and more time there. In a few days I leave to Torrers del Paine in Chile, to get some equipment and try my luck in the "W" trail. After that, I have a few weeks here and then I am off to Buenos Aires to see my family. And once I am back, I will have plenty of time to go out.

See you around!
Santiago

Cordon Adela

Side note: I got a Daily Deviation for my picture "Arcoiris" in deviantART! Thanks!

Okay, after a (very) small delay I can upload the shots from the last time I went to Laguna Torre.

This time I slept in the town and made the 12 km hike before sunrise because I had to work the night before. The weather was very nice but on the way there I couldn't avoid thinking that it was going to be a very disappointing day as the sky was completely clear and not a single cloud was visible. Glad I was wrong!

Cordon Adela

Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

Just before sunrise a line of clouds appear behind Cerro Torre and started "spilling" over the top like an overflowing pool. A beautiful show to see and even better to photograph! Cerro Torre is always a beautiful mountain to see and photograph, but that morning it had the most beautiful color I had seen so far!

A few minutes before I had been trying to make something with the lake and the rocks on the shore, and found something interesting, but with the sunrise light the color didn't turn out so nice. If there had been some clouds above me, they would have given some light and color to the foreground, but there were none.

This one is 15 minutes before sunrise. Its a composite from two images (one exposure for the mountains and another for the foreground) and i used my headlamp to put some light on the rocks, just to give them another color and some texture.

Punta de Flecha

Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

I plan to get back there on a clear night. I really like the composition, but I need better light for it! With the light from the moon the foreground will show the texture of the rocks much better and the stars will look very nice on the sky. Maybe next time!

On the way back I also took some time to shoot some birds and managed to get some nice shoot of two new species to me. The first one is a Duicon looking into the rising sun.

Duicon

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

The next one is an Owl called Cabure Grande. I would have preferred to have a nicer background, with out so many branches, but she was very comfortable and didn't want to move, no matter how may times I asked. The good news is that they usually stay during the winter so I might be able to get some shots of them on the snow!

Cabure

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

The last one is a more simple image. It is a small piece of ice trapped in a river. I liked the shape of the water behind it, but it is to turbulent for me. I will have to try another time.

Deriva

Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

See you soon!
Santiago

Lluvia de Estrellas

Success!

Or something similar. Two day ago I went again to Laguna Torre to photograph the sunrise. I managed to get some awesome pictures of the mountains, get my foot in a freezing river AND get some pretty nice bird pictures while coming back. Not bad!

I am still working on them, so in the meantime here are some pictures from the last time. This ones where captured while camping in Campamento Agostini, 1 km away from Laguna Torre. I woke up in the middle of the night to get some pictures of the mountains and the stars but with out moon (new moon) they where pretty dark.

This one turned out nice. Its a 4 minutes exposure (single shot) of Cerro Torre. In case you are wondering why the tip is slightly orange, that is because of the light from El Chalten, some 10 km away!

Lluvia de Estrellas

Laguna Torre, El Chalen, Patagonia Argentina

This one is from sunrise. Everybody always shoots from the Lake, but I wanted to get some showing the river that is born from the lake (Rio Fitz Roy).

I shoot a panorama of two horizontal images and two exposures each too balance the dark foreground with the mountains. Finally I blended the two resulting panoramas in photoshop using several layers. I would have like some clouds near the mountains but I was not lucky enough. Still, I like the result.

Rio Fitz Roy

Rio Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

In a few days, I will be uploading several new pictures from the same place, but a different day.

See you around!
Santiago

Chalten and other images

After a few days out in the trails, its time to upload some of the pictures I made. This time I have six new pictures, plus I reuploaded Crack.

A few weeks ago I found a great tutorial by Hougaard Malan about sharpening. The results is pretty good, and comparing the new picture against the old one is impressive. After spending a few hours experimenting with it, I finally found out a result I like and once I have my new site up I plan to reupload my old pictures. In the meantime, go check it out!

The first picture is from Laguna de los Tres, the same place where I made Crack. This time I wanted to try something different. I was lucky enough to have some huge cloud formations on the back, but the mountains were almost completely clear.

Cerro Fitz Roy, Cerro Poincenot

Laguna de los Tres, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

Next is a panorama of Valle del Rio de las Vueltas, on my way to Campamento Poincenot. Taken during a pretty colorless sunrise, this shows the northern side of the valley.

Valle del Rio de las Vueltas, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

This one was from a failed sunrise. I was trying to shoot Cerro Torre (which is behind the rainbow) but is was pretty covered. I managed to capture this on my way back, and even though it would have been spectacular to have Cerro Torre in the back, the clouds give it a nice atmosphere.

Arco Iris

Valle del Rio Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

I also managed to capture a few birds in several days. I particularly like the first one. It was taken at the edge of a forest (from outside shooting to the inside). He just sat there on a branch illuminated by small ray of sunlight giving a very dark background behind.

Chingolo III (Chingolo)

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

Pitio (Carpintero Pitio)

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

Torrentosos (Patos de los Torrentes, male and female)

Rio Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

Finally, a simple sunrise over Rio Fitz Roy. The sky turned a furious pink just before sunset, but lost all color a few minutes before the sun rose above the horizon. This one was taken around 30 minutes before that.

