Zion Virgin River Dream

Sony Takes a Gamble

I've been contemplating a new camera body this summer. I've grown frustrated with how easily my sensor gets contaminated when I switch lenses all the time. By the time I finished the last cycle my Canon 60D took images that looked like they had chicken pox. I had to spend a small fortune to get it cleaned but I know that the dirt will return as soon as the next cycle begins. The only way to keep a camera clean is to never open it. But since I have several lenses (with another one being contemplated for astro photography) the only solution is to buy more bodies and commit each one to a certain lens. I'll do that for my 2 main lenses (the Canon wide angle and telephoto) and only swap in the astro lens when I'm doing night shooting. I'll have to set up a system for making those changes as clean as possible (maybe inside a big plastic bag to minimize environmental contact) and keep them to a minimum.

Anyway, I've been watching the camera market intently since January and it's become very interesting. Canon opened the bidding with their 5D SR, a 50 megapixel monster that sells for almost $4K. It is an interesting offering but has one serious drawback ... the same noise issues that plague my 60D. Canon sensors are just horrendously noisy and there's no getting around that. I'd need to get seriously dedicated to noise reduction and to buy some not so cheap software to help mitigate the issues this noise creates. But I'd at least not have compatibility issues with my lenses.

Sony offers the only serious competition for the Canon bodies. Their mirrorless design leaves room for adapters that allow the use of almost any lens from any manufacturer but, up until now, there were big issues. Auto focus was painfully slow and often failed so manual focusing was almost a given. That's OK most of the time but when you're trying to take candid photos (like on the street) it's a huge problem. And the image stabilization systems in most lenses didn't work very well either. It was a mess and, quite frankly, the first version of their high pixel count camera, the A7R, had some serious issues with shutter noise, vibration and lifetime. I know a lot of pro photographers made the switch but they were not all really happy with it. But, just this month, Sony introduced the next round ... the A7R II, and it looks like a game changer. It has a big sensor, 42 megapixels, so it competes directly with the new Canon but the really exciting ideas involve 5 axis image stabilization in the camera (by moving the sensor) and auto focus is now fast because they have 399 phase detection sensors spread across the sensor and they work with Canon auto focus lenses. I've seen several videos and the system is very fast indeed. They also seemed to be listening to their customers and made major changes in the software so HDR shooters have more bracketing options and video shooters can now shoot 4K internally to the camera. This last item is a huge advance ... a small camera that shoots ultra HD to the internal memory card (not everything is great ... only 8 bit and the color space is somewhat limited but still...). And the new sensor is very low noise so I can do my HDR thing and my star photo thing and even my video thing all with the same camera. Price is an issue ... $3200 ... and $399 for the adapter, but it's still a major step for them and for me. I can now get the resolution I want, a full-frame 35mm image and some really nice features that will make my life a whole lot easier. Now, all I need to do is find that $3600 and I'll be set to go ... hmmmmm.

Zion Virgin River Dream

Take the Zion park shuttle to the very last stop ... the Temple of Sinawava ... and take the path toward the narrows and you find the Virgin River. This river made the Zion Canyon and the narrows and pretty much the whole park so it's a big deal. In this area the river runs through a lot of rock fall, stuff sloughing off the nearby canyon walls, which makes for many turbulent pools and small waterfalls. It's an extremely picturesque area so I spent most of a day there. One place, in particular, caught my attention. Many rocks had pushed together to create an elevated pool which cascaded over the resulting dam and waterfall. I'm always looking for moving water as it gives me a chance to work with my 10 stop neutral density filter (here and here and you'll need an adapter ring to fit your lens). You've seen the effect I'm sure ... cascading water turns into the neatest mist. You achieve this by using this really dark filter which pushes your exposure times out to 30 seconds or longer. The result is an exposure that obliterates all evidence of individual drops and shows only a ghost of what's actually there. You get an image with some really sharp features (rocks mostly) and everything else is so ethereal. It's a really interesting effect.

Anyway, I spent quite a while at this waterfall and took many images. This one is probably the best of the lot although I'll develop all of them to make sure. This is a single exposure, extensively processed in Lightroom. I used several radial filters to highlight the rocks (especially the one in the middle) and worked with the colors to pull out the water and rock colors. Very dramatic I think.

Zion Dream - 106mm(1.6 crop),f/22,30 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

The Misty Pool

The Big Guy Made A Mistake...

Zion is a marvelous place. The colors overwhelm and there is just so much to see and photograph. But there is a problem. We are told to seek the light during the 'golden hour' around sunrise and sunset. That's when the light is best ... at it's warmest. Shooting at midday creates harsh images that impress no one. So, I go out to shoot in the evening and what do I get? Shadows everywhere and nothing approaching what the masters tell us is the holly grail of light. Why, you ask? Because Zion Canyon runs North to South, with towering cliffs and majestic peaks on both sides. So, for example, if you're shooting around the Temple of Sinawava in the canyon's far north, the bottom of the canyon goes into shadow around 4 in the afternoon. Now, shadow is OK but it's not the glowing warmth we all seek. Shadow obscure detail and give the image a cool, blue cast. If that's what you want then that's great but not when you're trying to capture the amazing earth tones of the massive cliffs that grace both sides of the canyon. So, I've a small request for the great creator ... could you shift the canyon toward the east-west axis? Just a bit ... maybe 20-30 degrees so the sun washes those majestic walls with some of that 'golden hour' blow? That's not too much to ask ... is it?

The Cool Pool

If you take the Zion park shuttle to the last stop ... the Temple of Sinawava ... and follow the river trail to it's end (where groups enter the river to see the Narrows), there's a place where two massive boulders have joined to create a neat little waterfall. What's really cool about this place is how the water, filled with air bubbles, actually pushes under the surface and then surges upward, creating this iridescent pool filled with bubbling water. When light hits the pool, the bubbles reflect it upward and you get this really interesting glow. The effect is enchanting.

One of the areas I'm really interested in is taking pictures through very dark ND filters ... at least 10 stops. I've got a Lee Big Stopper which is rated at 10 stops and I've been itching to try it out. When I saw this pool, I just knew it was perfect for some experimentation. So, I set the camera as close to the pool as I could and set up the exposure. I wanted a really long shot, at least a minute, to get that etherial 'mist' appearance, where all the structure of the water disappears and all that's left is a 'fog' hovering over the surface. I set the camera at f/8 and that gave me 100 seconds. Perfect!

Now, I had a slightly different image in mind when I took this shot. I love the mist but thought it would be really interesting if I brought back some of the swirling, bubbly exuberance that was the real image. To accomplish that, I took several normal exposures of the pool and then use Photoshop to combine them into a final composition. The result is shown below.

The Misty Pool - 35mm (1.6 crop), f/18, various times, ISO 100
license CC BY-NC 4.0

I had several shots through the ND filter and wanted to combine them in Photomatix so I could get a bit of the HDR look. In particular, I wanted to pull out more intensity from the surrounding rocks and to emphasize the 'glow' in the pool. Then, I took the HDR result into Photoshop and used the brush tool to selectively bring out the bubbles and swirls. I thing the effect look interesting, don't you?