Sandstone world

I recently returned from a weekend in Page Arizona trying to photograph some of the beautiful scenery and get some relaxation. I had plenty of places in mind to go photograph over the course of two days, but I had to think carefully of what I wanted to see. We arrived at our hotel late in the afternoon, got everything settled and decided to show my parents horseshoe bend. It was incredibly windy and sand was blowing everywhere. None of us dared to go to the edge, but we saw it. I have already seen this area before so not getting any images of it did not bother me. What did interest me was some of the surrounding scenery along the trail that I had overlooked the last time I was in this location. There were storms rolling into the area and thick clouds everywhere, but I managed to get a few images with decent light.

Expanse

Desert twilight

 

Since it was so windy we decided to grab some food and head back to the hotel for the night. We grabbed plenty of tourist pamphlet’s from the lobby of the hotel and started reading to see what we could do the next day. I addressed the idea of taking a guided tour through antelope canyon (Guided tours are required). After eating we took our showers to get the ridiculous amount of sand out of our hair and called it a night. We woke up early to take advantage of the continental breakfast downstairs. We decided to head on to overland canyon tours in town (Highly recommended) to set up a tour. We had just missed the first tour of the day, but were first in line for the next tour. We walked around the gallery to look at the incredible photos shot around page and the navajo jewelry and pottery. Once the tour guides returned they divided us into two groups. A photo tour and a regular tour. The photo tour is twice as long and expensive, but you can still grab tons of photos on a regular tour especially early in the day when most people are still sleeping. Our tour guides name was Charly who owns overland canyon tours (Ask for him specifically for any tour if available). We all huddled into the old suburban they transport the groups in and headed out. I underestimated how far off the road we had to travel to get to the canyon. The ride itself is an adventure and Charly likes to make a few jokes to get everyone into spirit. We finally arrived to the entrance as Charly went over some camera settings to assure proper exposures as well as trying to get a “different image”. We waited for a few groups from another tour company to exit the canyon and made our way in. Immediately you are feeling dwarfed beneath the canyon walls and are amazed at the beauty of the canyon. Were not even twenty feet in and already I have a handful of photos.

Entrance

Our guide explains some of the textures and different shapes of the spot we are stopped. I remember him explaining not to add the ground in a photo, but I just couldn’t help it. We travel a little further as a few more groups squeeze by. I’m keeping a good eye on where I can place my tripod without getting in anyones way. Charly shows us some more unique areas of the canyon when I spot a log lodged between one side of the canyon. He assures us that he didn’t put it there and we come into discussions about flash floods.

Driftwood spotlight

“It’s amazing how much the canyon changes” He notes, telling us it never looks the same on any tour.  We move on as Charly shows me some interesting photo opportunities. He shows me on his camera the image that awaits and I take one with my own “twist”. I notice something wet on my camera and see a few more droplets trickle down the body. I look up and see that it is beginning to rain. Nothing major, but our guide takes note as do others. It is extremely important to keep an eye on clouds when entering a slot canyon. 11 people were killed in a flash flood that had little warning in the lower section of the canyon (which is miles away). For that reason you are now required to have a guide with you in the canyon.

We keep on going as the passage becomes narrower and narrower as other groups squeeze past. I keep on shooting up and reviewing each exposure. We come to a widened area and Charly tells us to look up. He shows us a rock formation that looks like the mittens in monument valley. He makes a joke saying you don’t have to travel all that way to see monument valley. I take a few photos of it and move along.

Mini mitten

I’m slowly starting to really appreciate the canyon as each group passes by. All the time not taking a photo I am staring up at the swirling colors and patterns along the canyon. I look at how many photos I have left on the card and it reads 160. I remember how many I had before the canyon and realize I took around 100 images. We emerge out of the other end of the canyon and wait for a few groups to head back in. It’s still raining outside. Charly shows us one last feature before we head back to the suburban. The end of the canyon has a “liberty bell” feature. It amuses both my parents and myself being that we are originally from Philadelphia. He jokes that it also comes with a crack which shows signs of it possibly falling in the future.

Liberty bell

We head back to the truck and head back to town. Everyone is happy and Charly makes some more jokes on the ride back. “The best time to commit a crime in page is at 10am on sunday” He say’s due to the high number of churches located around town. He also points out some good restaurants and margarita’s. We’re back at the parking lot and everyone departs for the day. It’s still raining so we head back to the hotel for a few hours to eat lunch and relax.

