Travel Images Photo Gallery: Big Bend National Park, Texas

Photography © John Baker, Travel Images

The following images represent the typical range of subjects for this particular Travel Images photo tour or workshop. They were selected in the knowledge that every client is able to obtain similar images, but should a particular technique be new to you I will share everything I know so that you reach every one of your photographic goals.

Please scroll down for images taken on Travel Images trips by John Baker.
In most cases, links to client images from this destination are at the bottom of the page

The photo tour to Big Bend National Park starts and finishes in San Antonio, but we'll save the Alamo and so on for last. Among the stops as we travel west is Bandera, the 'Cowboy capital of the world' where you can point your camera at a Cowboy street musician playing for the fun of it . . .

. . . or in the direction of friendly Cowboys such as this fella.

We start in Big Bend National Park with a series of sunrise images. The more unusual the light the better, as with this fog-shrouded sun.

Softer light for this Prickly Pear Cactus foreground and Chisos mountain peak. It's a wide-angle shot, and I'm right over the cactus using f.22. so it's sharp from front to back.

Again the fog is an asset in subduing the bright sun. The silhouettes are of the gangly Ocotillo Cactus.

More Ocotillo Cactus, but from closer in for more impact.

There's not much impact about this one, but I went for the wide view to capture the essence of the Chisos Peaks, and the mood of the morning moment.

Nearby was this formation in the local stone.

And on the Grapevine Trail were these two shots of cacti. This first one is 'us and our shadows.'

The second is something not immediately recognizable.
It is in fact the 'skeleton' of a cactus, and provides an abstract mosaic.

It's a bit of a scramble to get to this balanced rock at the end of the Grapevine Hills trail, but worth the effort.

There are sixteen species of Prickly Pear, Opuntia, in this Trans-Pecos area of Texas, and this is my favorite. This is because of it's coloration, and the fact that it's less likely to 'bite' than all the others!

A pair of studies taken in the Tuff Canyon region of Big Bend. Photographically speaking there is an abundance of color, rock formations and cacti to play with in the Tuff Canyon vicinity.

Ocotillo cactus

Yucca close-up utilizing a selective focus technique.

The Chisos mountain range and a Yucca cacti in juxtaposition.

An image that shows how harsh the environment is in the desert. There can't be too many animals that would try to eat these jagged Ocotillo branches.

Prickly Pear cactus flower

Ocotillo cactus

Ocotillo cactus near Oak Creek. Not a lot of skill involved with this one as long as I focused on the Ocotillo, and positioned everything in the frame where it was the most pleasing to the eye.

In Big Bend Ranch State Park stands the Contrabando movie set, and was the . . . . The church is fake, but makes for good photography

Then a fake cross on a fake church, placed in front of some genuine, God-made, red rock!

I have included this Hawk with it's fresh catch, as it was shot right in front of the Alamo in San Antonio.

The Alamo at night.

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