The Blue Ridge in the Early Fall

Back in October I decided to run my first 8k race in Asheville. The weather was chilly in the morning and the race went nicely. I finished just ahead of my goal which always feels good. After doing a few 5k lengths in the summer I felt in pretty good shape, but I had definitely not trained enough for the longer length. As I left i felt pretty sore. I’d already planned  to do some hiking and photography along the Blue Ridge Parkway and didn’t let the sore muscles get in the way of my plans.

I decided to work along the stretch of the Parkway from Asheville to the southwest hoping I could get somewhere around Waynesville before dark. While my sore muscles progressively complained about the work of hiking around, I did find some nice shots along the way. While the color wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped, there were still pockets of nice yellows and reds among the higher elevations in the mountains. Heavy clouds and overcast covered the sky most of the with the sun making only the occasional appearance toward evening.

First a panorama centered toward Looking Glass, a popular climbing spot in the summer. There is a trail up this rock that I’m going to put onto my list to try to make it up come warmer weather in the spring. I’d like to have a companion shot looking back toward this lookout from the mountain.

Looking Glass

The temperatures at these elevations were already cool. The rain never really amounted to much more than the occasional sprinkle, but wind started coming in later in the day. By the time I reached an outcrop known as the Devil’s Courthouse the combination made the weather downright chilly. Before climbing a strenuous half mile trail up to the top, I did this photo of the Devil’s Courthouse itself.

Devil's Courthouse

According to legend, the devil holds court in a cave beneath this rock giving it the name. I’d already made several miles of hiking by the time I got here, and it was on the climb the soreness in my legs became more severe. Knowing it was probably my last stop of the day, I continued reaching the summit. The views were spectacular, but the weather was not. Wind and sun combined to leave the views spectacular, but not photogenic. I did find one nice moment with the sun helping to bring out color in the valley below.

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After this trip I pretty much had no energy and more than an hour and a half to drive home. So I called it a day and made my way back home. As I neared my exit from the Parkway though I did come across a wonderful moment as the sun dipped low behind the now rapidly clearing clouds. I pulled off to an overlook where I took the following pair of shots.

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Arizona Slot Canyons – Upper Antelope Canyon

Pretty much everything I read about this canyon proudly notes that it’s the most photographed slot canyon in the world. And it is lovely. The top of this canyon is narrower letting in less light than nearby Rattlesnake Canyon. This meant almost mandatory use of a tripod and longer exposures. There are also a lot more people travelling through these canyons. Several companies offer tours and while most cooperate, having people wander into the last five seconds of a thirty second exposure occurred more than once. Again Nate was good about working to get us (another photographer joined the tour for this canyon) good angles and helping to keep the shot clear working with the other guides. Going for a photo tour definitely helped there as I don’t think I’d been nearly as happy trying to do photos on a “regular” tour.

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I think the oft photographed nature of this canyon makes capturing photos more of a challenge. Often I’d see an angle and could remember a photo I’d seen of the angle. The light was often subtly different, and in a slot canyon a subtle change in light can be magnified. I could have spent hours working through this canyon exploring angles, and the couple of hours spent there felt too short.

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In early November the often photographed beans of sunlight into the canyon are gone. I did see a single time when the sun came into the canyon, but did not get a good photo of the brief phenomenon. So I tried to focus on the walls and the light coming around the lines and shapes within the canyon. It was near midday and while the shafts of light were gone, there were still moments of wonderful light coming into the canyon.

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I can’t imagine how hard it is to photograph here during the more crowded tourist seasons. Even in the off season the place was fairly busy, and cooperation was the key to getting good results. I’d imagine in the summer the crowds would make good photos as much luck as timing. In November the weather was chilly, but after a couple days in the higher elevations on the Grand Canyon Rim and nights in a tent within it, I felt pretty comfortable with just a sweatshirt. I do feel the different time of year also give the photos a bit different look than the more commonly photographer summertime images.

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A few thoughts from this trip and photographing slot canyons. A tripod was a must for the Upper Antelope. It’s just too dark to get good color without longer exposures than handheld will allow. I also found manual mode to be a must along with experimentation. As the light changed settings had to change to get good exposures. I did a lot of exposure bracketing and sometimes preferred the images that were a bit over or under exposed compared to my initial look. A wide lens also was a must. I almost exclusively used my 24-105 f/4 lens with most of the photos taken at or close to 24mm. Other than people, there is little movement inside the canyons so longer exposures worked better allowing low ISO and smaller apertures for wide depth of field. Also try to avoid the sky in the photos. Below you can see a couple where the sky above is visible and it blows out completely. In the final edit of this photo I cropped out that top corner. This is a place where the subtle use of HDR to capture the wide dynamic range also seems worthwhile and I used that on a few photos.

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Arizona Slot Canyons – Rattlesnake Canyon

Some more landscapes from the Arizona trip. After finishing my backpack trip at in the Grand Canyon, I headed to north Arizona. On this trip I’d managed to work in a side trip I’d not had time for back in June, some time to photograph slot canyons near Page, AZ along with nearby Horseshoe Bend. The canyons I visited are on the Navajo Nation and I booked a guide through Adventurous Antelope Canyon Photo Tours and was very happy with the results. My guide Nate was an experienced photographer and helped me avoid a lot of the trial and error I’d otherwise needed to find good settings for the light. He also provided good guidance on angles and formations which again saved some time, especially important in the Upper Antelope Canyon which had a steady crowd of other visitors even in the off season.

