Photophys.com: The Science of Photography

We only discovered the scenic wonders of Southern Utah in 2011, and we have made up for lost time by visiting there two more times since then. Our first visit was in the spring of 2011, and I reported on that trip in my post of July 11, 2011.  Photos from that trip can be found here.  We returned in the fall of 2011 and revisited Arches, Canyonlands, and Bryce Canyon NPs. We also spent several days in Escalante, UT, a site that can serve as a staging area for excursions into the Grand Staircase – Escalante. Escalante is situated on Scenic Byway 12 and provides easy access the Devil’s Garden – Escalante and the Devil’s Backbone road between Escalante and Boulder. This visit coincided with the full moon. Tracy Hasset, a professional photographer in Escalante, suggested a side trip to Willis Creek that is south and west of Cannonville, UT. The easily accessible narrows along that creek provides interesting shots with nice color.

We also returned to Capitol Reef in the fall of 2011 on about October 20 in hopes of being able to photograph cottonwood trees in glorious yellow, but fall cooling was late and there was still a lot of green. Here is a black and white photo of The Castle with cottonwood trees. Capitol Reef is always a joy to visit, and our visit was enhanced by the excellent Café Diablo in nearby Torrey, UT. On this trip I experimented with night sky photography at both Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. In contrast to most of the sky in the eastern US, the sky in southern Utah is dark and clear and the Milky Way stands out beautifully. Here I show a shot across Bryce Canyon and then one at Capitol Reef. These are just a beginning, and I hope to do a lot much more night photography. I found that a 10mm f/2.8 Sigma fisheye lens is great for night sky photography with my Canon 60D. The 60D is preferable to my 7D for this work because of its articulated screen. I found that 20 or 30 seconds at f/2.8 with ISO 2000 to 3200 works very well. Longer exposure times would result in star trails. More photos from that trip can be found here.

This spring we returned to Utah, but made use of the airport in Las Vegas and limited our trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon NPs in Utah and to Page in Arizona. We arranged to visit Zion Canyon in March before the shuttle busses went into operation. Springdale was just gearing up for the season, but there were already plenty of people there. We found good restaurants and excellent cappuccino. Also, we returned to David J. West’s Gallery. David is a very good nature photographer, and the work displayed in his gallery is very high quality. We highly recommend a stop there. He is also offering workshops for aspiring nature photographers.

The really different part of this trip was our excursion into Arizona. Page is just across the border, and it provides easy access to several scenic wonders. The most accessible, least expensive, and most photographed is the horse shoe bend in the Colorado River. We visited that location just before sunrise and here are my photos before and after the sun peeked over the horizon. Sunrise and sunset are the most popular times for photos at the bend, but the sky conditions make all the difference any time of day. The overlook is breathtaking and dangerous too. My tripod was on the edge but I was standing back with camera strap in hand.

There are many other photographic opportunities along Lake Powell and elsewhere in the area, but the Antelope Canyons are the best known. We arrived at the Lower Antelope Canyon when they were just opening the gate in 8:00 AM in the morning and there were only a few other people there. By saying I was a photographer and showing my equipment I was able to get an extra hour of canyon time for the same price.

Overall our experience there was excellent. First we were conducted to a small slit in the rocks that led to stairs down into the canyon. On descending we found amazing rock surfaces and colors, and one could spend many hours there exploring the shapes and the effects of light at various times of the day. When we were there (early April), one sunbeam was expected to reach into the canyon at 10:00, and we were not there to see it.

Later that morning we attempted to visit the Upper Antilope Canyon. That is a much larger commercial operation, and there are several tour operators. We paid a lot for a tour; and as I moved toward a vehicle for the ride to the entrance to the canyon, I was informed that my tripod would not be allowed. Tripods are only allowed on the more expensive three hour guided “photo tours.” So we rebooked for the photo tour for the next day.

The tour started with a fast ride over sand for three miles to the canyon entrance where we found several other vehicles and many people. There must be hundreds of people in the canyon at one time. Our group of photographers moved quickly and our guide would stop us from time to time and tell us to set up our tripods and take some practice shots. Then he would temporarily stop the surging crowds and tell us to shoot.

The major attraction for the Upper Antilope Canyon is that several sun beams reach the floor of the canyon in the middle of the day in the later spring and summer. We would all be positioned to wait for a beam to reach a particular distance on the canyon wall or floor, and the guides would throw up sand into the sunbeams. In my opinion the sand destroyed the scene. There is nothing natural or attractive about blotchy beams. After a few photo opportunities, we were ushered out. One of my photos is shown here. The canyon time was more than one hour but certainly much less than three hours. If I had to do it again, I would go to Lower Antipole Canyon two or three times rather than putting up with the hassle of the Upper Antilope Canyon.

Others attractions in the area would require more time and effort and we decided to head back to Zion Canyon. More photos from this trip can be found here. ( Anyone planning a trip into Arizona should get Laurent Martres’s excellent book, Photographing the Southwest, Volume 2, A guide to the natural landmarks of Arizona.) On the way back to Springdale one passes two visitor centers operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The one closest to Page is the center of dinosaur research in the Grand Staircase – Escalante, and the other one at Kanab, UT, administers access to The Wave in Coyote Buttes North. Both centers are well worth a stop.