Utah

Our campsite on the White Rim Trail last Fall, Canyonlands National Park, near Moab, Utah.

When we were looking to do the White Rim Trail last Fall, I had trouble finding good information on the different campgrounds along the trail, or other useful information.  So when we were doing the trail, I tried to take photos of the different campsites along the way, and Janine took that information and prepared what I think it an informative article that could be helpful to other photographers and visitors.  You can find that article here:  White Rim Trail

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Full moon rising over Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

As I was working on my favorite images from last year, Janine mentioned this was one of her favorites – she really liked the mood and feel of the photo, so I though I would make it today’s blog.

Take a look at more of our Canyonlands National Park photos.

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When photographing directly into the sun, especially with zoom lenses, it seems like lens flare is almost impossible to avoid.  I thought I would share a little trick that I have used for the last few years for eliminating flare.

I capture two images, one that includes the sun and flare, and one where I block the sun and eliminate the flare as you  can see above.  I then combine the two images using photomerge in Photoshop  keeping most of the image on the right except for the portion of the image where you see my fingers.  Here is the end result:

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

It is important that both images are of the same exposure – I make sure I’m working in manual mode because your camera’s meter is going to come up with two very different exposures for these two scenes.  And of course a tripod so that the two images contain identical compositions is imperative.

I used to stand in front of my camera and block the sun with a lens cap.  The lens cap made a perfectly round shadow that I could then position just barely over the front of the lens.  When it comes to your eyes, I’m sure this is the safest way of doing it, but it does take more work in Photoshop.  Lately, I have been looking through the camera with my hand out in front until it is positioned to block the sun – I wonder what passerby’s must be thinking as they see me doing this – is he really photographing his fingers in front of that pretty arch? 

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Courthouse Wash, Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Over the last week or so we have been very busy converting and adjusting photos from our Fall trip, we hope to be done with this job sometime this week.  I will likely share more photos from this trip over the next few days or weeks.

It has been a really nice winter in Alaska, and I have been very content to be working at home, cross-country skiing, and enjoying the winter pace.  But, as I start the pour over photos from our recent travels, it re-ignites the urge to explore and photograph new regions, and revisit old favorites.

Check out more of our Arches National Park photos.

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Autumn colors along the White Rim Trail, Canyonlands National Park, near Moab, Utah.

I fell a bit behind on my editing / captioning / key-wording on our last trip, so now I’m sitting here in Alaska, looking out the window at fresh falling snow, and looking at my monitor and seeing images of warm red rock – it is kind of fun really!

This was from our three day trip along the White Rim Trail from just over a month ago.

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Partition Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

A self portrait of me in Partition Arch.  This is the smaller of two openings at the location of Partition Arch, so maybe this one has a different name.  It is a great location – from the opening you can look down on the trail and viewing area for Landscape Arch.

See more Arches National Park pictures.

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Mountain biking on the Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah.

Since we rode the awesome Slickrock Bike Trail yesterday, I thought this would be a good time to post this photo.  It was sure a blast – and we were much faster then last year, that always feels good.

I didn’t bring my camera on the ride, as it is too heavy.  This photo was from two Fridays ago, we did this the night before the 24 Hours of Moab Bike Race.  You see I don’t do much shooting with multiple, off camera flashes and wanted to practice a bit before the actual race.

Most of my flash use is for a minor bit of fill light.  For this, mounting the flash on the camera works fine, as the light is usually just there for a bit of catch-lit in the eyes of an animal, and to brighten the subject a bit – the light really isn’t noticeable to the viewer.  When the flash provides a larger amount of the light source, I think it is important to get the flash off the camera and off to the side, and even behind the subject.

So I practiced multiple setups right up until near total darkness – I wanted some night shots.  I felt like I had everything dialed in, and wouldn’t you know it, on the day of the race my wireless transmitter worked for 3 tests shots and then died.  Nothing seemed to fix it, not even new batteries.

Well clouds saved the day for my daytime shooting as they helped defuse the light and soften the shadows, I didn’t really need flash.  For my night shots, I ended up setting up the camera on a tripod and opening the shutter for about 10 seconds, and manually popping the flash from off to one side to light the bikers.  After a couple adjustments to my distance and the flash power, this totally manual technique actually worked pretty well.  So much for being prepared.

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Sunrise, Monument Basin, Canyonlands National Park, near Moab, Utah.

This fascinating location is found along the White Rim Trail.

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The Green River from the White Rim Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

How is this for an amazing campsite? !   There are two camp sites in this area, unfortunately, we had the site next to it which wasn’t as close to the river, but still very nice.   So, as these people slept in, I quietly used their tents for my photo.

This was definitely one of the nicest campsites on the trail.  On-line, I had trouble finding much information on the different campsites – so we checked them out on this trip and will do a write up on the best camp sites along the White Rim Trail when I have more time, probably once I get back to Alaska.

Here is more information about the White Rim Trail.

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Star trails above our tent along the White Rim Trail, Canyonland National Park, Utah.

We just got in from 3 really fun, and productive days along the White Rim Trail,  so I thought I would do a quick post.  The star tails are the result of a 25 minute long exposure – I lit our tent with my flash light, and then stumbled out of the scene in nearly total darkness.