It stops raining so we decide to head back out. We had heard of an old movie set in southern Utah we attempted to find. With our luck the rain and began again with a little more force. We decide to stop at the escalante visitor center in big water Utah to get some info. Turns out the movie set was burned down. We grab some brochures and head back for page. The rain is dying down but still evident. We stop and look at glen canyon dam for a few minutes. Then down lakeshore drive. Nothing worthwhile so we head to antelope point. The sun started to show itself, but it was still raining. I found perhaps one composition with no rain drops on the camera.

Amidst a storm

The day becomes nothing more than a rainy day so we head back to the hotel and dinner. We eat at a place called the “dam bar” which had some pretty good food and a wide range of menu items. I decided to have a southwest burger which had chili’s and jalapenos. Our stomachs full we head back to go to sleep.

Our last morning my father and I head down to breakfast. It’s empty and theres plenty of food. We sit down and discuss any plans for the day. We opt to look around the lake as the sun had come out and the clouds were now a distant memory. We check out lakeshore drive again and enjoy the quite solitude. Since the sun was in front of me it was creating hazy like images that I wasn’t too fond of. So we headed back to antelope point where I headed down to the beach. There are a lot of interesting rock formations that can only be seen from below. I spend an hour shooting away and suddenly its time to make the trip home. We stop to take a look at navajo jewelry along the road. My father buys my mom a small horse carved out of rock. We then proceed on our way home when I notice an area I wanted to photograph to the side of the road. There was no place to pull to the side so all I managed was just a glimpse of an area I will come back too. Four hours later we arrive back in phoenix to mid 70 degree temps and begin to unload. I head straight to the computer and review the images. I am pleased for the most part only wishing I could have shot more. It was a productive trip, leaving me wanting to see more. All the more reason to head back next time!

Antelope point

Shooting into the night

Last night I headed out to the superstition mountains in Arizona to try something a little different. I arrived later than had anticipated and hiked up to the base of the mountain just before the sun retreated behind the horizon. Just as I began to get my tripod set up, the sky exploded with color. All around there were oranges, blues, reds, pinks. I get pretty excited when I get this kind of light, almost the same feeling as opening christmas gifts. My eyes darted from horizon to horizon checking every which way for interesting light. From where I was standing I saw the four peaks to the left bursting in a hot pink hue.

Distant pink

I was becoming frustrated knowing the light would not last looking for any decent composition to throw together. I chose this small little rock outcrop with little vegetation ( would have been perfect if this were two or three months in the future full of wildflowers). As I snapped a few frames of the scene the light became just a memory. I checked the images to assure I retained the colors on the mountain. The light kept fading and changing colors as the moon reached higher into the sky. The twilight colors emerged and the shooting got better and a bit more interesting.

Moon prayer

The clouds kept floating by and the sun was long gone. The only light was the twilight and moonlight working together to create a colorful atmosphere. I couldn’t help but think of Marc Adamus’ image of court of the patriarchs from Zion national park after checking the LCD screen. The moon in the image was my key here, but the colors had to be just right. On and on the evening went, the city lights picking up the slack from the sunset were all that were left. It was never completely dark because the moon was so bright. A ten second exposure turned into 15 seconds, then 15 seconds turned into 30 seconds. Still I was able to make out the rock formations in front of me using the moonlight. Image after image I made sure I would still have focus if I wanted to change my composition. The live view from the camera helped tremendously for the first hour of shooting. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to shoot once it got dark enough and live view didn’t seem to matter at this point. I noticed a ring forming around the bright moon and immediately created a composition to include the bottom half of the ring (a wider lens was needed to get the entire ring). The stars began to emerge from the night sky and the clouds kept breaking apart the ring every few minutes. Waiting for the ring to complete itself I fired off a few exposures to make sure the clouds didn’t break through the bottom. Some exposures I used some light painting to bring out the colors of the red rocks. Others I used just the moonlight. It wasn’t until I was viewing the images at home that I decided I wanted something simple. I used two images that were underexposed in the foreground. I did some curves adjustments and the basic raw adjustments and blended them together to see what would happen.

