North Rim Sunrise

New Gear for the Trip

I have a fairly short list for the new gear I'm getting this time out. I've decided I really need a second camera body as I spent $200 getting my sensor cleaned twice during cycle #1 due to the dirt that got inside during lens changes. Even being very careful it's almost impossible to keep dirt from entering the body. Images taken during the last few weeks of my trip looked like they had chicken pox with all the black shadows. It's very time consuming to fix them (in Lightroom) and I always worry about degrading my images while trying to fix the problem.

Anyway, I found a great deal on a Canon 6D at B&H which combines the camera body with a Canon Pixma 100 photo printer at a price less then the camera body alone. I'm not really too excited about the printer yet (it's the razor while the blades ... ink and paper ... are the real cost items) but it'll come in handy if I want to print some small (12x18 is max size I think) samples for proofing my processing and for handing out to prospective clients for my much larger prints. I actually save $250 with the combination which is almost 20%. I'm also getting a super wide fast lens (Rokinon 14mm f/2.8) for astrophotography and some miscellaneous items for my computer. Not a lot of money but will help me get the job done.

North Rim Sunrise

I spent 2 days on the Grand Canyon's north rim at the end of Cycle #1. Slept in my truck in the parking lot of the lodge as there was no room and it's very expensive. Not even a campground site could be found. The north rim is only open during the summer (starting May 15th) and early fall. Too bad as I suspect the canyon is amazingly beautiful when it snows there. There are ways around the closure but they entail a very dangerous dirt road which I'm not inclined to attempt with my little Nissan pickup.

I wanted to get a sunrise shot so managed to drag my nearly dead body out and wandered to an overlook near the lodge. I was the first person there but soon others managed to make the trek to see the sun break on the canyon's eastern edge. As I've stated before, sunrises are spiritually different than sunsets. The air is dead calm and cool. The birds put on a great show, singing to greet the new day. It's such a wonderful feeling to wait and watch the world come alive.

Grand Canyon NR sunrise - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Bryce Canyon Overlook

Trip Finalized...

Finally have the trip finalized. I leave Crimea on March 31st and return on June 4th. Fly from Simferopol to Moscow where I catch an Aeroflot flight to Paris (ahhh ... so close and yet so far away), then Atlanta and finally Albuquerque. Return trip is the reverse. I'll stay in ABQ for a few days to get things ready and to make some arrangements for medical testing to see what's up with my blood chemistry and then head west. Plan now is to hit a few parks (maybe Grand Canyon if there's snow and Death Valley before it gets too hot) and then on to LA and a few weeks of shooting at night. After that I'll hit a few more national parks and monuments before making my way back to ABQ and home. Need to sit down and really plan out the trip which I hope to do in the coming days.

I'll be working on astrophotography for much of this trip along with the time lapse for the LA video. Expect to be working from sundown to sunrise for most of the trip and sleeping during the day. That may help with finding places to crash as cops aren't as worried about a truck parked in the daytime. Was a real hassle finding places to sleep at night with all the prohibitions on 'overnight camping'. Put a lot of extra mileage on the truck looking for places to park. Especially a problem in CA where they really don't want you overnighting anywhere.

Bryce Canyon Overlook

If you take the road south from the main canyon there are a series of overlooks that highlight various parts of the park. There's an arch and lots of hoodoos to see. This photo was taken at one of those overlooks. I wanted to show something different, beyond the actual sight and this overlook was really interesting. I was lucky that no people were standing there (I had to wait for a small group to leave) so the image is all about what you see. As you can tell, I'm not really keen on taking pictures of people in natural settings. Sometimes they can add to the image but not usually. They're rarely solemn enough and who wants someone taking a selfie to appear in their landscape pictures?

Anyway, this image is really nice. I like the composition and the wonderful sky with some residual storm clouds. Everything is wet so the colors are deep and rich. This is a single image, run through Lightroom and that's it. Enjoy.

