Tag Archives: Nikon
Pastels
I was planning to pick a friend up at the Las Vegas airport last weekend so I decided to go early and spend the morning shooting at the Valley of Fire. This is the second time I’ve been there and both times I’ve only been able to shoot at sunrise. I feel like this park is actually pretty underrated. The park is full of small sandstone caves and there are some very interesting sandstone formations with beautiful pastel colors if you’re willing to venture off of the beaten track.
I found this particular wash using Google Earth which I find to be an excellent tool for planning photo excursions. It really allows me to pin point an area that looks interesting so I can explore it more fully. I got several nice shots from this wash, this is one of my favorites.
The Entrance
Here’s one of my favorite shots of the entrance to the Subway. This area is always quite slick from the continuously flowing water. Last December when I did this hike I lost my footing on the slippery ice and went sliding on my backside for several feet. A lot of photographers like to move around with their cameras attached to their tripods but in sketchy areas like this I find it best to put in my bag. It takes a bit longer when shooting but I can think of a number of times that this has helped save my expensive camera gear.
A Chance Encounter
I got the best compliment on this photo from my wife. Normally her comments on my work range from “That’s nice” to “Mmmm Hmmm”, and the occasional “Ewww”, and once, (I didn’t speak to her for the rest of the night), she said my image looked like a postcard. This time however, she said “Wow, that’s art!” I have to say that I’m happy to have such a compliment from her 
.
About This Photo
I was walking along the Virgin River and I began to notice these interesting patterns in the sand so I scouted around until I found a leaf in the right place. As I was setting up and framing my shot the gentle water carried a second leaf to a stop right next to the first. I was happy to include the second leaf with the first which seemed to stop there just for my purposes .
Do you ever stage photos like this? Personally, I don’t like to stage my photos but I see it all the time, particularly this fall at Zion. I saw a photographer open a ziplock bag full of leaves she collected on her hike to the Subway and place them in strategic positions for her compositions, there was another guy splashing water onto an area of rock to make it wet and more pleasing for his image. My favorite was when I was shooting at the Subway though. I was setting up to take this shot and another photographer who was shooting next to me actually picked up a handful of leaves that were naturally in my foreground to move it to where he was shooting! I was so stunned that someone would do that but I just laughed to myself, moved forward and recomposed my shot.
It’s all personal preference I suppose and I mean no offense to those who do stage little scenes like this (except the guy at the Subway who stole my leaves), but I always prefer natural looking scenes. How about you?
Fall Colors on the Virgin River
I’ve had some time to get out and do some exploring in Zion. The falls colors have been really beautiful and I wanted to share this shot!
Morning at Mono Lake
Here’s an image from Mono Lake that I just processed yesterday! The previous day’s sunset was obscured by a passing storm but that meant that the sunrise the next morning was beautiful as the storm was clearing up. It was fun taking a look around and realizing that it didn’t matter which direction I shot because the colors were everywhere!
Follow Me
Latest Comments