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A slot canyon is a narrow canyon formed by the erosion of water through rock. The key feature being the canyon is very narrow, especially compared to its height. The erosion often leaves winding and banded formations of rock which combined with the coloration of the rock can be simply beautiful. We started with Rattlesnake Canyon, thankfully named for its winding shape and not any inhabitants that day. This is near the better known Upper Antelope Canyon, but is a different experience. While you walk through Upper Antelope Canyon on rather flat ground, Rattlesnake Canyon is more an experience of climbing and twisting. There were spots narrow enough that I had to take off my pack to navigate. It also involved more climbing than the easier to walk Upper Antelope. The best feature though was the emptiness. There was no crowd and time to not only photograph, but also look around and enjoy the views, feel the rocks, and experience the location. 2013-November-Slot-Canyons-2Overall I enjoyed this first canyon and would recommend the trip even though it’s not as colorful as Upper Antelope Canyon. Still I found the narrower canyon to be very photogenic with some interesting formations that made a nice contrast to the nearby and more photographed canyon. This also isn’t a casual walking trip as going through the canyon requires climbing ladders and squeezing through narrow passages. This is a short canyon and didn’t require a lengthy stay. After finishing here and working back out we then headed toward the much better known Upper Antelope Canyon a little further into the wash from the main road.

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The Grand Canyon

In the summer of 2013 I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time, and frankly fell in love with the place. I’ve always loved the mountains, and something about this inverted mountain appealed to me in a way I cannot describe. I decided I wanted to experience the place from a different point of view, from within the canyon. It took a few months, but I originally planned to make my two night backpacking trip in early June of this year. That didn’t work out, and I ended up rescheduling the trip for early November. A few weeks ago I made the flight out to Arizona to take my new trip. A couple of nights along the rim followed by a couple of days camping inside the canyon.

It was awesome. And I mean that in the original sense of the word, an experience that truly inspired a sense of awe and wonder in me. It wasn’t an easy trip. The weather was chilly at night, but overall I couldn’t have asked for better weather in November. The hike was long and my pack was heavy at times. Still I wouldn’t trade the experience to avoid the nicks, blisters, and sore muscles I had upon returning to the rim after the climb out from Indian Garden campground my last day there. My favorite photo of the trip comes from that last day, taken on the Bright Angel Trail just above the three mile rest house looking back down the canyon toward the campground and Plateau Point beyond. A bit of a last look back on my way out and just a stunningly beautiful, if chilly, morning.

 Grand Canyon Bright Angel Trail

The day before while coming up to Indian Garden campground I also found a rather nice spot of trees around the creek. This spot is actually down in the fracture that you can see beyond the campground in the photo above.

Grand Canyon Trees on Bright Angel Trail

I’m still working through the many photos taken during the trip. The results were worth carrying the weight of the camera gear on my back for those days. A last one for now looking out from Ooh Ahh Point early in my journey down into the canyon. More to come, both from the Canyon, a trip to northern Arizona, and some slot canyon. Oh yea, also a few wonderful models i had the change to work with while in Phoenix this trip.

Grand Canyon Ooh Ahh Point

Waterfalls From Earlier this Week

Spent a few days out in the middle of nowhere earlier this week which is always a nice recharge. Did a total of ten miles of hiking one day and also did a nice short, but steep trip to the base of a waterfall. I’ve been here a few times before, but thanks to such a wet spring there was more water than I’d ever seen before. A few shots from the shorter waterfall. And yes that is a suspension bridge across it at the top of the first photo. No, you cannot take a decent photo from that bridge. Yes, I tried.

 

Cane Creek Falls

Cane Creek Falls

And a couple shots of a larger waterfall. The first was taken near the base and the blurriness comes from the spray off the falls hitting my lens. The second was taken on the way back up.

Fall Creek Falls from Base

Fall Creek Falls

Sunset at the Grand Canyon

I’d had seeing the Grand Canyon on my todo list for a long time and I really made it the center of my trip out west back in June.  I took a number of photos, but found myself oddly having a lot of trouble editing them.  Right after coming back I simply felt none of the photos really captured what I’d seen.  In some ways I think part of the grandness here is something you only see in person.  The sheer scale doesn’t come across in a photo or anything other than reality.  Still with a little time I got better at working some of the images.

This photo is probably my favorite.  It’s a panorama shot taken right at sunset from the North Rim looking back south to the South Rim and beyond.  I believe the mountains visible in the distance beyond the other rim are the San Francisco Peaks toward Flagstaff, Arizona.  For those who wonder why so many Americans are bad at geography consider the San Francisco Peaks are in Arizona while the city is in California.  The photo were taken from Bright Angel Point about the same time as the sunset photo I posted while flying home.  A better edit of that photo will be coming soon.

The colors of the night sky were just amazing as and after sunset.  The peace, even with probably another dozen people enjoying the views, also stands out.  What I remember most though was the wind.  Here and later at the lodge while waiting for dinner the wind gusted over 40mph quite often.  I was standing on a point out into the canyon for these photos and the wind coming up out of the canyon was an interesting experience.  It cooled so much after dark that I actually went back and changed from my shorts into jeans between taking these photos and dinner at the lodge.  In my little cabin that night though it felt rather cozy and relaxing lying there listening to the wind gusting outside while warm under a couple blankets.  At the same time I knew that I would be in Las Vegas in less than twenty-four hours with a temperature over 100 degrees.

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