Bryce Canyon Overlook - 35mm(1.6 crop),f/18, 1/125 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Slot Canyons in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

Update ... again

I'm 90% there on the trip home. Am presently setting up flights home from Crimea to Albuquerque. This will probably be my last flight out of Crimea as the western sanctions have made it almost impossible to get money from America. We've lost Western Union, VISA/MasterCard and SWIFT. There's not much left except maybe carrier pigeon. Unfortunately, we need money to live and that comes from the US so we've made the very painful decision to relocate, at least until the sanctions ease, to a relative's house in the eastern part of Russia. Ulan-Ude is just south of Lake Bikal, near the Mongolian border. It's a wild place, with lots of mining and logging. My wife has a cousin living there so we're taking up residence with her until further notice. Not sure how my asthma will take to all the dust but we'll find out when I get back. I'll be returning to Simferopol for a short visit with my relatives and to see how our flat is faring then on to the east. Oh joy...

Oh, dates of travel ... March 28-29 on the trip to ABQ and June 2-3 on the trip back. 2 months in the states and lots of things to do. Will be running the whole time. Have to wedge in some doctor's visits to see what's up with my blood chemistry (which is all over the place it seems) and to clean up the ever messy financial situation. Not sure yet how these off items impact my main agenda but we'll adjust as needed. Since I'm wandering I don't need to really have reservations and the road's always there leading to the next place. I'll update my trip map when I know more.

Slot Canyons in Vermilion Cliffs NM

I didn't win the Wave lottery (had a 1 in 100 chance) but I'm still determined to hit Vermilion Cliffs during my trip and maybe stop by the BLM office to see if I can get a second chance. If not I'll find other parts of the area to explore. There's lots of beautiful scenery to check out so it's not a lost cause.

One of the most amazing parts of that area is the slot canyons. Over 10 miles of wildness and are they spectacular. Not as well known as Antelope Valley in AZ but still a great place to hike and take photos. I have literally dozens of shots in the hopper and each one is better than the last. I like this one because it looks like an animal (maybe a camel or an elephant laying it's trunk against the rocks). It's amazing the shapes one gets with fast running water and sand. Just watch out for the rain as these canyons can fill up very fast.

This is a 3 image HDR, run through the usual treatment with PhotoMatix and Lightroom.

Slot Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs - 29mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC-BY-NC 4.0

Crater Lake Moss

Update on the Trip

It's been just over a month since my eye blew out so it seems appropriate to fill in the empty spaces left with the postponement. Eye is good but still has some floating debris that will, over time, disappear. It's well enough I can drive and read so that's a huge improvement. No residual pain or distortions which could impact my ability to take my pictures (whewwww ... what a relief). So that part is good.

Just went through my yearly re-certification here in Crimea which was a stressful event. You are required to fill out a form that basically gives up all your secrets ... or at least it feels that way. How many trips out of the country did you take? Where did you go? How long were you gone? Who did you talk to (a few thousand in my case during the 3 months). How much money did you make and what were the sources? It's pretty intense. Even the wife was more than a bit nervous about this but the guy we worked with (same guy we used last year to get the permanent residency papers) was very quick. We waited for him for about an hour and then it was over in 7 minutes. So I'm good for another year in this wonderful place. And I'm now cleared to leave once again. So, I'll be making plans this weekend for the trip home. Expect I'll be out of here during the month of March and will return around June 1. Need to make all the flight arrangements and get balls rolling for everything else. About time!

Crater Lake Moss...

They get a lot of rain at Crater Lake. Guess it's because it's really the first major mountain range the weather hits once it leaves the coast. We had rain several days I was there last spring along with some snow. And it's mighty damp. So, one shouldn't be surprised to see lots of moss and other wet weather stuff growing on the trees. We're not too far south of the Colombia River Gorge and it gets lots of rain and has trees covered in this stuff. Oregon is a wet place...

I was stuck at the visitor's center during a very heavy rain storm and, being the resourceful type, I started casting around for some interesting scenery to photograph. Across the road from the center the cliffs rise very quickly and are prone to develop fog and mist. I fitted the 70-200 on my camera and started shooting. Got some nice mist shots and then found these cedars all covered in the brightest green moss and lichen. They literally glowed even without the bright sun. And the cliffs weren't too shabby either. This is a 3 image set, run through Photomatix and then finished (including a severe crop from landscape to portrait orientation) in Lightroom.

Crater Lake Moss - 200mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0