Day 15, Tree and Rocks, Lower Narrows in Zion's National Park

Tree and Rocks, Lower Narrows in Zion's National Park, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

OK, I did not shoot this today, or even yesterday. But I did shoot this during this month. I decided that I wanted to do a blog like this when I was at Zion National Park. I hiked the lower narrows and found this one little tree, all by itself on the narrows floor, with a black stone cliff that rose about 250 feet strait up in the air. I shot this in color and then converted to Black and White. The leaves were perfect for the switch since they were yellow and would make a stark contrast with the stone.

As I stared at this lonely tree, I thought, "I might be the only one that will ever take this picture. This could be my unique and different shot in a very well photographed place." Everyone photographs the big well known stone faces, but this little tree may not even be here next year if the rains leave enough water for it to wash away.

Then I thought, "I can not wait to put this on Flickr." But, it did not become the great shot that I thought that it was. When I posted it to some groups, there was a few nice comments, but it did not sweep the site and become the number one viewed picture. But I am quite pleased with it. I don't think that this picture has been done before. It is possible that there are some similar ideas, but this was mine alone.

This picture of this little tree alone against a big cliff started me to thinking how many more pictures could I take if I tried to shoot every day. And from that flowed a few ideas about what I would like to shoot. Doors, Trees, Benches, Cars, and eventually, portraits. I am not very good at portraits, but I will work on them. I always wanted to shoot some pics of the 3 guitars that I have. I have been seeing a lot of pictures that I want to take of Riverside, it really is a great place to live. My kids are really cute, and I meet some great people for my job. I would like to photograph them. So I started a blog. I am curious to see where this goes.

I have posted the tree in color as well.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 9, St George Temple at Sunrise

St George Temple at Sunrise, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here we have a picture of the St George Utah LDS temple at sunrise. Recently I went on a trip to Zion National Park and we stayed in the condo of some good friends in St George. I have started to research places that I go on Flickr and the internet for picture ideas and got this one from this picture.  I wish that I would have paid more attention to the idea picture as he used forground to hide the trees and shadow, where I had to use the creative crop.  I also skewed and transformed the image in photoshop elements to overcome the lack of a tilt and skew lens.  I don't often notice this correction being done.  In fact I usually see the narrowing toward the top of most buildings as people have come to expect it.   I think that I like that view when I shoot a really tall building from close by and am looking up at it as an artistic idea, but when I am shooting from a distance, I like to correct for the curve of the lens and angle of the shot.

 

Dawn Breaks over the St. George Temple, originally uploaded by Todd Keith.

The original by Todd Keith was taken in August and I was shooting in October The sun seems to have come from a little different vantage point for me. I decided to blog the shot from the rear since there is a great big shadow that comes up with the sun from the Visitors Center and the Tree just in front of it at this time of year. There were in this shot plenty of shadows and trees in the way, so I went with this cropping. I shot this from the front as well and it did not come out to well because of the shadow. I also shot this before sunrise and that came out nicely as well.   I posted that below.  I would like to return and reshoot it in the dark from a few different angles and vantage points. I also went up to the airport and tried to shoot the illuminated Temple from up there, unfortunately, I did not have my long lens with me and I did not get the shot that I could see in my head.  Maybe next time.  I will be driving through and back on a trip to Salt Lake City this coming April.  

See more great LDS temple shots on Flickr from Todd Keith.  He has done some great stuff.
http://flickr.com/photos/toddkeith/sets/72157601489805533/

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture:	f/6.3
Focal Length:	21 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Sunset, Zion's National Park

Sunset, Zion's National Park, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here it is, my entry into the blogosphere. I have been learning a lot about photography in the past few years. Well, I have been shooting a lot and I was generally happy with what I shot. Now I am on Flickr and I have become aware of my limitations and strengths. This picture is from Zion National Park in Utah. I went with my best friend just to shoot pictures. We stopped at a camera store in St George because I forgot my polarizer, and there they had all of these used Cokin filters. I have wanted to try them and so I bought 6 of them for $2.50 each along with the holder. I used a Gradual Tobacco T1 Ref. 124 and a Gradual Grey G1 Ref. 120 which I turned to angle a little. I love the results, but I was the little guy here.  

The park had more photographers then wildlife.  When I hiked up the lower narrows, I saw maybe half a dozen birds and three fish.  I counted 29 photographers.  As we were leaving the park, we saw this gathering of photographers on the bridge at Canyon Junction.  So, of course we jumped out to investigate.  I think that this picture is actually better in some ways due to the documentary quality.  There are so many great shots of this park, but on the other side of those exposures lies another world.  In defense of the wildlife, we did see about a dozen deer as we were leaving.  In fact I think that they come out only when everyone is leaving.

Analogously, Authors write about words to convey something deeper, so a photographer shooting photographers should have something on another level there.  Unfortunately for me, it was shallow, I had camera envy.  Look at those uber-cool large format rigs.   One was a Wista, up to $2000 for the camera before lenses and the rest.   Another was a Linhof, $6ooo and up. There were a few more large format cameras there along with some other medium formats.  10 sheets of film for those large formats run about $30.  I thought that I was really pretty good with my Rebel XTi.  But that was something to watch.  

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Sunset, Zion's National Park

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	125
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

More Photographers then Wildlife at Zion's National Park

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	250
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV