Watchman Sunset

kdog · October 28, 2009

Here's another iconic view from Zion, the Watchman, shot at sunset. Despite having seemingly nice clouds, we never got the color in the sky that we had hoped for. But that won't stop me from posting a couple of my best shots from that evening.

The "Watchman" is the peak that's lit up in this view.

Funny story. We were shooting from a bridge above the river, and shoulder-to-shoulder with probably a dozen other photographers waiting for the sunset. Every once in a while, some completely oblivious people would go down to the river and start hanging out right in everybody's compositions. The longer they stayed, the more annoyed the photographers got. One clueless photographer even set up a tripod and starting shooting pictures right at the rivers edge, until getting booed out of there. In one of my pictures above, there's an entire family resting by the river which has been replaced with a shrub. You'd think after a while they'd become self-conscious hanging out in front of a dozen cameras on tripods, but maybe that's just me. :giggle

Comments and critiques are always welcome.

Thanks,
-joel

shades · October 28, 2009

I really like your shots. The one where the Watchman is lit up is good stuff! Did you use a GND in any/all of them?

Your Subway pictures were great too.

bryanj87 · October 28, 2009

That first shot is jawdropping! Wow.

coscorrosa · October 28, 2009

Definitely a lot more color than when I was there several weeks ago. My favorite is the second, love the way the sun lights up that sandstone.

As far as people crawling along the river, that's happened every time I've been there. It's more understandable when it's just normal people playing in and along the river, but not excusable for photographers (for two reasons: it's rude, and even more importantly, the compositions aren't nearly as good from down there!).

Sexy6Chick · October 28, 2009

coscorrosa wrote:

My favorite is the second, love the way the sun lights up that sandstone.

Agreed, though they are all wonderful in my opinion!

Eia · October 28, 2009

I think I like the second best because that beautiful light is hitting the side of the mountains. But - they are all gorgeous. I would never have known there were people by the river!:D

sgonen · October 28, 2009

Great stuff Joel, love the compositions and colors!

What people?, I can't see any

daveman · October 29, 2009

Nice set of shots - I like what you came up with - particularly the sky star..

When I was there I did not have any photographers down there, but two deer come up along the hill on the right for about 15 minutes, right after sunrise. I kept hoping they would walk over by the river bank so they would get into my shot, but to no avail...

CWSkopec · October 29, 2009

Great shots, Joel!

#2 is begging to be framed and hung up!!

wirehunt · October 29, 2009

Some great shots. The only thing we're missing in New Zealand, all our gorges are covered in native bush, it makes it very hard to get these beautiful wide open photos.

GORIO · October 29, 2009

the 1st image in there is the strongest one here! exposing the entire image well with that light peeking is hard!

the rays are fantastic. just some soft cc the trees in there are a bit soft to my liking is this hdr or single exposure?

kdog · October 29, 2009

shades wrote:

I really like your shots. The one where the Watchman is lit up is good stuff! Did you use a GND in any/all of them? Your Subway pictures were great too.

Thanks for the compliments, Bart. No GND as I don't own one yet (maybe some day?) At least half the folks shooting the scene were using them though. Instead, I used a "software gnd", by using Photomatix "exposure fusion", which combines the photos, but doesn't do any tone mapping.

Regards,
-joel

kdog · October 29, 2009

bryanj87 wrote:

That first shot is jawdropping! Wow.

Why thank you, sir!

coscorrosa wrote:

Definitely a lot more color than when I was there several weeks ago. My favorite is the second, love the way the sun lights up that sandstone.

As far as people crawling along the river, that's happened every time I've been there. It's more understandable when it's just normal people playing in and along the river, but not excusable for photographers (for two reasons: it's rude, and even more importantly, the compositions aren't nearly as good from down there!).

Thanks, Ron. We could have used a bit more light on the sandstone, but I tend to be a glutton about those things, so I'll shut up. :giggle

The photog down by the river seemed to actually be shooting into the river. Not quite sure what was up with that.

When the catcalls and boos started, he went and hid behind a bush.

Sexy6Chick wrote:

Agreed, though they are all wonderful in my opinion!

Thanks, Sexy6Chick! I appreciate that.

Eia wrote:

I think I like the second best because that beautiful light is hitting the side of the mountains. But - they are all gorgeous. I would never have known there were people by the river!

