Postcards from the Creative Journey

Local Knowledge versus Local’s Knowledge

 

 Near Capitol Reef

We rarely ask for photographic suggestions from people we meet during our photo safaris. The reason is simple. We have learned through painful experience just about all the suggestions we get from local folks have never panned out. This is not an indictment of the people we ask for suggestions. Just about everyone we meet on our photo safaris are not photographers. Their ability to figure out what I like to photograph just after meeting me is highly unlikely. It only took us about fifteen years to figure this out.

Developing Local Knowledge is something you have to do yourself. It’s much easier now that it used to be. Our process for getting local knowledge is still evolving. Google is your friend. Maps, images, travel reviews, forums and such are essential for helping us figure out where we wanted to photograph. The internet is invaluable in getting you started in finding out about locations. The internet also can put you in touch with other photographers. Our connection with Guy Tal in Torrey, Utah, made through the internet was valuable, not only for this trip, but for future trips to Utah.

Finally, there is no substitute for spending the time in one location, developing a feel for the location you are photographing. Another one of our incredible discoveries from our experience in photo safaris is that you cannot photograph and drive at the same time. All the time you spend driving reduces the time you can photograph. If you pretty much stay in one in place you will have more time to photograph which will lead to better photographs. The time we spent in one location gave us the time to see each location under different lighting, the ability to come back to things we didn’t see the first time, and opportunity to revisit locations to try additional compositions. Staying put means you get more and better photographs.

Now, dear reader, I shall make one of this blog’s infrequent foray into the world of photographic hardware, specifically, the analog image stabilizer or tripod. I have photographed with a tripod since, well, forever. It was a necessity for the decades of view camera use and the practice has carried over to the digital age. I use a Feisol CT-3301 tripod. My previous practice was to extend the height of the middle section of a three section tripod. The disadvantage to this is when I would like to make the legs longer I have to extend the bottom section of the leg. It was a hassle to do. On this past trip, I decided (I have no idea why) to extend the lowest section of the leg first to get the necessary height. What this did was make the change in leg height come from the middle section of the leg, not the bottom. I don’t have to bend over or pick up the tripod to extend each leg. Now, I can loosen the section lock of the middle section , raise the tripod and get the height I need. (There are probably a bunch of folks out there that are already doing that very thing and calling me a big dummy. You’re probably right.) This is one of those stupid things that you don’t ever think about, but once you do it, you wonder why it took so long for you to figure it out.

In the pictures are worth a thousand words department, here's what it looks like.

Tripod leg with middle section fully extended.

Means extra height comes from the bottom leg.

With bottom leg fully extended,

any extra height comes from the middle

section of the tripod leg. Less bending required.

 

Lessons Learned from the Latest Photo Safari

 

Random Scenic View near sunset

As a good Project Manager, you always do a lessons learned because every project is different and you always learn something from every project. Sometimes the lessons are expensive, other times they are not. But you always publish the lessons so others might learn from what your experience. Here’s what I learned from my week long photo safari with Brooks Jensen photographing in Southern Utah.

• Plan for what can go wrong as well as what is going to go right. If you wear eyeglasses, pack an extra pair. When you can’t see, or are worried you won’t be able to see, it’s tough to concentrate on something that is visual, such as photography.
• You may have the best map apps on your iPhone, but what happens when there is no cell service? Great landscape locations and 4G cell service are not usually in the same place. Paper maps are still a necessity if you’re traveling out west.
• Local knowledge is better than local’s knowledge. (More on that, next week.)
• In Utah, you need to be real specific when you look for weather forecasts. The changes in elevation are large even for “adjoining” towns and the changes in temperature can be significant.
• At high altitude, full brimmed hats, long sleeves, long pants and sun block are really important. Long pants also protect you from cactus and brush.
• Liquids are important. Water is very important. You can’t drink enough water when you’re out in the desert. Adding powdered drink mixes makes the water a little more interesting. Keep the water cold with ice in a cheap Styrofoam cooler.
• Cheap Styrofoam coolers leak.
• Gasoline is also important. Small town gas stations close early. Don’t leave town with less than half a tank of gas.
• You will probably not find haute cuisine in a small town. The best you can hope for is good cookin’.
• If you have the option for 4 wheel drive, take it. Be smart enough to know that it will leave you stranded further away from help than 2 wheel drive.
• When you see a sign that indicates a scenic turn out, take it. You may not get a good photograph then, but you will probably see something that has the potential to be a good photograph. At least you can stretch your legs.
• The old military adage, “Take the high ground” also applies to landscape photography. Adding elevation to your vantage point will improve your photograph.
• You don’t have to chimp from the back of your camera to review your day’s photographs if you remember to take the AV/HDMI cables for your camera with you.
• I figured out a better way to adjust my tripod during the trip. More on that next week, too.

