Zion

At last, I have completed editing the photos from spring break!

I had 631 to go through and choose from. And that number is actual photos, I deleted ones I didn't like when I took them to save space. So it's taken me about 13 hours to editing everything! Very enjoyable process though, sort of like building a new bike. You see all the individual parts and can kinda what it's going to look like and feel put together. But when it finally done you're sometimes amazed at what you've created!

And the process from start to finish is quite fun, in my opinion. I think on every single photo I had at least two or three different edits, trying to get it just right.  I hardly every take a photo and try to make it exactly like reality. That's kind of boring to me, I mean I've already seen it in real life so why recreate it in two dimensions? When I take and edit photos, I want to make them look like I see them. How they make me feel. What emotions come from them. Sometimes I'll see the unique colors in something and so I'll over process it to pronounce the colors I see and feel coming from the photo. Or sometimes all I'll see is a cool shadow or texture or form, and so I build the photo around that. The point is, these photos are not life like for the most part, and they are not supposed to be. I wanted to showcase how I saw Zion and the other sites on the trip. I wanted to show the great beauty and uniqueness of what I saw. That's the world I chose to live in every day, and show I want to show people. I figured out a while ago that if you're taking photos that you think people want to see, but you don't necessarily like them, then it completely defeats the purpose of photography. Take the photos you want, the ones that mean something to you. Show people how you see the world.

Enough talk, you want photos, right?? I'll give a brief comment on each photo and explain the tech stuff as best I can. No promises I'll remember everything I did though...lot's of photos and really complicated edits you know.

Day 1:

Day 1 was the long drive down to Park City, UT. I have a couple more photos from this day I really really like, and I had such a hard time deciding what to put in the blog. I eventually went with this one because out of all of them, I'd be most likely to hang this one on my wall. The others I love, but this one is just epic. I love the dark clouds and then the super bright light beams just shooting thru them. So dramatic.

Camera settings: ISO400, 135mm, f5.6, 1/500 sec. I was shooting from a car at a long focal length, so I needed a high shutter speed. I could only get down to f5.6 at that focal length, so I had to go to ISO400. In Lr I upped the contrast and clarity a lot, also bumping the highlights and shadows. Vibrance went up a bit too.

Day 2:

Day 2 we spent getting to Zion. We arrived late at night at a campground just south of the park, and before I did anything I took this panoramic. This blog doesn't display pictures right, and so this picture looks kinda meh on it. I'll have these all posted to my Fb page with a link at the end of the post today. But anyway, day 2. Like I said this was in a campground, and you can tell from the lens flare in the lower right. I think that was from a RV lamp. Grrrrrr. The stars there were so amazing, and I wish I had taken more of these. Sadly, the days were exceptionally long and literally I only had energy to make food and fall right to sleep as soon as we got to camp. Plus it was really cold and I'd have to stay up another 4 hours to wait for dark. So wasn't going to happen. Yet...

I forgot that my polarizer was on, which kills two stops of light. Even though I shot at ISO2000, f/3.5, and 30 seconds, I had to bump it up like three stops in Lr. I threw it in Ps to make the pano, then back to Lr. I bumped the clarity, and contrast after applying a preset from onOne software. I can not remember which preset, as there are like 100. Presets are really nice if you get the right one. Saves so much time and you can get different looks to tweak right away.

Day 3:

This is definitely one of my favorites. Day 3 was the first day of hiking! We started in this amazing canyon, descending down into the park. I took this pano early on in the hike, maybe the first mile or so. It's a HDR of course, which I made using Photomatix Pro and then Ps. I applied the onOne preset "Grandma's Lemonade" (don't get me started on that name) and then just tweaked a few things here and there. I'm not going into everything because I adjusted pretty much about everything so it's too much to cover. Just know I started with a preset and then tweaked it to my liking.

Camera settings: ISO100, 18mm, f3.5, 1/100 sec, and a polarizing filter. That filter is what makes the sky not blown out as much and defines the clouds. I also helped that a bit with a graduated filter in Lr that bumped the clarity and contrast of the sky.

Day 4:

This one was tricky, I couldn't get it quite right in color, and only when I toned it in grayscale did the image I wanted come out. I really wanted to show the water as it moved. When you're backpacking, water is everything. When ever you can get it, you fill up as much as you can. We filled up probably three times from this stream, and I'd brought my ND filters, so I thought might as well get a shot of it. I took this in the early morning while I was supposed to be getting water. Hehe. I had tried it the night before but didn't like the result too much. This one turned out awesome.