I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the stars and seeing shooting stars.  It has been awhile since I have spent a night under the stars – I do most of my camping and backpacking during the Alaska summer, a time stars don’t show well, if at all.

Here is a lot more information about camping on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands.

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Janine stands in the lower arch of Double O Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

I realized I have posted a number of photos from Arches National Park, but none of them included an actual arch.  So here is two for one photo.  Visiting Double O arch requires about a 5 mile round trip hike through some wonderful country known as Devils Garden.  With must see detours to Navajo and Partition Arches, the hike ends up being about 6 miles.

Yesterday we picked up a rental jeep and are heading out for three days on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park.  We found out last year that the limited number of camping sites along this amazing road fill way in advance, so we made back-country campsite reservations last Spring.  We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time – everyone raves about this area, I should have an update here Monday night or Tuesday morning.

See more Arches National Park photos.

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Courthouse Wash, Arches National Park, Utah.

Hey, there are even a few fall colors in Arches!  This was at sunrise yesterday morning.

See more Arches National Park photos.

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A train leaving Moab, Utah.

Last year when we pulled into Moab I saw these tracks along this beautiful hillside and thought that would be a perfect setting for a train photo.  But, I only saw one or two trains during the couple weeks we were here, and was never in a position to get a photo.  This year I noticed a train leaves Moab about the same time everyday, making this photo much easier to obtain.  Evidently, the train is hauling uranium tailings from along the Colorado River to a more permanent site.  It is a Department of Energy project – not sure why our government is taking on this job and not the original mining companies – they probably took the money and ran.

We had a great sunset last night, but I just couldn’t seem to find the right position or  composition, so I came away with nothing.  I feel like a let one get away – great sunsets don’t happen that often around here.

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Rafting on the Colorado River, near Moab, Utah.

This looks fun!  While growing up in Alaska, I did a ton of rafting – I miss that.  We just found out that you can rent kayaks and rafts in Moab for not much money, at least compared to what rentals cost in Alaska.  I don’t know if we will have time, but it is tempting!

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Behind the Rocks Wilderness Study Area (WSA), Moab, Utah.

I spent two evenings hiking around trying to find a nice vantage point to photograph this very unique region – this was the best vantage point I could find.  The 24 Hours of Moab was held on the other side of this area.  I guess you could say, it was behind Behind the Rocks.

I thought it would be a fascinating area to explore, but these things are huge, I don’t see any way in there without doing some serious climbing with ropes and stuff – something beyond my capabilities!  I was reading about the area on the BLM website, and I thought this summed it up well:  “There are extreme topographical constraints to foot travel within this WSA”

This was captured with a 100-400 at 400 from 655 meter away on the opposite side of the Colorado River.  The exposure was a 20th of a second @ f/11 and a ISO of 100.

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Pua Sawicki at the 2009 24 Hours of Moab.

When we left Pua Sawicki well after dark on Saturday night, she was well on her way to another National Championship, and more importantly, a world record for distance traveled by a women on a mountain bike in 24 hours.  She once rode 281 miles in a race, but it wasn’t sanctioned by the Guinness Book of World Records – this race would be.

We got up early Sunday morning and immediately checked the on-line results, and were shocked to see her current lap taking much longer then normal.  We kept an eye on the computer and finally saw she rolled in about an hour later then normal.  We hoped she just had a mechanical problem, and would start knocking off fast laps again, so we jumped in the truck and hurried over to the race so we could be on site before sunrise.  Our worst concerns were realized when we arrived only to see her support tent empty of workers and gear, we knew then her race must be over.  Her husband Ron later confirmed that she had gotten very sick during the night, and finally had to drop out.  Bummer!  Pua and her husband are super nice people – we hope they have lots of future success, I’m sure they will.

Since we were already at the race, we went ahead and photographed other riders.  The steep hillside pictured below was the scene of many dramatic wrecks.  I felt a bit guilty standing there and photographing such mayhem, at least at first.  But it became easier, when,  every rider had the same response – they would turn to me and ask if I got it!  Thanks to the soft sand, we didn’t see anyone get hurt.

Kakkan Creager of team Quadruple Gnar goes head over wheels during the 24 Hours of Moab, in Moab, Utah. Team Quadruple Gnar won the men's 18 and under championship.

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Richard Moquin of team Bazi at the 2009 24 Hours of Moab Mountain Bike Race, Moab, Utah.

I thought I would share a couple of photos from the 24 Hours of Moab Mountain Bike Race.  I’m here to photograph Pua Sawicki, who we met in our campground – we have camped near them the last two years here in Moab.  Her husband and crew have been running me around on all terrain vehicles so that I can photograph her on the course – I’ll post photos of her tomorrow.  Right now, she is over a half hour ahead of the nearest women, and looking strong.  She is hoping to set the world record for distance traveled on a mountain bike trail in 24 hours.

Nick Nisbet of team Phoenix Multisport 2 leaves at sunset, 2009 24 Hours of Moab Mountain Bike Race, Moab, Utah.

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