Two Day Blitz of Southern Utah

Due to having young children, I seldom get to take a vacation with my wife where it is just the two of us. I introduced her to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks on our Honeymoon, and we did make a trip with the kids (and my parents) to Goblin Valley and Arches almost 10 years ago. But that hardly scratches the surface of the places I have been with my friends and brother over the last 4-5 years.

When the opportunity arose to run away with my lovely lady for a few days I was eager to to just that. So we got the children cared for and ran away. 48 hours of time to ourselves, BLISS!

The first 3 hours of our drive was uneventful and mostly freeway through pretty, but hardly scenic, lands. As we got closer to Torrey, UT things began to get more interesting, the skies were perfect and the roads not busy. Allowing us the opportunity to stop as we chose to view the beauty.

It was absolutely wonderful to hear my wife exclaim with delight as she saw areas she had never seen before. I LOVE the area around Capitol Reef and Torrey, no it is not black and white but I have trouble resisting when the textures are so strong and I know I can get drama out of it.

This tree had the most wonderful bark, with patches of dark and light. My wife loved something I said as I looked at this tree. "I love juniper and pinyon pine, they are so beautiful when they are dead." Ok, so I am not a poet, who cares? The point is that those types of trees are fun to look at after they have croaked!

I think the B&W works better but I took the picture so what do I know?

There is a fun overlook on the way into the park, I wouldn't miss it if I were you.

This second photo looks quite a bit different from the first, I bracketed three shots and blended them in a program called Photomatix to create what is called a HDR or High Dynamic Range shot. I seldom do this in broad daylight, I have no problem with shadow and pure black in my images, but the first one seemed a little... eh....

This shot is an example of saving a shot. In color it was blase and I had trouble balancing the cloudy light on the foreground, and the brighter clouds. Converting to B&W allowed me to bring up the more red sandstone without blowing up the sky. There are a few clouds that are blown, but that is the limitation of my sensor on this old K200d.

This was another daytime HDR, interesting view from the Scenic Drive in Capitol Reef but not my best work.

There is an old Schoolhouse in Fruita that has been restored, it was closed by the time we rolled past. We were not even planning to go past it, but it rained on us a bit and we decided to forego driving into Cathedral Valley and getting stuck in the mud. Changing our evening destination to Goblin Valley allowed us to stop here when I really haven't before.

Rock art panels are not super common but hardly unknown either. I always wonder just what the heck some of those figures really are supposed to be.

We pulled into Goblin Valley and spent a sweaty night sleeping in our Honda Pilot, we were expecting 50's or low 60's in Cathedral Valley, not the low 80's we had in Goblin... Less than joyous!

The next morning my wife could see the promise of the sunrise, so she "Encouraged" me to get out of the sleeping bag and take some shots. I'm rather glad she did, it turned out to be an awesome sunrise, and I was able to capture some images I had envisioned before but never had the chance to get.

There are several versions of similar shots in this series, I am including them simply as a way for my readers to see how slight differences in composition can change the shot. That and I can't decide which one I like better.

I think the vertical shot is my favorite but I need to go back and try a new version that gives me a smidge more foreground detail. I liked it dark and mysterious but I think I just got dark...

Following some sage advice I once received I turned my back on the sunrise to see what the light was doing behind me. I'm glad I did. As the light played dodge'em with the clouds I subtly shifted the details of the scenes, providing a mystery and magic I needed in my soul. This was a special morning, despite the heat it was amazing, there was NO WIND, and NO SOUND beyond my own breathing and the sound of my shutter. I could stand still and experience utter stillness. Oh how my soul and heart needed that moment in time to hold and treasure!

Could not decide between the two compositions, amazing how shifting a foot or so to one side can change the look of a photo.

The Three Sisters were right behind me while shooting the sunrise, catching them with early morning light is a long held goal of mine.

As I returned to the campground I became more and more enamored with the textures of the sand, there had been sparse raindrops during the night and they had created a secondary texture of craters on the ridges of blown sand. As I usually do when I am looking at a texture I shot with the intent of converting to B&W. I liked this especially because of how it took the work of lying down on my belly to create a shot from a small detail that most would miss.

I am not thrilled with how I put the horizon near the center of the composition, but I still like the drama of the sky and the textures of the rocks. Sometimes that is how I remember things. Little bunches of small details, rather than the whole thing at once time.

After getting breakfast we loaded up and headed for Thompson Springs, a soon to be Ghost Town, which is the gateway to Sego Canyon. There was a sizable herd of Antelope in town, hiding in the shade which made good shots tough to come by.

Up the canyon from Thompson Springs is the closed Sego Canyon Mine and the Ghost Town attached to it. We didn't have the time to really explore the town, we were there for the petroglyphs.

Which were awesome!!! Several different styles were represented 

This guy honestly spooked me a bit, weird eyes man, weird eyes.

Next we entered Canyonlands, a place I had not been in YEARS!!!!! Definitely need to visit again when I can. The views and vistas are simply sublime!

I really liked this couple painting under their umbrellas in the baking hot sun.

Definitely NOT a road for the faint of heart, or wussy of vehicle.

Just.... sigh..... I love the view.... just LOVE!

This qualifies as a BIG panorama, Photoshop barfed it back up repeatedly, but PTGui handled it without difficulty. I really want to print this at 20x80 or whatever it would come out to be. Anybody wanna pay for that print???? sigh.....

Not sure how long this gas station was closed but I wish they were still open and selling gas for that price!

Thanks for going along with me on my trip, home I didn't bore you completely and that you saw a few images you liked. Let me know what worked for you!

Lloyd

New (Old) Lenses

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time, know that one of the reasons I like my Pentax is that they made it easy to mess with old manual focus lenses. I was picking up my camera from a local repair shop and spotted an old Vivitar screwmount 28mm f2.5, that I later learned was manufactured by Tokina and sold under the Vivitar name. Needless to say for $15 including tax I was all over that lens, and have been playing with it a bunch. I now have to say that I LOVE this lens! It is sharp wide open and has good colors and contrast. I think it will be a frequently carried street lens on my older body. Oh did I mention that I bought a K-5? Yep. But more on that later once I have gotten to know the camera!

First a few quick shots out my bedroom window, at f8 IIRC, the lens handled nicely, the only problem was it needs +2 of EV to meter correctly in Av mode. Very weird...

Playing at the U of U in a parking garage stairwell I traverse on the days I work there can be fun despite the funny looks I sometimes get as people walk past. These were all shot wide open, my preferred mode of use.

There is a 60-70's furniture store called "The Green Ant" not sure where the ant picture went, but I still like the shots I did get. I can't get over how sharp this lens is wide open.

Back alleys can be fun, especially when the buildings are not straight.

Ah..... abstracts.....

Though the DOF is not super shallow, it can provide some separation from the background.

 This was taken at a local convention center as an exercise in DOF, with a 28mm focal length thin DOF is not going to be a strong point, but the bokeh is not too bad which is nice.

It is impossible for me to like a lens until I have shot a good sunset with it. So it is official. I LIKE it!

And the Sun shall be as blood....

One Enchanted Morning in Utah a boy took some pictures of a sunrise. A sunrise that was red because of fires, He thought the sun looked like blood. He then remembered the book of Revelations and got scared. 

The End.

They are Blooming!!!!!!

So... our mystery plants have bloomed and they are Lillies!!!!!! So sweet! I love these flowers, seriously love. This color just works for me!

Anyway, I saw that they were blooming yesterday and I decided to run out and shoot them this morning. Such purty flowers!

All photos taken on a tripod, with MLU and manual focus with my DFA 100mm f2.8 Macro.

The Land of Fire

Utah is burning, so is Colorado, the Wasatch Front has not had the same level of fires as other places have, until yesterday. Several people lost their homes and others were damaged and a lot of people were scared to  death. All started by a car parked in the weeds with a hot muffler...

Flying Weathervanes Part Deux

Shot this really quick as I was about to get on the train, not perfect but kinda fun!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

I finally got to go on a local photo outing with a group called "Photowalk Utah" I have been trying to get to their meetings for, oh.... a year or so.... Finally had one coincide with a day that I could just take off and do it.

They had arranged to go to a local Cathedral called "The Cathedral of the Madeline" which I had visited before, but am always happy to visit again, and again, and again.

