Slickrock and Shadow

Candy Rocks of Coyote Buttes South Real yet unbelievable is what I experienced while exploring Coyote Buttes South.  The lines and colors swirl in ways I could never imagine to be natural.  Yet this was truly the handiwork of Mother Nature, that creative maven I've come to admire.  This photo was taken at the same sunrise location as my previous post and this high outlook truly is the place for sunrise  in all this land.  I backed away from these rocks a bit, went with a wide 17mm tilt shift lens and shot several frames.  This lens allows me to stitch the frames together later and create a larger, wider vast landscape.  Just as I was doing this the sky brightened and changed from purple to blue, making this a most-colorful photo.  Enjoy the pastels of this incredible landscape!

St. Giles Kirk Ceiling St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh Scotland is a national landmark.  It's also very photogenic.  And most important for a photographer, they allow photography with tripods for a small fee.  Having a tripod makes the difference in a dark cathedral.  It allows long exposures, letting the light pour onto the sensor.  Cathedrals do not really move so these long exposures work wonderfully here. I took advantage of my 17 millimeters tilt shift lens and pointed it heavenward.  As I shifted from side to side, I was able to take in a huge amount of architectural information.  I tried very carefully to obtain a symmetric image.  I stitched these pictures Lightroom postprocessing.  With my lower ISO settings I was able to bring a lot of the detail out of the shadows including the rich color in the stonework.  Please enjoy.

Slide Rock Arch in Paria Canyon:  Massive and Beautiful Slide rock arch is a spectacular destination deep inside Paria Canyon.  It is neither easy to reach nor easy to photograph.  The massive size as well as the restrictions of a slot canyon present challenges.  The mixed lighting (some direct, some reflected, some indirect) is also a challenge.   To deal with the lighting difficulties that often arise at mid day, I hiked very early so that I would reach this before light was shining directly into the canyon.  To deal with the massive size, I also used my tilt shift 17 mm lens.  Taking several different shots, I was able to stitch them together to create the photograph above.  This is what the eye can see.  This is what is too wide for a standard camera to include.   Several other views of slide rock arch are included here so that you can get a good idea of what this special place is really like. Slide Rock Arch photo...

Echo Canyon Slot Echo canyon is a small part of the East Rim Trail in Zion National Park.  It is not a destination per se, but rather something that people will hike through as they got up to Observation Point or come down the East Rim Trail to reach the main canyon.  Some canyoneering groups will go into the depths of this wet, narrow and dangerous slot. the main trail actually goes adjacent to this and does not require any difficult work other than simply climbing up the trail. There are several points where the trail itself will come to Echo Canyon and access into this slot becomes available.  The above photo was taken as such an access point.  I setup my tripod with its' legs squeezed between two narrow and slippery walls.  Carefully I composed the shot and then made my exposure.  Trouble is, the wide angle distortion is pretty obvious.  I had used the 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens to record the image. It didn't look right.  So I climbed out o...

A new lens can inspire any photographer to get out and try his or her hand.  After much internal debate, I recently purchased the Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens.  Tilt shifts are special lenses with special powers and certain limitations.  Having shot with the 24mm and 90mm tilt shift lenses for several years, I knew what it could add to my photographic abilities:  wide, sharp landscapes without the distortion normally introduced with wide-angle lenses. With excitement, I took off over the desert into Nevada in search of the Hobgoblin Playground, also known as "Little Finland."  Not sure how Finland comes into this, but Hobgoblins certainly live here and stick their faces out of rock in weird and wonderful ways.  I explored and enjoyed for 2 hours before the sunset with my two daughters in tow.  They loved the weird wonderland.  Another photographer from Germany also was there. Hobgoblin faces the setting sun. As the sun was about to go dow...