2 day adventure day 1

Spontaniety is highly underrated. took the opportunity to run away on a semi spontaneous trip with my youngest child, who at 7 years old has been begging to go to see some of the places I go to take pictures and hike. Knowing that the Goblin Valley area is fairly benign and quite beautiful I readily agreed.

We traveled there by way of the Buckhorn Wash and Wedge areas of the San Rafael Swell in central Utah. Well worth the time if you ever get here to visit. The road is in great shape and almost any car can be driven on it, and the scenery is just splendid!

Fromt he Wedge you can see the "Little Grand Canyon" area, which indeed looks kind of like the name suggests....

The Buckhorn Wash proper is a fantastic drive going through towering Navajo sandstone walls and cottonwood tree filled washes. Having the leaves starting to change was an unexpected treat.

There is a pictograph panel that is more than worth your time as well, it is literally right at the side of the road. Barrier style is just fascinating to look at. The littlest photographer of the family had fun looking at them.

 

Looking back up the road after exiting the draw is a splendid vista that I want to repeat, but driving in from the south end. The anticipation of watching this come at you in the windscreen would be delicious indeed!

Arriving in Goblin Valley just before Dark after hiking Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon (Photographed by me many time before) we quickly set up camp and took a stroll. Watching the moon peek around the colors of the sunset behind us was refreshingly peaceful.

Thanks for wanting to come on this trip little one.

Two day adventure day 2

Getting up in the morning was easy with the light that was showing. We drove just a mile down to the main hoodoo area, and stooged around a little. For some reason my littlest was not as fascinated as I would have thought with Goblin Valley, what I get for showing her the Wedge Overlook first.....

We left and headed out for Capitol Reef, did a quick drop in at the visitors center and headed up the Hartnet Road to Cathedral Valley. I always stop to see my old friend here. What a character!

Driving with a 7 year old does make it harder to take off from the road and explore, but as long as a DVD player is available for the more "Boring" parts you can stop and shoot from right next to the car. Love that this area is amenable to that!

After lunching at Cathedral Valley CG, it was time to drive a road I have not fully explored before, the Thousand Lakes Mountain Road to UT 72. Turns out this is a great road in the fall, quakies turning color amid juniper and sagebrush is a neat combination.

It is a pretty great road once you get past the rougher parts in Capitol Reef. They really need to grade that thing!

We also made a point to drive through Huntington Canyon to Fairview to visit my Brother and Sister in Law's store there. Glad I did, the views from up on the top are magnificent!

Some More Rockin Temple Photos!

These were all shot fairly rapidly in a short period of time, bracketing like crazy... Why? Well I had about 10-15 minutes of sunlight poking through the clouds right before sunset. Sometimes you are in the right place and ready and the light doesn't come. Sometimes you are in the wrong place with no or wrong equipment and the light comes unexpectedly. Yeah that drives a photographer CRAZY!!!!! Then there are the times you are in the right place at the right time and are prepared... and you get it right. Or at least as right as your skill level allows. This was that kind of moment. My friend I was shooting with did better I think, but hey... he is a pro!

HDR with a better camera.....

With my previous camera HDR was an absolute necessity in tough lighting situations like backlit temples. I have less need with my new camera due to the incredible dynamic range of the files. However in this situation I needed to shoot bracketed shots no matter what the camera. One really nice thing about my K5 is that it will shoot 5 bracketed shots rather than 3. I think this gives me a more nuanced result with better color and DR. I think. anyway, the lighting was tough, but the scene had possibilities, difficulties ensued, were overcome, etc... etc...(Thanks Capn. Jack)

This one is the better of the two I think. Wish the light had been directly behind the temple but in a way having the offset light and clouds on the other side kinda works too. 

Off to the northeast this was brewing. I love sunset light on clouds. I have mentioned that right? That I am a total sucker? 

Ahhhh...... Thank you Father In Heaven!

Night OUT & Late Night Trip to the Store.

I took this shot for a friend who was sending her son off to basic training. They had a  farewell get together and seeing as I had my camera I decided to take a few shots, always good to try to stretch your skills and learn your camera. The lighting was horrible and I was shooting with the onboard flash, usually not a good way to get super quality. While the lighting is of the deer in the headlights variety the sharpness was excellent at 200 ISO. 

I made up the saying on the side, don't know what she will say about it but I liked it.

Afterward my lovely lady and I did what most married couples do when they have the time together. Go shopping. The secret life of a parent is not as scintillating as I imagined when I was a kid......

Again having camera in tow, and not being a super excited shopper I decided to try some shots wide open with my old Sigma 17-70 DC f2.8-4.5 and see how it performed on my new camera. considering the lighting and slow shutter speeds I was happy with what I got.

I have a symmetry thing. Always have always will, I try to fight it and make it less obvious.

Not sure how I feel about the intrusion of the black box on the right but it is inline with or perpendicular to the other lines and I feel that it works. What would you have done?

The array of candy caught my eye, don't know how well I captured the singular among the chaotic mass, but it makes me hungry no matter what...

I like to capture the details of life, the texture as it were, it is how  I remember things.