Another of Zion National Park

LittleMike · May 17, 2010

Have you ever set out on a good hike, only to realize you didn't bring a needed piece of equipment? Once I hiked about two miles up the trail I realized I forgot the mounting plate for my tripod at home! I've never done that before, and today was a heck of a day to start. Anyways, this is the best from today. I'll hopefully head up in the next few weeks with *all* the required gear and improve it a bit.

f/16, 1/3 sec, ISO 400

tsaraleksi · May 17, 2010

I think that without your tripod working as it should, you ought to have brought down your aperture and upped your shutter speed to keep from getting the camera shake that you can see in the image. For a shot like this, you really need to make sure that you have a crisp well focused shot.

reznap · May 17, 2010

I'd frame those colored 'veins' of rock so that they run straight up and down in the frame - if you get the chance again. I like how the plant growth stands out so clearly..

Forgetting stuff.. that's why I keep everything in my bag (except for the tripods of course). It's heavy but not like the packs I used to carry..

LittleMike · May 17, 2010

Totally agreed that I should have opened it up a little more. I tried bumping my ISO higher than normal to try to compensate and shorten the exposure, but I obviously didn't do it enough.

And I'm definately going to make sure to do a pre-hike check before leaving home from now on. And I'll always pack a few things I shouldn't need, just in case

As far as having the veins verticle, it would offset the rest of the picture so much I'm not sure how it would look. I guess I can always try though! But just to give you a little better idea of what I was shooting, here is a picture of the same wall looking the opposite direction (I know this isn't a good picture, this is just to give you a better idea).

The walls have a deep undercut which slants the "veins" if you look at them at anything but head-on.