Brooks Jensen also took the time to figure out “what worked and what didn’t work” from our trip together. It’s interesting that our lists don’t look all that much alike, even though we traveled together. Click on over to his blog and see what he learned from our trip to Utah.

Writing for Your Audience

From "The Edge of Forgotten"

The message is not communicated unless the audience understands it. Real life examples abound. I had a recently had an exchange with a clerk at a convenience store over the purchase of some lottery tickets. He did not understand the declaration of my intent with the purchase of lottery tickets. If you other people can’t understand what you want them to do, your chances of gaining the desired outcome are low.

If you have trouble writing about your photographs, it will make it tougher for your audience to understand what you are trying to express with your art. I find writing about my photographs a very difficult thing to do. It’s easy to talk about f/stops (hey, does anyone talk about f/stops anymore? With auto-everything almost mandatory on every camera today are f/stops a topic of discussion? Pardon my digression.) and other technical data and where I was when I took this photograph.

This is the toughest part of me creating my photographic projects. The photography part is pretty easy to do for me. The processing skills are pretty much automatic thanks to LightRoom and batch operations in Photoshop, so that part happens quickly. What takes time and slows down the entire production is writing about the photographs. Not how I made them, how I processed them, but what they mean to me and what the viewers should see when they see them. I try not take refuge in artistic double speak, but communicate directly and clearly what I see.

Spare Time. Yes, We All Have It.

The Hasting Building

From "The Edge of Forgotten"

I am always amazed that people have all sorts of time to read books, see movies and attend all sorts of exhibitions and other cultural events. I don’t seem to have the time to do that. I felt it was a real deficiency in my life that I could not accomplish all these cultural and recreational activities that others seem to have the time and inclination to do. Then, it dawned on me that I spend a lot of my spare time creating rather than consuming. I create photographic folios, I blog, I brew beer. My primary recreational activities center around creation, not consumption (well, except for the beer; why brew unless you are going to drink it, eh?). I’ve never had an issue with amusing myself with activities and I guess that making something is “proof” that I have not wasted the time given to me.

There are people that enjoy experiences and there are people that enjoy things. I guess that I am the person that enjoys producing things. I’m not quite sure what this says about the type of person I am, but when I have something to show for my time, I view it as a success.

Ummm... We Should Have Made That Turn…

 

On the way back to Las Vegas

We left Escalante and headed back to Las Vegas today. We timed the trip to leave a little bit of slack time to photograph and to get the car washed and cleaned out before we turned it in. We had been living in the car (actually a Chevy Captiva) for a week, driving over a thousand miles on dirt and gravel roads so we felt really bad if we brought a completely trashed car back to the rental agency. We were busy talking photography and missed a critical turn in our finely tuned route back to Sin City. We kept on driving, to our next opportunity to connect with I-15. The next turn we needed to make took us directly through Zion National Park. If you have to make a mistake in driving, this is not a bad mistake to make. We did use up some of our slack time in this detour, some of it driving and some of it photographing. Zion is organized for handling tourists, but it appears to be a bit more compact and the things we like to photograph are very close to the road. I think we will visit this place again.

The best feeling one can have is “to go out on a winner.” It’s great when you par (or birdie) the eighteenth hole, not batting in the bottom of the ninth is the same feeling, but making the last photograph of the trip a winner is the best feeling of all. It leaves you optimistic, enthusiastic and is an experience you can cherish until you make the next photograph. It feels great.

The last photograph of the trip.

I could have made another one or two along the way, but I thought this was one to remember.

 

Some Days You’re the Windshield…

 

Greetings from The Devil's Garden

Some days you’re the bug. Today, we were the bug. Karmic payback for the great days we have had so far. It happens. We headed out of Escalante this morning with the intention to photograph the Devil’s Garden, some slot canyons and the Hole in the Rock, by taking the Hole in the Rock Road. The fourteen miles to the Devil’s garden was the least appealing landscape we had seen so far in Utah and some of the worst dirt road we had ever driven on. For a couple of guys whose motto is, “The photography starts where the pavement ends,” you can trust our judgment on the condition of the road. Upon arriving at the Devil’s garden, I immediately began photographing the rock formations. Brooks decided to take a nap. Sometimes that happens. One of us loves the place, the other one can’t see a thing. After I made some great photos there, we continued on down the washboard road. After driving another ten miles, we decided we had enough of the washboard road. We turned around and headed back to Escalante.

The Devil's Garden

The Devil's Garden

After a stop at the local visitor center, we discovered we made the right choice. The friendly Park Ranger said our local advice failed to mention that Hole in the Rock is a starting point for hiking in the Glen Canyon. The Ranger suggested we motor over to Bryce Canyon. We took the advice of the Park Ranger, along with a map of Bryce Canyon and headed on down the road.