Pink

Rio Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

So, this is it for now. I still have a few more pictures to upload, but I am going out tomorrow night to the same place so I will wait until I return.

See you arround!
Santiago

Garras

Last Sunday after work I made a short walk with a friend to an old burned tree. A few years ago a careless tourist threw a cigarette butt at it and it caught fire. Luckily the damage was relatively small because the tree is only a few minutes from the town and the firefighters were able to put it out before it spread around the place. Still, it is a remainder of how fragile nature is.

Now the tree is still there, bleached white by the fire and the weather, and since it has no leaves it offers some very nice shapes in the night.

I had already made a few pictures there a year ago, but at the time some clouds appeared and I didn’t have a wide enough lens to do what I wanted. This time the weather was perfect, and with my new 11-16 mm f2.8 I was able to archive something much more interesting.

I decided to do a stack of several exposures (55 single shots) each 30 sec long at f2.8 and ISO 1600 to captures as many stars as possible. The long exposure time (27 minutes total) made some nice star trails and I decided to point the camera straight up to avoid capturing the ground.

Here is the result!

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

(55 imagenes, total 27 minutos)

I would have liked to have some more light for the tree but the moon wasn’t up yet. They ended looking like a silhouette, but it’s not too bad.

I went out again yesterday night with the idea of going to Laguna Torre and shooting Cerro Torre in a really long exposure (2 hs +) with a tele lens to get straight lines in the stars, but halfway there I realized I had forgotten my remote release and had to go back. Maybe next time!

Cheers!
Santiago

Crack

You probably heard and old saying that goes something like “No plan survives contact with the enemy”. Simple and pretty accurate, but it sounds as if it applies only to the army.

To make it more general, we could say that “No theory survives contact with reality”, or maybe I was a little to optimistic!

My last post was almost two months ago, when I had just arrived to El Chalten. Since then a lot of things have passed, some were bad but luckily most where pretty good. However, some didn’t allow me to go out as much as I wanted and as a result I had few pictures to post.

Now I am having more time, and it has allowed me to go out more frequently, and even go camping once a week (on my free day).

Hopefully I will keep having enough time (and energy!) to go out. The weather now is pretty nice. Not too cold and not too hot, though it is still as windy as ever.

To the pictures then. The first is from Laguna de los Tres (the same place from my last post).

Crack (Cerro Fitz Roy y Cerro Poincenot)

Laguna de los Tres, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

It was taken during sunrise a few weeks ago. To get there at sunrise, I slept in camp Poincenot, and then made a 2,5 km trek during the nigh. I arrived there 45 minutes before sunrise and spent a few minutes trying to find a nice composition.

This is what I choose in the end. I am pleased with the result. The cracked stone in the foreground creates a nice line across the bottom of the image, a few cloud formed at the top and the mountains took a nice color.

To make it even better I would have preferred to show more of the lake (you can see a little bit at the left of the image), but since I was on a slope leading up I was not able to raise the camera enough to show it.

Aside from that, I really like the result.

Bellow there are a few more images I like in no particular order.

Solo (Cerro Solo)
Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

 

Rojo y Negro (Cerro Mojon Rojo, Cerro Techado Negro)

Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

 

Ratona (Ratona Comun)

Laguna Torre, El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

 

Cajon de las Sombras (Cajon del Rio de las Vueltas)

El Chalten, Patagonia Argentina

See you around!
Santiago

Laguna de los Tres

Just a quick update. It turns out that thins do (sometimes…) go according to plan! I am now living in El Chalten and I found a job 3 days after I arrived. Not only that, but I will work from 15:00 to 23:00 hs allowing me to photograph every sunrise until the end of the season. They also gave me a room so I will be able to save some money for the winter!

Of course I won’t be sleeping a lot, or at least not in my bed, but I do plan to sleep in the camps around the park to have better access to the best places.

Unfortunately, the weather here is still to dry for spring and most of the plants are dry. It has been incredibly windy, with gust of wind that can knock you to the ground if unprepared, sometimes it rains, now there is a little snow falling.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks the weather will have improved a little. I miss the green I saw when I last was here in march. I miss the flocks of birds that were all over the place flying from tree to tree.

For now I have been exploring the trails around the place. One in particular takes you to Laguna de los Tres, a small mountain lake at the foot of mount Fitz Roy. Getting there is no small feat, as you have to walk 12 km from the town just to get there, and the last 2 km are very steep and are still covered in snow.

Once you get there, you see one of the most beautiful places in the park, an emerald colored lake surrounded by glaciers and mountains. Usually. Now it is still completely frozen which makes it even more beautiful.

(click to see a bigger version) Laguna de los Tres. El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Argentina

I took a few quick shot and made a panorama of the place. I plan to return in a few day once the weather improves and hopefully capture a sunset from the top. It will include my first night camping and a night ascent to the top as the camp is 600 m bellow the lake, but it should be worth every step.

See you around!

Santiago