Can you call a squabble a territorial dispute when it takes place on water? At any rate, we were headed out of the Phoenix zoo when we saw these two trying to settle boundary issues with each other:
In the end, one of them turned tail and swam off, with the winner in pursuit.
Another shot from lower Antelope Canyon:
And some more travel trips to go with it
Our visit to the canyon was on Memorial Day (a U.S. holiday held on the last Monday in May), and the trip through the canyon was dry as a bone. Some fellow travelers, though, told us they’ve gone through in winter and found spots chest deep in mud. So if you’re not traveling in summer months, make sure you have a change of clothing you’re willing to sacrifice to the hike — the pink mud permanently stains whatever you’re wearing.
It wasn’t terribly hot when we visited, but remember that you can’t exactly get out in the middle of the canyon to get that water bottle out of your car — take a bottle with you on your hike.
I’d been told before that a flashlight was a necessary thing to take on a trip through the canyon, but we never used ours. Maybe this is another winter (or early morning / late afternoon) thing?
Dust — there’s lots of it in the canyon. I’d recommend picking one lens for your camera(s) before you head in, then leaving it on. Swapping lenses in a dusty environment like this one is likely to get a lot of gunk into your camera. My solution: I have two camera bodies, I put complimentary lenses on the two of them and left them there.
I’ll talk more about photo gear in my next Antelope Canyon post…
Another shot from my recent smoke experiments:
I thought this looks somewhat like a ghostly person dancing with red flames, thus the name. As before, this is the smoke off a single incense stick; most of the color comes from tweaks to curves in Aperture.
This weekend I had a bit of time to myself — my wife and daughter were still in Arizona (I had to get home early for work), the weather was nice, and I’ve got no shortage of camera gear.
So when I could take a break from my honey-do list, I decided to make some quick trips into downtown Denver to check out the Denver Chalk Art Festival. It’s an annual, free, two-day street painting festival — with more than 200 artists turning 3 blocks of downtown streets into an open air chalk art museum.
And boy, are these folks ever good! Here you can see one hard at work on the details of her creation (BTW, there’s a contest associated with the festival — if you like the image and have a Facebook account, please leave a comment on its contest page):
I’m not sure if this one had an Avatar tie-in or not, but the skin tone’s about right (its contest page is here):
This next one was one of my favorites (it’s by Dawn Morrison Wagner, check out her web site!), even before it was finished:
This is a portrait of Music, somewhat in the style of Alphonse Mucha (its contest page is here).
And then of course, there’s this bit of excellent advice on living your life:
More to come…
If you’re at all into outdoor photography, you’ve likely seen shots from Antelope Canyon in Arizona — even if you didn’t know it at the time. This is the first in the series of posts I’ll be writing about a little detour we took to the canyon on a recent trip to see relatives in Arizona.
Antelope Canyon is actually a series of “slot canyons” in the drainages leading to Lake Powell in northern Arizona. Should you decide you want to see it, you’ll first have to get comfortable with a lot of driving, then you’ll have to decide which of two sections you’d like to see. Upper Antelope Canyon is somewhat more photogenic — but it’s been “discovered,” and so (I’ve heard) can be swamped by people being shuffled through it by the tightly-scheduled truckload.
Since ours was a family trip, we opted for Lower Antelope Canyon, instead. Much less crowded, not at all hectic, you can wander through at nearly your own pace (up to an hour as part of a “group,” up to 4 hours if you spend a few dollars extra for a “photographer pass”), and still very beautiful. Oh, and if you go this route, make sure to swing by an ATM first. When we went it cost $28 per adult and $16 per child (12-18), and payment is by cash only. We opted for a group outing (vs. photo pass) since I doubted our 8 year old would really be interested in spending 4 hours underground.
Anyway, when it comes to getting there, the biggest nearby city is Flagstaff — so let’s just say for the sake of argument that it’s your jumping-off point. From there, you drive about 2 hours north to an intersection just south of Page, then turn east on Highway 98. Once you pass the turnoff for Lechee, the road you want is the first left onto a paved drive, then take another left on a dirt road down to the parking lot. If you make it to one of the power plant roads (can’t miss this, it’s HUGE), you’ve gone too far and need to turn around.
Once you pay your fees, your guide takes you out to the entrance to the lower canyon, which is basically a hole in the ground — hardly looks wide enough from a distance, but it’s straightforward if you’re not carrying too much extra weight (either bodily, or in the form of camera gear).
This gal spoke German (and I only know a few words of it), but I have to think at the time she was saying something along the lines of “you’ve GOT to be kidding me!”
Access to this section of the canyon has improved dramatically since the addition of metal ladders bolted into the stone here and there. Mind you, some years back a group of people died here in a flash flood — it was raining far upstream, the local guides told them to get out, but the tourists’ stubbornness and the (then-used) rope ladders out combined to thwart their escape.
Anyway, if you’re reasonably good shape, you’ll have no problem getting down into the canyon (or out again). And make sure you pay attention to what the guides tell you to do.
Once you’re into the canyon, things get easier — more elbow room, although there are still some tight spots here and there. One thing you’ll need to contend with, though, is a wide range of lighting — something like a 10 stop difference between light and shadow. I’d recommend you do some multi-exposure HDR work if you want to wind up with a good shot — otherwise, you’ll have to content yourself with some really low contrast shots. This advice is particularly relevant if you get any sky in your image, like this one:
This, BTW, is an HDR image (3 shots 1 stop apart, with a bit of noise cleanup afterward). More to come…
I’ve seen a lot of good smoke pictures by other photographers, so I thought it was about time that I tried my hand at it as well. Here’s one result of my first go at this:
This image took a LOT of cleanup in post-processing (as will its brethern) — due largely to a physical set-up that I’ll do better with next time. Meanwhile, the image is growing on me…
A recent trip to Arizona left me and the little one with some time on our hands — so we spent it at the Phoenix Zoo. While I was there, this little scene lined up for me, so I just had to capture it:
If you like photographing flowers, and happen to travel to the big island of Hawaii, you really owe it to yourself to make some time to walk through the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. Just a few minutes’ drive north of Hilo, it’s home to all sorts of beautiful tropical plants.
Here, for example, is a Pink Quill (tillandsia cyanea) bromeliad. It’s native to Ecuador, but apparently also available as a houseplant (although I doubt it’d do well for us here in Colorado):
More to come…
A few weeks back, I managed to get a little “me time” for a photowalk in the neighborhood. Here’s one of my captures from that stroll:
If you ever get to Hawaii (in particular, if you ever get to the island of Oahu), chances are you’ll wind up stopping by the Polynesian Cultural Center. It’s the #1 paid attraction in the state, after all. An adjunct of the BYU-Hawaii campus, the PCC serves a cluster of purposes — entertainment, helping college-age kids from across the Pacific pay for college, and providing some cross-cultural education.
Granted, the displays of polynesian culture at the PCC are “cleaned up” a bit (as you might expect given the circumstances), but for most visitors it’s at least a quick way to get exposure to a slice of Polynesia they wouldn’t see otherwise. The after-dinner show is also a great way to get practice photographing flaming torches:
I was more than a little surprised that this shot didn’t require much noise cleanup — the torches do a great job of lighting the entertainer (just had a bit of noise in the darker background). BTW, this is a shot from the “Ha: Breath of Life” show. Great stuff for the kids…