Horseshoe Bend, Page, AZ

Horseshoe Bend, Page, AZ

 

I have made it home safely once again to Bear Woods after another trip out west. I don’t expect anything to happen, but the trips will wear you out! We have long hours and little rest. They are awesome. While we were there, we took a little side trip to Page. One thing I had not done in 17 years is photograph Horseshoe Bend. We decided that we would get up early and shoot sunrise the morning after we shot the Rock Factory. We had driven by a couple of times the day before and there were always several hundred people, if not thousands visiting, so we got up and made sure we arrived a little over an hour before sunrise. When we got down to the viewpoint, we were the only photographers, and there were 3 really nice folks there from Northern California. We got the “prime” spot and waited. It was worth the lack of sleep and the hike out that morning. Thanks again to my friend Stan Burman for his great suggestions and help while we were in Page.

 

Tamron SP 15-30mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Canon 5Diii, Manual Exposure mode, f18, shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, ISO 100, Sirui N3204X tripod and K30X ballhead, Lowepro photo backpack, processed in Lightroom CC. #WithMyTamron

Seeing Red

Red.

Today is the last day of my color challenge from my friend Sandy Powell. Today’s color is red. This is actually a fairly old image, 1994 or 1995. I was in Phoenix absorbing knowledge from John Shaw. We were at the Superstition Mountains watching sunset. We had a pretty nice sunset and were headed back to the car. John always taught me that never put your camera away until you are ready to drive away. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after sunset, the sun apparently dipped down below some clouds way out west somewhere and lit the sky with this red color. John instilled bits and pieces of information that I have used to capture some great images year after year.

I am inviting Hoke Smith to the challenge. Easy rules Hoke, 5 color images in 5 days.

Learning the basics of tone

I have really appreciated the incredible comments that everyone has posted and the “likes” on Facebook of the Black and White images of the Lower Antelope Canyon.  I thought I would post another one today just to give you an idea and hopefully some inspiration to shoot some BW.  When I was a kid and just starting to shoot, there weren’t places within walking distance to have color film processed.  My Dad was and is still an incredible shooter and I was very lucky he took the time to teach me how to use the darkroom he had set up in our basement/garage.  It is something that I truly believe is lacking in the understanding of what light does in an image with tone for many of today’s very talented photographers.  The subtle changes a simple red or yellow filter makes to the richness of an area is great.

When I did a podcast with Skip Cohen a couple of months ago, we chatted about how we would love to see that anyone purchasing a digital camera, with interchangeable lenses, have to shoot a brick (20 rolls) of film in a film camera.  Not as much to understand the technical part of the camera but instead to understand the importance of tone and what light does in photography.  Sometimes I really miss the days of film, but not very often anymore because I am finding it is almost as much fun and as challenging to do those same conversions and processes on the computer.

Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f22, -1.3 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200, resulting in a shutter speed of 6 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5 and converted to BW using Topaz BW Effects 2.  I used the Platinum preset and “inserted” an orange filter for contrast adjustments.

Claustrophobic?

Another Black and White conversion from the Lower Antelope Canyon.  If you are planning a trip to the canyons something to consider is how you do with tight confined spaces.  If you suffer from claustrophobia then the Lower Antelope Canyon is definitely out.  When you enter the canyon you are entering through a slot in the ground about 2 feet wide and at times you are walking in areas that you really can’t see the sky and the walls of the canyon are no more then 3 or 4 feet wide.  You may consider the Upper Antelope Canyon where most of the way through the canyon the walls are probably 10 feet wide and sometimes tighter maybe down to 5 or 6 feet.  On the bright side, if you do suffer from claustrophobia, this is a kind of therapy to help get over it…

Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f16, -1.3 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200, resulting in a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5 and converted to Black and White using Topaz BW Effects 2.

Slot Canyons in Black and White

I didn’t realize until this morning that I had not posted yesterday.  I can’t claim it was a senior moment but most people would agree that temporary insanity is a viable defense.  I spent part of the day yesterday converting some images of the southwest to Black and White in Topaz BW Effects 2.  A good friend and incredible shooter, Ken Hubbard, posted an image he shot in Yosemite that he had converted to BW and it inspired me to do some more conversions.  This is in the Lower Antelope Canyon.  This is one of the best places to do BW that I know of personally.  The tonal range of the rocks is screaming BW.  I still have a print on my wall from a trip out there in 1999.

Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f16, -1.3 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200, resulting in a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod, processed in Lightroom 5 and converted in Topaz BW Effects 2.

The Earth’s Shadow and the Grand Canyon

I still have lots of images to go through and process from my trips out west.  I try to start at the beginning of the trip and work my way to the end but I keep getting sidetracked thinking of a particular scene that I want to check out.  This was at sunset on the night we arrived to the Grand Canyon.  We had a fairly tight schedule we were on so we decided to go to the South Rim and spend the night there vs. driving down in the middle of the night from the North Rim.  There were some spectacular clouds and light that we would have captured from the North Rim but this magical light would not have been visible from there.  One of my teachers when I got into this business, Galen Rowell, understood light better than anyone I have ever met.  He understood it and could probably predict how things would look because of his understanding.  He taught me that the blue cast on the bottom of the horizon is the Earth’s shadow in the atmosphere.  Since those days I use the shadow in many of my scenes because of the beautiful quality of light it presents.  Galen left us way too early, we had so much to learn from him.

Tamron 18-200mm Di-III VC lens on a Sony NEX-7, Aperture Priority, f16, +0 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 100, resulting in a shutter speed of 5 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5.

Pre-dawn light at the Grand Canyon

I was so amazed at the number of people that came out to watch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon the morning I was there.  I thought to myself about how so very few people in this country have been relative to the number of people there are here.  I did notice that probably the majority of the people there were from other countries either now or originally.  A friend pointed out that most of the time you can tell which economies are doing better around the world as to the number of people from those countries.  The better economies have the ability to travel.  Interesting…I will have to do some research.
Pre-dawn light.  Tamron SP 70-200mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f5.6, -2 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200, resulting in a shutter speed of 8 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5.

My first trip to the Grand Canyon

I have traveled to many places over the years photographing so many of America’s iconic landscapes, but until last week, I had never been to the Grand Canyon.  I have driven by it so many times on my way to or from Page and Zion NP, but I never stopped to see it.  I had the opportunity to go on my way from Page back to Las Vegas and decided it was time.  It is truly one of those places where you can look at photos all day and night and never really comprehend the scale of the place.  I visited the south rim from the east to Grand Canyon Village mainly from Mather’s Point.  Looking across the canyon thinking how it is so many miles to the other side and then trying without much success to understand how long it really is.  I will definitely go back.  Evelyn was not able to join me on this trip and I know it will be something she will be as awestruck as I was when I saw it.  I am still processing so many images from the sunset and sunrise I spent there.  I didn’t want to do them quickly because the whole experience needed to sink in a little.

This was at sunrise last Friday morning about an hour and a half after the sun crested the horizon.  I really liked taking the telephoto lens and trying to isolate the rock against the canyon behind and below.

Tamron SP 70-200mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f2.8, -2 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200, resulting in a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5.

Lower Antelope Canyon HDR

As many times as I have been into the Antelope Canyons one thing that fascinates me is the ability to look up and see blue sky.  You feel like you are in a cave with the cool colored rocks but as you look up the walls they turn red then orange and lastly yellow before you see the contrasting blue sky.  Before the days of HDR capturing this on film or digitally would have been almost impossible.  This particular spot is looking up past “the Lady in the Wind” to the blue sky above Page, AZ.  It is probably 50 feet or more to the top of the canyon.  This is a 9 frame HDR bracketed one shot apart and combined in Photomatix and tweaked in Lightroom 5.

Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f22, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit.

The Lady in the Wind

The Lady in the Wind.  This particular rock formation is called “the Lady in the Wind”.  It is located in Lower Antelope Canyon.  It really is an incredible sight because of it’s size as well.  When you look at it for a while you really do start to see the lady’s head with her hair blowing behind her.  You should really put the Antelope Canyons on your bucket list!

Tamron SP 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-700, Aperture Priority, f16, -1.3 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 200 resulting in a shutter speed of 2 seconds, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323 CB tripod kit, single image processed in Lightroom 5.