The *Official Photography Thread*

Zion NP is probably one of my favorite places in the world. Partly because of the scenery but partly because of how I found it.

Back in 98 I had 4 years on the FD and my ex-wife had to fly to LA for a two week course for her job. I figured I've got vacation so fuckit... I'll just take a road trip to LA and see what I see along the way. Buddy of mine said "hell I'll go with ya" so we jumped in the car with no plan other than we would end up in LA at some point in that two week period. Camped out in Mesa Verde NP, on the side of a mountain right outside of Monument Valley, and on the shores of Lake Powell. We were driving to Vegas and you had to pass through the park to get there. There was a RV stuck in the tunnel so the park ranger told us it would be about an hour before they got it out. He pointed out a trial that lead to a pretty awesome view so we took it.

It opened up into this.



Sorry for the shitty picture.

I couldn't believe what I was looking at since I've never seen anything like it in my life. I've been back several times and have done most of the trails there. The main thing I love about Zion is it is so small that you can do so much there and everything is beautiful.

Once we move to Colorado I plan on spending a lot of time in Utah. Colorado is my favorite place in the world but Utah has to be the most picturesque State. It has a little bit of everything.

Again shitty pictures on top of Angel's Landing but you have to remember this was early 2000 in the early days digital cameras and I didn't know shit about film (still don't if I'm honest).







Current Wife of 16 years

 

Dude those photos are great. Yeah, the quality isn't maybe up to 2016 standards but that's to be expected. Everyone should definitely make a pilgrimage to Zion at some point in your life. There's a little something for everyone no matter your fitness level.

 

It was a pretty special weekend. This little reservoir is about 40 minutes from my house.

Quick trail run, 2.5 miles and 1500 vertical feet later you get another cute lake.

A couple friends of mine and I refer to our neck of the woods as #Cutah. It's apt.

 

Awesome!

 

Mars

A little out of focus I know.

 

First attempt at night shots... This was super hard for me... Any tips would be very helpful. I'm pretty sure I was kinda out of focus and I just bought a new lense with 1.8f aperture..

Settings:

Shutter:25sec
Iso:1600
Aperture:3.5

 

I don't know much about astrophotography but my only suggestion for the top photo would be to rotate it so the dark mountainous horizon in the background is level. Might make for a more striking composition. Love the shots though!

 

How come you didn't shoot wide open? Just curious since you mentioned you bought a lens with a f1.8 aperture

I'd probably shoot two shots for the first one. One for the truck and then another for the Milky Way.

 

I just bought the lenses yesterday off eBay, so I didn't have it yet..

But ya I should have definitly taken multiple shots for the truck.. I did t even think about that for some reason...

 

Definitly need to work on my astrophotographry cause I hate all that noise....

 

Now that's a cool pic....

Settings?

 

ISO 1000

140mm

F/8.0

Shutter 2.5

Post Processed with LR

 

I thought about taking the "flare" off the moon but I kind of like the effect. And I kind of like the termination line.

 

Had to stop by multnomah falls while picking up my in laws at the airport... Check one of the list...

 

I need to get down to Oregon that looks so beautiful, great shot man!

 

I like it. I've contemplated doing some images with the same themer, b&w and color.

 

Yeah I'm not really that great at night shots. I was just thinking that's about the only way to have both in focus with that small aperture. The f1.8 lens will be nice for this if it's a wide angle? Shooting that glass should get your iso down a bit to help out with the noise.

 

Ya I'm gonna hold off on the night shots until I get it.. The rodeo is this Saturday so I'll try to get some awesome action shots..

 

Shooting at night starts to get a little bit complicated to get clean images if your camera isn't optimized for working with a high ISO. Typically high-quality night shots clock in around ISO 3200 or slightly higher, and if your camera doesn't have bitchin' ISO functionality, you're bound to get grain at those numbers. The other issue is that unless your'e shooting with a really wide angle lens, you start to get the stars shifting at around 20 seconds with anything longer than a 35mm lens. Even a wide 14mm lens will end up showing the stars traveling around 35 seconds, so you really have to rely on ISO to make astrophotography viable (or do expensive astro modifications to your camera).

The shot below is ƒ/2.8, 24mm, 20-sec exposure, ISO 3200. I took it right as the moon was cresting the horizon in the east so the van in the foreground (yes, I know it's not a taco) was catching the light from the moon and helping it stand out from the background.

This was a Sony A7RII with a Canon 24-70 ƒ/2.8L lens and a metabones adapter.