As an artist, sometimes I feel the scene I witnessed wasn’t the scene I wanted to share. This was one of those few moments where I felt I had a strong connection with the image I was creating. I sometimes cringe when I hear people saying you have to have a connection with the image. I understand the concept, but why can’t we create something purely based off of “cause it looked awesome”? I’ll be the first to admit a lot of the images from my camera are not how they looked on location. Thats what being an artist is about right? I know plenty of other photographer’s would say the same. Back to the image…

There are some influences on the image as well as the others I shot this evening (the reference to Marc Adamus previously mentioned) as well as others such as Ian plant and Joe Rossbach. Both very talented and creative photographers. Again, I couldn’t help but compare the style of the image to that of Ian plant’s. His dreamscapes are one of a kind and to me the image of mine could be capable of being considered a dreamscape. It was the one image of the night that really made it worth while, despite the spectacular color display earlier. Between not getting anything worth shooting for two months and filling my mind with creative possibilities I think the evening paid off very well. Time to get back out there!

Moon blues

My masterpiece (so far)…Photographing horseshoe bend

One of my main influences on my work said it best. ”Arizona is the land of contrast… You can go from Minnesota to California in a matter of minutes, then have Mexican food that night.” -Jack Dykinga.  That saying could not be less true of Arizona. Thats the amazing thing about this state. We have everything it seems. Mountains, forests, tundra, desert, you name it we probably have it. One thing remains certain though. In Arizona, everyone wants to shoot the sandstone. There’s no better place to do so then in northern Arizona. Page, AZ is the gateway to all things sandstone and for good reason. Photographers from all over the world come to photograph places like the wave, antelope canyon, and coyote buttes. So far I have visited none of these places. However, there is one place just off the road that takes you to one of the best views in the country (in my opinion at least), that is horseshoe bend overlook. From sunrise to sunset you will see photographers and tourists alike gathering along the rim to see one of the goosenecks in the colorado river. An impressive 1000ft drop hardly translates in a web photo, but I will show you later on. May 16th I headed to page with a friend of mine with one goal. Get a stunning image of horseshoe bend and come home the next morning. The four hour drive up there left us wondering where we would stay knowing this was not a day trip. We decided to camp on the beach of lake Powell and scouted a location to come back to. It was mid afternoon by then and decided to head up to the bend early to check it out, avoid any rushes and get the best vantage point I possibly could. After a good walk along the edge of the canyon I found my spot, hoping no one would be there at sunset so I could create my image. We found ourselves photographing the sandstone formations all along the rim until the sun was low enough. Photographing horseshoe bend at sunset is a challenge. The timing has to be just right and everything has to just flow together. I wanted to shoot the image at sunset because I wanted to incorporate a sunstar in the image. That is the key to a successful sunset image here. Knowing how to expose for the canyon while facing into the sun took a few attempts, though I finally got it. I knew my lens also wasn’t wide enough to capture the image in one shot (17-40mm lens on a 7d), so I opted in shooting multiple frames across in order to stitch together later on. If there is one thing you should know about this place it is this, if you plan on trying to get a good image, put your camera’s tripod on the very edge (just don’t knock it off the cliff!). Once I felt I had the images I wanted we headed to camp. That night I shot a few star trails over the lake, but nothing really productive, more of practice. We went back in the morning to see the difference in light. While you can get beautiful images at both sunrise and sunset, sunrise you will not have the challenge of the sunstar to deal with. Exploring a little more and taking a few more images to bring home we were on our way back. I put the images on the computer and started going to work. Luckily the images were able to be stitched without any artifacts. I decided to make it more of a panoramic image than a standard stitched image. I felt it gives the landscape a more intimate mood. Of course like all locations, I would love to head back and try something else.

Take it all in

Yellowstone journey, and wanting to go back.