Thanks, Eia. I wish that light has lasted. It was there for literally only seconds.

sgonen wrote:

Great stuff Joel, love the compositions and colors!

What people?, I can't see any

Thanks, Shimon. Fortunately, the family of four were all standing together when I took this shot. Just for funnies, I widened the spot healing tool so it encompassed all of them at once, and clicked just to see what would happen. Voila they all vanished, and it took some careful inspection for me to figure out what it had done. It had actually cloned a bush from surprisingly far away in the scene and planted it right where they stood. I don't know if that was serendipity, or some serious smarts going on behind the scene in Photoshop, but it was damn impressive.

daveman wrote:

Nice set of shots - I like what you came up with - particularly the sky star..

When I was there I did not have any photographers down there, but two deer come up along the hill on the right for about 15 minutes, right after sunrise. I kept hoping they would walk over by the river bank so they would get into my shot, but to no avail...

Thanks, Daveman! Oh, the deer would have been amazing. You said "sunrise", did you mean sunset?

CWSkopec wrote:

Great shots, Joel!

#2 is begging to be framed and hung up!!

Thanks, Chris. Maybe I'll do that.

wirehunt wrote:

Some great shots. The only thing we're missing in New Zealand, all our gorges are covered in native bush, it makes it very hard to get these beautiful wide open photos.

Thanks, Wirehunt! We've got plenty of that here on the east coast as well where I grew up. I really love the wide open spaces of the southwest here. Of course, I've seen pictures of New Zealand, and all that greenery in the gorges are breathtaking, so you don't get much sympathy from me.

GORIO wrote:

the 1st image in there is the strongest one here! exposing the entire image well with that light peeking is hard! the rays are fantastic. just some soft cc the trees in there are a bit soft to my liking is this hdr or single exposure?

Thanks, Gorio! I like the sunstar too. Multiple exposure, but not HDR. Are the trees soft? Could be some motion in there, although the tool is supposed to minimize that. I used less sharpening on these because Ron told me my previous shots were oversharpened, so you just can't win.

:giggle Then they're posted at full-size in Smugmug for printing, and so these copies are downsized, with the default down-res sharpening that Smuggie gives you. So sharpening is kind of a crap shoot in this environment.

Here's a 100% crop from the center of the shot. I dunno, is this soft?

Thanks for the comments, everybody.

-joel

redleash · October 29, 2009

Great work, Joel--both in camera and after. I'm going to start sending you my images that need cloning out--great job on the bush people!

Hard to choose between #1 and #2 for me--but I keep going back to the sunstar in #1. Awesome!

Lauren

kdog · October 29, 2009

redleash wrote:

Great work, Joel--both in camera and after. I'm going to start sending you my images that need cloning out--great job on the bush people!

Hard to choose between #1 and #2 for me--but I keep going back to the sunstar in #1. Awesome!

Lauren

"Bush People"

Thanks, Lauren. #1 seems to be to winner by popular demand.

Thanks for checking in.

-joel

dlplumer · October 30, 2009

Congrats Joel on awesome shots.

kdog · October 31, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

Congrats Joel on awesome shots.

Thanks, Dan.

:D:D

wirehunt · October 31, 2009

kdog wrote:

Here's a 100% crop from the center of the shot. I dunno, is this soft?

Thanks for the comments, everybody.
-joel

It doesn't look soft to me, but you may need a lens clean, high right in the cloud. Is that a spot or funny cloud?

kdog · October 31, 2009

wirehunt wrote:

It doesn't look soft to me, but you may need a lens clean, high right in the cloud. Is that a spot or funny cloud?

Sensor dust. Good eye!

Cheers,
-joel

dlplumer · November 9, 2009

These are so great they deserve another bump

BeachBill · November 9, 2009

Okay, I just noticed I haven't commented yet... I love that W...I...D...E angle and sun star in #1. SWEET!

Here is a behind the scenes (cell phone camera) view of some of those photographers that were lined up on the bridge:

Ali Al-Eid · November 9, 2009

Simply Wonderful, Ammazing, Attractive

I really liked your Shots ..

regards,

kdog · November 10, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

These are so great they deserve another bump

Thanks, Dan. You're too kind.

kdog · November 10, 2009

Ali Al-Eid wrote:

Simply Wonderful, Ammazing, Attractive

I really liked your Shots ..

regards,

Thanks, Ali! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your shots as well.

-joel