Bryce Canyon is really, really organized for handling a lot of tourists. Motel, hotels, lodges, shuttle buses and lots and lots of scenic pull outs on paved roads. This was almost a Disneyfied version of the West. We drove to the end of the scenic drive, and headed on back, pulling out at the scenic turn outs just like all the other tourists.

Scenic Scene, Bryce Canyon

 

Another Scenic Scene, Bryce Canyon

Basically everyone photographs from the same spot alongside the road, so why are some snapshots and other photographs? There are two related reasons. The two reasons are patience and light. Showing up when the light is “right” is the first part of the equation. The second part is to recognize that you might have to wait for the light to illuminate what you are photographing. We were blessed with great clouds for the entire week. It was just having the patience to wait for the sun to peek out behind the clouds and light up a key portion of the landscape. So many of our fellow tourists reminded me of Clark Griswald visiting the Grand Canyon in the movie “Family Vacation.” Stop the car, get out, make a quick snap and be on the road again in under a minute.

We’re Experiencing Some Technical Difficulties…

Very few of us have had the experience of dealing with the reality of living in remote parts of the United States. We tend to romanticize the joys of living in small, remote towns of the American West. My wife was born and raised in one such town (Roundup, Montana to be exact. A perfect name for a western town if there ever was one) and would not give up her current suburban lifestyle to go back there. Here is an example of why she likes civilization.

When I put on my glasses this morning, they felt out of adjustment and I couldn’t see clearly. Upon close inspection I discovered the left lens of my glasses was twisted in two different directions and the bridge piece was cracked. I did not think to pack my spare eyeglasses, nor could I remember how my glasses became so bent out of shape. There are no opticians in remote Western towns but FedEx will deliver “next day” to a small town. A frantic phone call to my wife made that shipment happen. Then I tried to update the blog. The keyboard on the laptop refused to transmit signals to the computer. There are no computer repair facilities in remote Western towns. (This is why the blog posts stopped abruptly.) When faced with such complete (computer) and impending (eye glasses) failure - two things I really depend on - there was only one thing left to do. Go out and photograph.

First View of the Long Canyon

We headed back to Boulder, Utah (no optician there, either) and took off on the Burr Trail through Long Canyon to our eventual destination, the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef. The Long Canyon was just as spectacular as the two canyons in the northern part of Capitol Reef and much longer than both of them. The road into the Waterpocket Fold from the Burr Trail was incredible because it was a gravel road switchback (no guardrail, of course) that dropped several thousand feet into the Waterpocket.

In the Long Canyon

The Photography in Capitol Reef was very good. Even though we were photographing mid-day, the light was very good. There are so many rock surfaces facing so many different directions, the sun is always casting a “good” shadow on some rock face. It becomes a matter of dealing with the light you have to get the best photograph possible. And, in a nutshell, isn’t that the central problem to be solved in any photographic situation?

Capitol Reef - We finally get there

Never Been Higher

Noon Lake

It started out as a simple cup of coffee with a fellow photographer. Brooks mentioned our trip on his blog and a fellow photographer, Guy Tal said he would like to meet us for some coffee. We met for some coffee at 9:00 AM. Guy moved to Torrey, Utah to spend more time photographing this beautiful part of the world. In the last five years Guy has made this area his “back yard”. His knowledge of the geography, plants and animals of this part of Utah is impressive We had coffee, talked photography, looked as some of Guy’s photographs and then one thing led to another and Guy took us on a five hour 4 Wheel Drive tour of some areas that were a bit off the standard tourist sights. We wound up on top of Boulder Mountain (11,000 feet above sea level) that was very different than what we experienced during the past three days.

Guy, Yours Truly, Brooks

All on top of Boulder Mountain

The top of Boulder Mountain is a level plateau with forests, a lot of small lakes and alpine meadows. After spending three days in the canyons and desert land five thousand feet lower, it was an amazing change of place that literally took our breath away. Breathing at 11,000 feet is difficult and I was very aware of having to breathe deeply just to keep going. The change in temperature was also noticeable. This little guy thinks it’s almost autumn.

We made it into Escalante, checked into our hotel and then headed back out to catch some afternoon light along Forest Road 153, a route we drover yesterday afternoon after visiting Devil’s Backbone Bridge.

Tomorrow we drive up the road a bit to Boulder and will take a drive on the Burr Trail and hope to get into Long Canyon to see what is there.