Last June, a friend and I decided to make a trip to Yellowstone national park and fulfill one of the locations I had always wanted to visit. It was spectacular. I have seen so many amazing images taken here and watched plenty of television series documenting the wildlife and unique landscape. I wanted to give it a go and come back with some of my own amazing images. Well…There is really only one word to describe your first experience to America’s first national park…OVERWHELMING! It truly looks different when viewing the park with your own two eyes. Driving around is a hassle all in itself, and not even in traffic, just trying to keep your eyes on the damn road. The days seemed to go on forever and on our last day the entire trip felt like it flew by. We saw lot’s, photographed lot’s, and enjoyed the park for a relatively decent amount of time (five days). It all makes me want to head back up there, which I am hoping will become a reality this coming may/june. Here are some highlights from our trip with a little info about each one.

black bear

This was the first bear I have ever seen in my life. There were two of them on the side of the road as we were driving towards lamar valley. My friend yelled “BEAR” and slowed down to make a u-turn. Not long after a few cars showed up and it turned into a full on bear jam. It’s a nice feeling when your the first to spot something and not trying to join a crowd. We were lucky enough that both bears were crossing the road and that the side we parked against was the side they were going to travel. The bears stayed parallel to the road no less than 30ft from the shoulder of the road. Needless to say all my bear images from this morning were shot from the car window. There is no way I wanted to become their breakfast. The rangers arrived and the bears vanished over a hill and into the trees. Seeing a bear for the first time is amazing.

Steam rises in a pool behind castle geyser

We saw plenty of wildlife the first two days in the park. Obviously the bears were the highlights. We saw plenty of bison and watched some pronghorn sparring which was pretty interesting. On our third day in the park we were going to try and explore hayden valley. There were rumors about one of the wolf packs being fairly active and visible from the road. Unfortunately for us it rained and rained and rained. We stopped for a little bit on the side of the road to contemplate on our game plan which was already a failure. By this time we were right by Yellowstone lake, but it was still raining. I figured we might as well keep on driving the loop and see what happens and perhaps we would get lucky. Sure enough right before we arrived at old faithful the rain suddenly stopped. The sky was still cloudy and ominous, but we decided we would get out and check out all the thermal features (which happened to be the only day we did so). We were even luckier than we thought. Once we got our parking spot we headed straight to old faithful herself. Within ten minutes the thing went off. The feature itself is amazing, but all the imagery and video I have seen made this thing look massive. Maybe she was tired and didn’t give it here all. Once the geyser died down we went off to explore the famous boardwalks and the unique and otherworldly geysers and hot springs. Castle geyser was the most interesting to me. The smells were unique to say the least. Though, walking through the mist was relaxing.

Grand prismatic hot spring

After viewing all of what the upper geyser basin had to offer (minus a few areas we just happened to miss), we headed to grand prismatic hot spring. This was one place I wasn’t going to miss on my first visit. On the way there it began raining once again, nothing heavy, but definitely something I did not want to stand in. By the time we reached the parking area the rain turned off and we were lucky once again. The parking lot was completely full and people were even parking on the side of the roadway. I had to make a rash decision to either bring the tripod or leave it in the car. I knew there would be plenty of people on the boardwalk there so I opted not to bring it (wish I had though). We crossed the river walking towards excelsior geyser, snapped some shots from the river and proceeded with our trek. I have never heard or seen images of excelsior geyser so I was just as impressed with that than I was of what I came to see.

Geyser dreams

Storm clouds seemed to be the theme of the day. I think it really helped create a unique atmosphere for a first time visitor, so I took advantage of them. The sky was almost split in two. Excelsior side was very dark and ominous while the grand prismatic side was blue sky and puffy white clouds. The views of both of them are tremendous. We grabbed our images and decided to head back towards camp. We had been taking notice of an active osprey towards the north entrance of the park, and although we never saw the nest, the bird was always there. We even witnessed the osprey being attacked by a peregrine falcon over a fish.

That night at our camp we decided to try and plan next mornings activities. Which already began with waking up at 3am as we had basically done so far all week. We checked the trip reports on yellowstone.net (A great site for yellowstone enthusiasts with a ton of helpful information and friendly folk) and learned about a grizzly bear with four cubs commonly known as “quadmom”. So with the thoughts of finally photographing grizzlies we shut our eyes and slept for the few hours of night. We woke up on schedule to freezing temps and hurried to get ourselves into the park. With still two hours left until the sun would rise, we searched in the dark for anything that moved. Some elk here and there and the occasional unknown birds that were too dark to make out. We situated ourselves around swan lake flats until it was just bright enough to see anything move on the hillsides. We waited, and waited, and drove around a little more. We got out, somewhat nervous because we had no clue if we would see the bears and had no idea where they could be emerging from.

