Zion West Entrance

Trip on Hold...

It's not been a good 2 weeks. 12 days ago I was getting the kid ready for her shower when I noticed a black streak across the center of my left eye. Having seen this before I knew immediately what had happened ... a vein in my eye had ruptured and blood was flowing into the fluid inside my eyeball. I had this happen to my right eye 2 years ago. Within seconds my eye was filled with floating debris and I knew that my trip home was in jeopardy. I informed the wife who immediately went ballistic and then got crazy. After she settled down it was decided I needed to see the eye doctor the very next day. After about 30 seconds the doctor made the decision that we needed to see the laser surgeon and get the veins sealed before the bleeding got worse and I lost the eye. So, after a very nervous weekend we went to get the procedure done. It's very uncomfortable and painful ... feels like someone is driving a needle into your retina. The surgeon directs a powerful green laser beam through your cornea and focuses it on the back of your eye. He literally vaporizes the tissue, sealing the vein and stopping the blood flow. In 15 minutes he was done and I was sent home to recuperate. I'm not allowed to do any heavy lifting or any activity that might raise my blood pressure or put any strain on the repaired vessels. So, travelling is now out of the question for a while. Last time this happened I was told no plane flights for at least 2 months. That means I could be stuck here until at least the end of March. Now, I many not actually stay here that long but I'm probably not leaving here until the end of February. I have to get home to fix some financial issues pretty soon under any circumstances and I'm still having real problems with my breathing. But all my planning is out the window for now. Stay tuned and I'll update you as I know more.

Zion West Entrance

Much of the action in Zion happens on the west side of the park. The visitor's center, the museum, the campgrounds and the valley all sit there. There's some spectacular scenery in the east but it's not as organized or as concentrated. People tend to congregate in the west and venture out by car to see the rest of the park.

My first night in the park campground, I took a short drive to the west gate. I wanted to get a really nice sunset and, as I've pointed out in previous posts, much of the park is in shadow long before the sun goes down. So I drove to the parking area just outside the entrance and walked across the street to a bluff that looked to the east. I wanted to get the line of peaks just as the sun was hitting their bases so they were somewhat isolated from their surroundings. This is an HDR panorama. You can just see the Zion entrance sign in the lower left. Out of view at the bottom is the parking lot and entrance road. To the extreme right is the Watchman, a famous feature in the park. I'm sure the other peaks have names but I don't remember them.

Beautiful, isn't it? I hope to see them again if, and when, this next trip happens. Care to join me?

Zion West Entrance - 31mm(1.6 crop), f/25, HDR, ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

Zion Guardians

Update...

Still not sure of my trip. Wife has been sick and that's thrown everything sideways. She's getting better so I hope to make some decisions pretty soon. I want to spend at least 2 months stateside so I have plenty of time to visit all the places I've been researching. Will let you know as soon as I have a plan.

Zion Guardians

Have I mentioned I really like Zion National Park? Although it's not the easiest place to photograph due to it's north-south orientation, it's still an amazing place. The colors are beyond spectacular and the geography is just out of this world. I'm planning to visit again this trip and to try and get back into the slot canyons (up at the Temple of Sinawava) and beyond. This is an arduous trip as you spend much of it in the Virgin River, chest deep in very cold water. There are shops where I can rent thick wading suits and special packs to protect my camera gear but it's still a big deal and one has to always worry about rain and floods when there. Last year, during the summer, they had a serious flood that killed several people so one can never be too careful. But I really want to photograph those canyons.

One of the best things about Zion is the diversity of geography. All along the Virgin River there are deep cuts and soaring cliffs to enjoy. The sky is always filled with fluffy, white clouds and the sun, even at its highest, provides wonderful contrasts and shadows. It's a photographer's dream.

One of the most popular places for taking photos is behind the natural history museum near the west entrance on rt. 9. I got up very early and drove to the museum just for this picture. These three peaks are called ... I think ... the guardians. There's a huge amphitheater behind the museum and these peaks backstop the whole thing. I did a panorama here which I'll put up some day but for now I'll give you just a single image. This is an HDR processed the usual way. The sun was over my right shoulder just below the cliffs on the east side of the valley. Only 4 of us saw this scene that morning. It was definitely worth dragging my sorry ass out of bed so early. Damn ... the colors are just so amazing!

Zion Guardians - 33mm(1.5 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

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

Water Play

Damn it's cold...

I'd grown lazy down in Zion Canyon. Thousands of feet below the plateau, nights were moderate and comfortable for sleep. Last night wasn't nearly so pleasant. No wind (probably made things a bit worse) but it was so cold. Slept fitfully and awoke around 5 to find the truck covered in frost. It's almost MAY ... hasn't the weather god been watching the calendar? Well, I think I'm heading south anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. Think the next stop is Vermillion Hills National Monument. Won't get to the 'Wave' as I haven't made any reservation and it is the weekend but maybe I can find some beautiful formations to photograph for my growing collection.

Update on the Bryce Canyon Snowfall Photo

The response to that photo (see it on my April 17th blog post) has been so universally positive that I'm now planning to offer the print for sale. Not sure yet of any specifics but hoping to provide smaller sizes from my commercial site (in the works but not ready yet) and a full sized print (roughly 45 x 27) in a framed and matted limited edition sighed by me ... probably through a gallery. It's going to take a while to get all that prepared so watch this space for updates. I really want everyone to enjoy that special image as it is very unique.

The facts and only the facts (I think)...

The big car chase is long over and some facts are emerging. Don't know the guy's name but, according to people here at the campground, he was a wanted fugitive and the cops had been surveilling his hideout for some time. He stole a car, the afore mentioned Hyundai, and made a break for it. Unfortunately, he chose Zion National Park as his getaway route. Not wise as the road forces one to drive very slowly with many switchbacks and a mile long, narrow tunnel to traverse. A park ranger told me he hit the south entrance at 50 mph (in a 15 mph zone) and then he really let fly. Virgin, UT was the last town he blew through, at 100 mph, and just outside of town he ran over some puncture strips. All 4 tires came apart. Understand the little, black Hyundai is now a twisted piece of modern art. He was apprehended and the story ends.

Water Play

I was hiking along the Virgin River, looking for interesting features to photograph. I've already alluded to my interest in long exposures so I was concentrating on the water cascading over all the rocks. Saw an interesting little waterfall and wandered across the sand to investigate. I took pictures there but as I sat on the rocks I noticed this little pile of boulders and the water merrily dancing over and around them. I must have watched this wonderful play for 5 minutes or more and decided to take some photos. Got really close using my 70-200mm and went to work. Once again I was interested in the idea of getting that wonderful misty look when exposures are really long (over a minute) combined with a blending of a fast image (1/2000 of a second) to get something unique. Below I've shown both of the base images along with the final result.

Double click to get larger versions. The stop motion image was rather dark so I lightened it first. Both images went into Photoshop layers with the misty image on top. I dropped it's opacity down to around 50% but I didn't like how muted the rocks were or how washed out the water looked. To correct this I put an adjustment layer between the two images and make it an overlay. Using a dark brush I worked around the rocks and the muddy areas of the water until I got the effect I wanted. Finished the composition in Lightroom with some clarity and vibrance enhancement plus a bit more blacks. Also warmed the image up a bit by increasing the apparent color temperature. It's a fun image and a learning experience which is good enough for me. Not every image can be earth shattering ... don't you think? Problem is I like all three images ... 

Water Play - 78mm (1.6 crop), f/18, various exposures, ISO 100 - license CC BY-NC 4.0