A ND filter basically blocks light to the lens. This lets you use longer shutter speeds to make motion blur. For this I used 1.6 seconds, f22, 50mm lens, and ISO100. The super stopped down aperture gave me awesome sharpness and depth of field, as well as blocked out more light so I could use a long shutter. This is actually a vertical pano, or two shots stacked vertically. I cropped it down to a square image. I was using a 50mm which is rather tight for the shot I wanted, so the only way to get the field of view I wanted was to make a pano. It turned out really well I think. In Lr, I used a warm toned preset, then adjusted the contrast up a bit to make it a little more dramatic for my liking.

Day 5:

Day 5 was the second long day. Day 4 was 16 miles and day 5 was 13. Less, but there was more uphill. Way more uphill. Basically died. But got some cool photos!! This photo pretty much sums up the day for me. Barren waste land for most of the day. Very very cool wasteland, but it was the site of an old fire, so there where burned, dead trees everywhere. It was very bleak and sad really. Made the last part of the hike rather difficult actually, because it was so bleak. But I just love this shot. The particle symmetry of the tree against the grey sky. It reminds me of a analog photo, which is also long and boring to print.

Camera settings: 1/320, ISO100, polarizer, 75mm, f5. In Lr I converted to grayscale and then toned the blues down to make that tone of grey. I upped the contrast a lot to make the tree almost black.

Day 6:

We started out this day with a brisk walk down a cliff. Yes, a cliff. They literally make the trail into a cliff. It's probably and 300 or more foot drop to rocks below. Kinda scary wearing a heavy pack in strong winds. At least there wasn't ice. Oh wait, that's right, there was ice. Perfect. But despite the danger of the giant cliff, I climbed out on this rocky outcropping to get this photo. It's a three shot HDR pano. Created in Photomatix pro and then Ps. It turned out very well to show the beauty and also danger of the trail we were on. Right on a cliff, but just great taking. This was my favorite day by far. So so beautiful.

In Lr, I hit this is Grandma's Lemonade (not going to get over that name) and then tweaked a few things like exposer and contrast. I like the little light leak effect the preset has in the middle. It also has a cool split filter of green and orange I think. Unusual but it works.

Camera settings: ISO100, 18mm, f3.5, 1/250. Nothing special. I bracketed in one stop increments. So 1/125, 1/1250, and 1/500.

Day 7:

The beginning of day 7 was spent in Moab, UT. I took this pano on my iPhone and then edited it in Snapseed. Yes, its very processed, but wanted to give some texture to the photo. It's of Slick Rock, one of the most famous trails in Moab. In Snapseed I raised the structure and applied the Retrolux filter. Maybe a bit heavy on the texture overlay, but that's the photo from the day so I can't change it. It looks great on the tiny iPhone screen though. ;)

Day 8:

Day 8 was the long drive home. We spent the day in Carbondale, and then stared the drive about 7pm. So not the best idea. We switched drivers and took a break to eat at this "scenic overlook" about 50 miles north of Glenwood. While Madison was eating, I grabbed my camera and set this up. It's a four photo vertical pano. I shot at 25 seconds, f3.5, 18mm, and ISO800. It was a very bright night be cause of the full moon, so I didn't need a super high ISO. The stars are a bit weak from light pollution, but it captured the night perfectly. Us out in the night, barely surviving the drive back. Lots of little stops to eat and one to sleep a bit. That was a long day. In Lr I added Grandma's Lemonade again and as usual messed with the settings a bit. Pretty simple.

Day 9:

Day 9 was fun. I stayed with my friend, Drew, and his room mates. We made a creamer canon, which happened to work very well. I won't go into details because I'm planning a few posts with it soon. :)

In Lr, I cropped the images, and then aligned them in Ps to make that enlarging effect. The goal was to visually represent the expanding fire in the photos. For the photos themselves, I raised the clarity, vibrance, contrast, and also split toned things a bit. I had a strobe in the background to make a bit of a rim light, which worked well. I was using 1/125 of a second, f/3.5, ISO400 and 18mm. There was also a man in a penguin suit riding a unicycle if you hadn't noticed.

Well, that brings us up to speed. These are only a few of many, many photos from the trip. I had such a hard time choosing which photos to post, as there are so many I love. Check them all out here, on my Fb page.

So now for today's photo...

Snapseed is really dangerous for me. I play with it too much and this happens. Not at all true to what I saw, but I love the way it looks soooo :)

I was running today, and the sunset was just beautiful. But my phone didn't have enough dynamic range, even on HDR, to get it all. Soooo I put my polarized glasses over the lens and bam! more contrast and instant tinting. That orange tint is actually from the glasses. In Snapseed I added some structure (not even sure what that does), the drama filter, and the retroflex filter. I cycled random filter setting till I got one I liked. Then tweaked it a bit to make it a little less fake. 

Well that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to check out the rest of the pictures on my Fb page!