 

Two Things We Don’t Have

Morning, Capitol Gorge Road

With freshly charged batteries, we hit the Capitol Reef road first thing this morning. We were there shortly after 8:30 AM. We beat the sun into the gorges, so we were in place for the morning light. This is the day after Labor Day and there was almost no one in the park. To have that much beautiful real estate all to yourself with beautiful light is a truly wonderful experience. The air was clearer after all the rain yesterday, the dust was not being stirred up by all the cars and it was extremely quiet. For a landscape photographer, it was pure heaven. We photographed specific areas we had scouted out before. Technology played a role because Brooks has an app (isn’t it always an app?) that will show you the angle of the sun at any time of the day. It’s very clever and makes our life much easier as photographers. We stayed again until around 11:00 and headed out of the park.

After our picnic lunch, we decided to head out to the southern part of the park. Before we left, I stopped by the Ranger Station to check on road conditions. The Ranger said that due to the rains yesterday, two of the roads we needed to take were limited to “Four Wheel Drive and high clearance” vehicles. Those are two things we don’t have, so we headed back to the motel for blogging and laundry.

We’ll head out this evening to see what else we missed so far, but it looks like we just might be done with Capitol Reef by the end of this evening. Tonight’s dinner topic will be where do we go from here? We liked what we saw down near Boulder and Escalante, so we might move our camp down there for the rest of the photo safari.

Tree and Rock Wall, Capitol Gorge Road

Small Tree, Rock Forms, Capitol Gorge Road

Check Your Batteries!

Morning Light

Twice a day at least. You would think that after I had been doing this photography thing for quite a while I would remember that you can’t photograph these days without batteries. This is the first time I have had a camera (Panasonic GH2) with its own batteries. My previous Fuji Cameras used Lithium Ion rechargeable AA batteries, which meant that if you ever ran the batteries down to zero you could go to the local store and buy AA replacements to get you through the day. Not today. I ran my first battery down yesterday and forgot to charge it overnight. I started charging it this morning just as we were headed out the door to begin photography. My spare until it ran out about 10:30 this morning. That brought the proceedings to a grinding halt. That wasn’t too bad, because by 10:30 the morning light was giving way to a harsh midday sun. We headed back to the motel to pick up the recharged battery.

We decided that we would take a scenic drive through the middle of the day to kill some time until the evening light arrived. We had several recommendations to take route 12 south from Torrey to Escalante and to see the Devil’s Backbone. I thought these were the same thing. They are not. The Devil’s Backbone is a bridge on Forest Road 153 that you pick up just south of Boulder, Utah. It winds through about fifty miles going around the Box Death Hollow Wilderness until it winds up in Escalante, Utah. Forest Road 153 is unremarkable (at least to us veterans of Forest Road touring) except for about 400 yards near the Devil’s backbone bridge. That is truly spectacular.

Box Death Hollow from Devil's Backbone

We headed back up route 12 to Torrey and watched some great Thunderstorms slide in front of

 Right off Route 12

us on the way back to Torrey. Route 12 is incredibly spectacular in terms of the views it affords you. Part of the road runs along the top of a ridge and the drop offs at the sides are several thousand feet. Further north the route tops out at 9600 feet above sea level.

We headed back to Capitol Reef late in the afternoon and photographed until it was almost dark.

Canyon Wall, Early Evening

I was too tired to do much of anything except go to sleep.

Chasing the Sun

Light is an essential and inescapable necessity for photography. If there is no light, there is no photography. The quality of light is what distinguishes good photography from bad photography. “Good light” is never convenient. You have to chase it and get up before dawn and miss early dinners. It’s around the edges of the day and the edges of storms. You have to chase it around the edge of storms and around the edge of the day.

We dodged the scattered thunderstorms this afternoon and the dodging and the waiting for the end of the day made it worthwhile.

The downside to photographing late is getting to dinner at a fashionably late hour. However, when you are in Torrey, Utah (pop. 182) fashionably late means you have to take chances. This evening we sampled the cuisine at the Saddlery, a cowboy bar, dance hall and restaurant. When the band this evening broke into “Riders in the Sky,” I had an immediate flashback to Bob’s Country Bunker in the “Blues Brothers.”

Tomorrow we get back on the road and get after it again.

Getting in Rhythm

We started photographing at the edge of the days this morning. We tried to get psyched for being on the road by 6:00 AM to get into position for the early light. When I woke up at 6:30, Brooks was just getting ready to wake up. So much for that good intention. None the less, we got caffeinated and headed out to the Grand Wash. While we did not make our schedule, the sun had its own schedule and was right on time. The sun was most accommodating and waited until we were on the scene to photograph. We spent the next four hours photographing and I was very pleased with the results.

A good start at the Grand Wash

Here’s a nice photograph. Some nice rock faces and some boulders.

More at the Grand Wash

Here’s the same photograph with Brooks in the lower right corner to give you a sense of scale of the place.

The scale here is pretty amazing.

Here are a few more from the morning's photography.

Still in the Grand Wash

On the Pleasant Creek Trail

Maybe we'll have some more great photographs from this afternoon's photo session.