Ancient Art - DPChallenge Forums

10/29/2004 01:06:13 PM · #1

I finally got my photos of a recent couple of trips to see Native American petroglyphs. These are in the Fremont style. Soon, I hope to get some Barrier Canyon pictographs. Petroglyphs are carved into the canyon wall, while pictographs are painted on. These are all petroglyphs. I'd love your thoughts, since in dealing with sunset light and the often strange and wonderful colors of the desert, I often get colors messed up because of my colorblindness.

Here's the link:

//davidsidwell.smugmug.com/gallery/265532/1

Thanks!

RHoldenSr

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

10/29/2004 01:19:26 PM · #2

David
Excellent work.
I think the colors look fine and the detail is very nice.

Thought I would share this shot with you. We got it on a trip to the New Mexico Painted Desert. It was located a the base of a small cliff and you could not get closer unless you wanted to walk quite a ways in the Desert. I shot this with a 400mm lens while resting the camera on a fence rail. We could not stay long so I could not come back at a better time and shoot without the shadows. Maybe not that great but still provides the memories :)

soup

Canon EOS-30D

10/29/2004 02:00:11 PM · #3

they look good to me...

pretty neat - and even more so because they are so old.
nothing like that in my parts - that i am aware of.

10/29/2004 02:11:05 PM · #4

Originally posted by RHoldenSr:

That rock is really covered with petroglyphs! This looks very much like several sites in Utah. One, near Moab, is called 'Newspaper Rock'. I'll admit that one must hike quite a bit to get up close. Some of the images referred to above took a while to get to. But then again, I love hiking, so it was great.

10/29/2004 02:19:07 PM · #5

Originally posted by soup:

they look good to me...

pretty neat - and even more so because they are so old.
nothing like that in my parts - that i am aware of.

Vermont does actually have a few petroglyphs. I know there are some near Bellows Falls, and they are very different from the ones out here in the West.

RHoldenSr

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

10/29/2004 02:24:37 PM · #6

10/29/2004 02:38:33 PM · #7

Originally posted by RHoldenSr:

This large boulder was located against the base of a small cliff in the middle of the Desert. I have to guess that the Ancient Indians used this area for shelter.

I am not that great when it comes to the history of the Ancient Indians and I was curious about a few things.

Do you know:

Did they build some type of roof over this area you think to help protect them from the elements (using animal skins or etc)?

Most areas that contain petroglyphs are not habitation areas, and the figures were drawn or carved while enroute. They are usually located near main travel ways or near hunting grounds. Most petroglyphs and pictographs are unprotected and are open to the elements. With petroglyphs, this means that they get fainter with time. Pictographs are different since they were painted on; in fact, it took some doing to increase the contrasts so they could be easily seen. The minerals in the paints used form a barrier to the weather, and the images actually stick out from the rock wall as the wall has eroded but the pictrograph hasn't. I really want to get some of these images!

Why is the side of the boulder all black, is it from fires that they built?

The black color is actually purple and blue (usually--and this comment helps, because I was hoping they were still purple and blue despite my color adustments trying to increase the visibility of the images). This is called desert varnish, and is created by minerals leaching through and over the rock. Many photographs have been taken of this phenomenon; it is one of the really lovely features of the southwest that make it so appealing to many photographers. In this image, for instance:

you can see it look like paint drips from above. Different minerals make different colors; these are more reddish in nature.

In this image, you can see some darker varnish in the extreme upper right:

...and here you can see some at the left in the photo:

So when are you gonna come and visit so we can go hiking together and find more of this stuff?

soup

Canon EOS-30D

10/29/2004 02:54:10 PM · #8

Originally posted by dsidwell:

Vermont does actually have a few petroglyphs. I know there are some near Bellows Falls, and they are very different from the ones out here in the West.