One of the things I love about living in Cedar City is the close proximity to several national parks. I realized that I really don’t take advantage of that. It is too bad. I know of a few groups that host expensive photography workshops and they travel to Bryce Canyon or Zion from far away because of the incredible landscape. It is in my back yard for heck sakes and I don’t even go at least once a year. Shameful really. I’m going to change that. Thinking of buying one of those annual national park passes that lets you go to any of the parks as many times as you want.
I happened to be at Bryce Canyon the other day with our Scouts. I’m in the young men’s presidency in our ward, so I get to go on the Scouting trips. We took them up by Bryce Canyon to go cross country skiing. Very fun, btw. Yet another activity to do around here and it is free (besides the $6 ski rental if you don’t have your own).
As the Scouts slept in until 8am on Saturday morning, I headed into the park to get take some photos. Let’s say that I appreciate mornings, but traditionally I have not been a “morning person.” I had a nephew that learned as a toddler what I said in the morning as a teenager along with other animal sounds. When asked what I would say in the morning, he would reply “ROAR!” I’ve gotten over that, but I’m still more likely to sleep in than wake up early, unless there is something to motivate me. Photography definitely motivates me to get up early. So, I headed out at 6am to catch the 7am sunrise.
Unfortunately, it was overcast. Didn’t see the sun light up those beautiful red formations at Bryce Canyon. It was still worth getting up early for though. I don’t think Bryce has seen this much snow in a long time. Check out all the snow.
Still, no matter what light nature decides to throw at you, there is always a photo that can be made. I may not have taken the photos that I wanted to take, but I still took a few that I like (not love).
f/16 @ 44 mm, 1/25, ISO 200
So when the light sucks, like it did this day, the best option is to try and shoot in close, eliminate the sky. Nothing worse in a landscape shot that has interesting land and a crappy grey sky. Most people immediately choose a wide angle lens for landscape shots. They want to capture the entire scene they see before their eyes. Well, not always the best choice.
For most of these shots I was using a 70-200mm lens. I wanted to zoom in on details, textures, colors, and patterns. I was really drawn to the contrast of the white snow and the red rock and dirt. Some dirt had amazingly rich red hues like the shot below. I really liked the pattern that the snow made. Makes your eyes wander all over the place in the photo.
f/16 @ 200 mm, 1/50,ISO 200
I thought it would be interesting to mess with all those shades of red in a black and white photo. Ended up with this shot.
f/10 @ 90 mm, 1/80, ISO 200
Yeah, it was freezing cold. I stood out in the cold taking pictures for about an hour. By that time my fingers were really starting to hurt, despite wearing gloves. I probably would have stayed a little longer too, but I knew the Scouts were waking up and probably eating breakfast without me. As I drove back to meet them, I couldn’t resist the following scene. My eyes interpreted the scene through a 200mm lens and that is what I shot.
f/10 @ 200 mm, 1/200,ISO 200
Really minimalistic. The strong horizontal tree line against a solid white foreground was very visually appealing to me. I think it would look great as a big print hanging on a wall.
