Voodoocat's Zion Galleries

[voodoocat]

I really got to know my D70 with this excursion. Had a load of fun with Chase and Photogoddess (their spouses too)

I have quite a few images to go through, so I'll just post links to the various galleries

We got into Zion at about 3:30PM on Friday. Met everyone and moved everything into the hotel. We had no idea where good sunset lighting would be so we decided to go with a short hike. We decided to visit the Lower Emerald Pools. A short half mile hike.
Zion Canyon Day 1 - Lower Emerald Pools

Day 2 nobody felt like getting up for sunrise due to travel lag. The gals made a big breakfast and we headed up to the Temple of Siniwava to scout the entrance to the Narrows.
Zion Canyon Day 2 - Riverside Walk

We headed back to the hotel after the hike to plan out the evening. After reading the brochure's we settled on piling in the truck and heading to the East side of the park. We hiked up Canyon Overlook trail. We thought that going up in elevation we would get more sunset lighting. Didn't quite work out that way but we got some decent lighting to work with later in the evening right before the sun set behind the peaks in photo 7.
Zion Canyon Day 2 - Canyon Overlook trail

On Sunday morning Photogoddess and Mrs Chase got up the earliest but forgot to wake everyone. We arrived at Zion Adventure Co. to rent our check on the water levels and rent our equipment for the hike. The water was moving fast but still manageable so we decided to take the challenge. We got all our gear together and went back to the hotel to make a lunch and pack up our equipment in the dry bags. We got up to the start of the Narrows at about 12pm and suited up. I noticed Chase had his wife carrying all of his gear so I gave him my tripod to carry so he wouldn't feel left out. The going was slow. Moving against rushing water walking on slippery boulders takes a little getting used to. The bets were on who would fall first. Kyle won the bet when Photogoddess took a swim about a half hour into the hike. We stopped a few times to get out our gear and take some pictures. We hiked for 4 hours and made it about 2 miles up. It then took less than an hour and a half to get back down. I only took my Yashicamat and my 35mm loaded with panf film. I have yet to develop it.
Zion Canyon Day 3 - The Narrows

We were nearing the end of our trip and I didn't feel like I took enough pictures. Our attempts at getting up early to take photos thus far was unsuccessful. I told Chase to wake me up at 7am so we could go out one last time before leaving. It actually happened. We both got up and going and caught a shuttle at 7:30. We got off on every stop and snapped photos till our index fingers hurt. Spent about 2.5-3 hours out there and returned to the Hotel to pack up.
Zion Canyon Day 4 - Farewell

 

[markc]

Woo! Great pics, Voo. How do you like the D70 after this workout?

 

[danalec99]

Beautiful pictures!

So, how can we spot Chase and Voodoo in that picture?

 

[voodoocat]

Woo! Great pics, Voo. How do you like the D70 after this workout?

Love it. I've been trying a ton of different settings to see what fits my style the best. Can't wait to get more lenses Starting with the 50 1.8.

So, how can we spot Chase and Voodoo in that picture?

From right to left.
Chases wife, Chase, Kyle, Voodoo, Photogoddess and her husband.

 

[terri]

Ya'll are such a good-looking bunch! I'm so happy you had a good time and great weather.

All these images make me homesick for it. :cry:

What is impossible to convery, and I hope everybody can envision, is the SCALE of the place. These canyon walls are huge, and they're everywhere you turn. It's really an awesome place to visit. Amazing country. (sigh)

Good job, Voo.

 

[voodoocat]

What is impossible to convery, and I hope everybody can envision, is the SCALE of the place. These canyon walls are huge, and they're everywhere you turn. It's really an awesome place to visit. Amazing country. (sigh)

Good job, Voo.

Thanks Terri

That is EXACTLY how I felt trying to take photos there. First the lighting is impossible to predict on a first visit. Second it is hard to convey the sense of scale there. At least with the lenses I had. A fisheye would have come in very handy there.

 

[Harpper]

Sweet pictures voodo. It makes me want to visit the place someday.

Woo! Great pics, Voo. How do you like the D70 after this workout?

Love it. I've been trying a ton of different settings to see what fits my style the best.

So what settings do you like best? I usually either use full manual or aperture priority along with my own optimized custom settings.

 

[voodoocat]

Sweet pictures voodo. It makes me want to visit the place someday.

Woo! Great pics, Voo. How do you like the D70 after this workout?

Love it. I've been trying a ton of different settings to see what fits my style the best.

So what settings do you like best? I usually either use full manual or aperture priority along with my own optimized custom settings.

I generally shoot in apeture priority. I tried out the Vivid setting but then tried out a custom setting that I liked. Still trying to figure out what I like when it comes to white balance settings... it's nice to have a grey card handy to make a custom setting.

 

[Harpper]

I tried out the Vivid setting but then tried out a custom setting that I liked. Still trying to figure out what I like when it comes to white balance settings... it's nice to have a grey card handy to make a custom setting.

I also liked the vivid setting at first too but then I realized all it really did was use color mode IIIa sRGB. Also those preset modes didn't let me change the other settings so I quickly stop using them.

I actually thought the auto white balance wasn't too bad outdoors. All I did was manually dail it up or down a click or two based on how I like the auto white balance. Indoors I definitely needed to use the bulb or fluorescent preset and then manually add or decrease it by a click when neccesary. The presets for indoor lighting were pretty close in my opinion.

 

[terri]

This one I showed you before might have better meaning for you now. That little figure is me, in the Narrows. It's a good photo for trying to show the scale of the place. I'm not that far away from him, really. Shot with my husband's Rolleiflex.

 

[Chase]

How strange that I actually recognize that spot, but there was just a LITTLE more water when we were there

 

[terri]

Being there in high summer IS hella fun..... It was higher (and much colder) when we were there in November.

Still, note the absence of people...you don't have to get out too far before they start dropping off, and it's like you're all alone in this magical place.

(sigh)

(again)

 

[voodoocat]

How strange that I actually recognize that spot, but there was just a LITTLE more water when we were there

Just a tad more water We so need to go back there in the Summer.

 

[Chase]

If I remember right, there were really only 4 other people doing much hiking. There was one other small group of 6 or so that were up there with no gear at all (insane), but we ran into them fairly early in our hike and they were on their way back down. No idea how far up they actually went. So, we were basically all on our own for the entire day...how RARE a thing is that? It was great!

 

[voodoocat]

It was the same group of 6 people that were trying to climb that boulder on Saturday evening.