Zion High Desert Abstracts

We spent this last weekend out in the Parunaweap Wilderness area near the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. I didn't spend too much time taking pictures, but I did take a few. If you know me well enough, you know that I am completely intrigued by the desert and sand's different textures. You can see things here, that you really don't see anywhere else. 

 A very interesting root system to a fallen Ponderosa Pine. I think they look like hands.

 A stained canyon wall. This picture shows a lot. The color of the natural sandstone, the cross-bedding of the layers, the splash of a past flash flood, and the slow mud drips from the bright red sands above.

 Sunset at Coral Pink Sand Dunes. It was very windy this day, as you can see the horizontal lines blowing off the dune. As the sun is barely hitting the dune, the east side was completely darkened and the west side is lit a dark orange.

I thought this would make an interesting picture as the sun was barely lighting the wind blown sand. What has happened is the wind has swept away all the loose sand exposing the wet sand underneath. The heavier pebbles stay in place, leaving "tails" on the leeward side.

Zion Park's "Crazy Tree Hoodoo"

One thing I have learned over the years, and especially in the last few weeks shooting in the early morning hours is that the good stuff really does comes during the "golden hour". The golden hour is that certain time early in the morning and evening when the sun is just right, that you get those special colors. Sometimes those colors happen in seconds, sometimes in minutes. Or like the other day when I was shooting a sunrise, the magic moment happened twice. The point I am trying to get at is, I have really learned to have patience, and really think about some of the scenes I am shooting, instead of just pointing and shooting.

Here is a series of the same subject I captured this morning. The light changed in a matter of 2 minutes.

The early shot. In this one, nothing is lit up, and although I think its still a good looking picture, it's pretty flat.

 The late shot. I think this one looks washed out. I could have done a shorter exposure time, but I would still be left with an ugly shadow across the center on the rock that kind of distracts the eye.

In my opinion, this is the winner. My subject was lit up by the sun, without any harsh light, and the bottom of the rock was still a little shaded, but lit enough, that it doesn't feel "empty" or "flat".

All three of these pictures were taken at f22, 0.6 sec, 100 iso. 

A Fascinating Morning in Zion, March 29th

I made another trip to Zion this morning with one goal in mind, you will see what that was in the next post I do. In the mean while, these are some of the other pictures I took throughout the beautiful Zion morning.

 I got up almost too early, this is one of the pictures I got while waiting for the sun to rise to a perfect position.

 A normal seen in East Zion's slickrock country! The sky was so clear, and the sun was high by this time, but there is something about this picture that I like.

 A shot of the Virgin River and the Watchman (mountain close to center). Normally this picture is best in the evening right at sunset, but I couldn't pass up the cloud texture, clear river water, and the mid-morning lighting. 

 Some climbers scaling the vast sandstone wall on the east side of Angel's Landing. The style of rock climbing they are doing here is called "aid climbing".

 This is no doubt, one of the most interesting arches I have ever seen in Zion. It almost doesn't look real. Cant imagine it would last much longer if the general public knew how to access it.

A light mid-morning reflection on a calmer section of the Virgin River. I used a 12 Grad ND filter to equalize the sky and mountain's light with the ground and water.

Zion National Park's White Pass

I already mentioned it in the last post, but today I hiked up to White Pass in Zion. It was insanely beautiful up there, and I wish my pictures could do justice. For a hike that was only about 1.5 miles out and back, you couldn't ask it to be much more pristine! 

 At the peak of White Pass looking west. Sloping to the left is South Ariel Peak, and to the right in Aries Butte. The curved layering in the sandstone show the eye where to go.

 Small potholes still half full leading down the west side of the pass. I can imagine these holes will be dry again within 3 days or so. But for now, it adds a little more character to the bright white sandstone.

 Looking East past an interesting iron formation in the bright white sandstone. As a rule of thumb, the ironite is a stronger sandstone, so the white sandstone will erode first and you will be left with harder pieces of "rusted" sandstone.

Fascinating layers of pink on the east side of the pass. This is a view of the Upper Keyhole Canyon area. This would be an excellent side trip if you are descending the technical section of Keyhole Canyon.

Zion Rock and Sand Textures

Today, I went out on a hike to the Upper Keyhole and White Pass area. Seeing that the wife and no one else were with me, I could hike and stop whenever I liked and didn't have to worry about Scarlet getting bored with the "stops and gos". Here are some pictures of the interesting textures of the rock and sand that I ran into today.

 One of the scenes that make Zion such a popular destination is the surreal looking layers in the sandstone. 

 I thought it was pretty cool how all these layers met at one single point. 

 I layer of moki marbles in the sandstone. If you look closely at the last picture, you can see these on the left side of the picture.

 If there is one thing the white rock in Zion does not have, its contrast! But once you get a few different sands mixed together after a good rainstorm, this is what you get.

I small lonely manzanita leaf sitting in the wet sands from yesterdays rain.

Different Day, Different Sunrise, Same Location

Woke up at 6:00 this morning to see that there was another chance at a good sunrise, So I headed back to Quail Lake (because of its close proximity) and set the camera up again. This morning, working on playing with filter adjustments and composition, and paying attention to how the colors change every second throughout the sunrise. I promise, I will get some pictures of of something else soon, but here is what I caught this morning...

 This picture was taken just before the sun was peeking over the mountain. Actually, the mountains behind me were beautifully illuminated, but I was still just barely out of the suns way. What I like about this picture are the suns rays and the way the rock at the bottom is framed in the reflection.

 This picture was taken a minute after the last one, and you can see how much the clouds changed in that time. The sun is barely peeking over the mountain but with the thicker clouds, it darkens the sky a little bit, but also brightens the rocks in the water.

With the Grad ND filter, the rocks on the water are very bright. This was about 10 minutes after the last picture, but it goes to show how much a scene can change in such a short time. I love how the bottom of the clouds still have a little pink in them too.

New Grad ND Filters

Though I have always been interested with photography, I have never played with Graduated Neutral Density filters. I decided to order a set last week (ND2, ND4, and ND8). I went out this morning with them for the first time, and experimented with the beautiful sunrise out at Quail Lake. Warning, they are not great, but I did learn a little of what I can do with them. Also, didnt get out early enough to set up my picture, so they are kinda rushed :) Enjoy!

 ND8, f22, 10 Sec. Exposure, 100 ISO

 ND10, f22, 8 Sec. Exposure, 100 ISO

ND10, f22, 4 Sec. Exposure, 100 ISO 

None of these pictures were changed in Photoshop or any other program, they are exactly the same way my camera took them. Guess I will have to go back out tomorrow morning (earlier) and experiment a little more.