Electric morning

I scurried down a hill where I had heard some elk bugling hoping to possibly get a photo of a bull and any others down by the water. When I turned my head I saw this amazing pink glow over the mountains and a beautiful layer of fog lifting off the water in front of me. I was happy to get the photos and didn’t even think to get the tripod out. Luckily the light was strong enough that I could handhold the camera without shake and get a decent depth of field.  We never saw the bear family, but seeing some of the views and hearing the sounds that morning were like nothing I have ever experienced.

Ten

We then moved on toward the tower junction region of the park. Before we had even reached the junction we spotted five bull elk off the side of the road. To our luck there was a parking area just as we spotted them. Within seconds, an older oriental man and an older german man arrived with their massive lenses and followed us across the road to get a better and safer view of the majestic animals. Out of the five we spotted, four of them vanished into the forest in a matter of minutes while the largest of them all had stayed out to provide a “show” for us. A few more people had showed up as the giant headed for the creek and closer to where we had parked. Of course, with wildlife and tourists you will never see the end of the “touron”. You know, the people that want a family photo with a herd of bison. Those people. Unfortunately a man in a mini van approached the bull with his point and shoot camera. He must have been ten feet away or so from its face trying to get a “good closeup” for the memory. Not sure if the man was aware that his camera is capable of zooming. I stayed close to the car just in case anything were to happen. The bull looked agitated at this point and I thought to myself why anyone would want to get that close. Finally the man left with his images and the bull started up the hill. We were fortunate to be able to watch and photograph him for such a long time. At this point we headed back to lamar valley in hopes to see some wolves. We had seen them the a few days before by they were tiny specs on the landscape. I still find myself lucky to even see them at a distance.  On the way back from lamar we spotted the osprey nest we had been wondering about all week. Both the male and female were in the nest feeding their young. The male flew off in search of food while the mother stayed put and allowed us to photograph her. We then heard rumors about the otters at trout lake being active. We made the trek up there and the surprisingly short yet strenuous little hike to the lake. We waited around for an hour or so for the otters to show themselves, but they never did. On the way down I pointed out a little outcropping with an incredible view. We spent the next hour photographing here and waiting for the light to change. A nice family from canada came up to us and asked if they could share the beautiful view as well. We spoke for a few minutes and the family was on their way.

Yellowstone evening

The sun was just setting behind the lake when the peaks I had my lens pointed at began to glow in pink and orange hues. I was happy to fire off a few images before the light quickly turned. It seemed I had better luck with the landscape photos than wildlife photos this trip. It was a great end to a already interesting day in the park, or so I thought. On the way back to camp we noticed a bunch of cars pulled over. We figured it was a bear jam. On closer inspection it turned out there was a coyote feeding on an elk calf carcass and a black bear was making moves trying to claim it. It must have been recent because it was not there in the morning and the mother of the calf was 100 ft away making distress calls. The light was already poor and the images I was able to get are pretty much all fuzzy. It was still neat to witness and experience. This was our “final” day in the park as we had planned to spend the next day in the Tetons.

Thoughtless

We actually woke up late of all days of traveling (if you call 5am late). We wanted to get to a spot before the sun actually came up. Even though that didn’t happen, we were very lucky with the lighting conditions in the park. On our way to the park though we came across yet another bull elk, this one draped in the perfect morning light right across Yellowstone lake. We spent a few minutes photographing the bull and kept on heading south. The sun was still very low and not over the horizon by the time we got to mormon row yet it was fairly bright out. I photographed the classic barns with the classic Teton backdrop and went behind the barns where I spotted a sea of yellow. The sun had just peaked over the horizon and some late morning light reflected off the clouds and onto the peaks when a herd of bison walked into the frame. This was the shot I didn’t realize would become one of my favorite images from the trip. We headed to the snake river overlook where I grabbed some images, however the light just wasn’t the same anymore. So we called it a day, packed up camp and made the unfortunate departure from the park and went on our 18 hour car ride home. It was a week full of wildness and self discipline on my photographic part. It is a trip I will never forget, and one I will plan on repeating year after year. Until next time, I can only dream that tomorrow is the day I am back in the park.

 

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