While waiting for everybody to get there and go in, we were stooging around outside, taking desultory warm-up shots mostly. I love these gargoyles but telephoto from the ground doesn't do them justice. If could get up on his back with a fisheye lens........ hmmmmmm

 One thing I love about Catholic Cathedrals is the ornateness and detail in the decoration. That and the organ pipes. Got both of them in this shot. I was trying something a little different, I took my whole kit, but tried to shoot most of the place with my DFA 100mm WR Macro lens. A) because it is my best and most expensive lens. and B) because I wanted to push my comfort levels a bit. I usually go ultrawide and for drama, but I wanted to look more at details and juxtapositions of objects and textures. It was a neat experience. Due to the number of photographers going UWA would have been hard, so having a narrower field of view helped with that. (My people in photos aversion is getting concerning though) More than avoiding the distraction of composing around other photographers, using such a tight FOV forced me to make choices about angles and backgrounds that I normally think less about. I don't usually see in tight focused shots. 24mm on APS-C is where I tend to live. I really hope that Pentax brings out a 24mm f2.something that is built just like the DFA 100 WR, screwdrive is just fine and the look and build of the lens is nothing short of magnificent.

Sometimes I get a little too finicky about lining things up perfectly but symmetry when achieved is awesome. I think I got this pretty close. This type of shot is where the older pentaprism 35mm viewfinders made life easier. The one on my K200d is a bit of a tunnel. Of course if I had $10,000 I could get the 645d and just blow my own mind.

I had a bit of trouble getting the focus spot on at f2.8 so I stopped down to f5.6 for this shot. I think there are certain distances that this lens does better at than others. f5.6 is supposed to be the peak of sharpness and the candle stick is certainly crisp. I was hoping for more background blur but I think there is just enough here to achieve what I wanted.

Back to those dang pipes again.

Details, when I was just about to switch to a different lens I decided to try harder. Glad I did, it is good to stretch yourself, and though this is not some kind of earth shattering photo, it pleases me. The geometry works and the colors too.

Sucker for softly lit marble. And this has some nice marble to light!

I fiddled with these candlestick holder bases for a long time. Getting enough in focus at f2.8 requires very careful focus placement. I wonder if people thought I was crazy taking that many pictures over that length of time.

I am not totally sure if this photo works or not, but I loved the juxtaposition of elements and the color of the statue.

Stained glass is of course a big part of cathedrals, I'm a sucker for that stuff too. It is easier to shoot digitally than on film though....

Continuing to work on the concept of  isolating details I produced a busy shot with a blown highlight that I love for no particular reason at all. So you get to look at it too.

My original concept of this shot just didn't work, I wanted f2.8 and to really blur the background, but I just could not get enough of the wood in focus to make it look good. So going completely the opposite way and stopping down to f13 also got me a pleasing shot.

Time to switch to another lens. I made sure that I included my old Manual Focus K28mm f3.5 which is a "normal" lens on APS-C. Being normal is not a big priority of mine, but I struggle to get a handle on this focal length but with the results this lens can produce I think I really need to get it working for me. 3 bracketed shots, blended, leveled and slightly cropped. YEOW! The starbursts from the aperture blades were a nice bonus too.

Going ultrawide now, like I would normally have done from the start gives me a completely different perspective. Love the wooden floors!

Not satisfied with this shot, somehow shooting the exterior of this building has yet to work for me... Good! More opportunities to grow!

One Beautiful Sunday Evening

Part of why I haven't been blogging as much is that.... well.... we moved. 2 miles away. Not a huge move but one that we are very excited about! 

We kept a good view of Mt. Timpanogos.

And our home is just Fabulous!!!!!

We are closer to the lake, and beautiful scenes like this:

And this: (This is a slightly more accurate color to the sunset, but the one above just makes me happy!

This is my littlest on one of our docks, I had to really work to get some detail on her against that bright sky. Thanks heavens for layers, much easier than in the days of darkrooms.

As a technical accomplishment this is something that I am quite proud of. Multiple HDR exposures, fused in photomatix and stitched in Photoshop Elements. All shot HANDHELD at ISO 100. Hmmm...... me likey!

I have a bunch more shots I have been taking on assignment for a local realtor and the master planned community I live in. Once they cull through and buy what they want I will post a selection of the ones they didn't.