Wild Utah Workshop
dkoyanagi
Registered Users Posts: 656 Major grins
Here are some of my photos from the Wild Utah Workshop. It was a great time and a fantastic learning experience.
Day 1 - 2007-05-17
Grand Junction CO
We all gathered in Grand Junction, CO on May 17. I started my trip on the 12th and spent five days shooting Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef before the meet up in GJ. The participants were:
Jim and Cathy (Pathfinder and Nightingale)
Stephanie (schmooo)
Sheila (slflash)
Fred (Fred W)
Phil (philiphutson)
Ian (ian408)
Skip (henrytd)
Andy (Andy)
Marc (Marc Muench)
David (DavidTO)
and yours truly
Dan (dkoyanagi)
Ian would be my roomie for the next 4 days. Great guy and a terrific photographer. In fact, they were all very nice people and everyone got along famously. I was feeling a bit intimidated going to the workshop because I was the least experienced of the bunch. However, there was no need as everyone was there to learn and to help each other out.
We had dinner at the hotel and were treated to a slide show and lecture by Marc. He didn't go over rules of composition or the techniques. The technical points would come later in the field. His main point, iirc, was the importance of finding your own vision. It was interesting.
Day 2 - 2007-05-18
Grand Junction CO, Hanksville UT
Up at 4am and out of the hotel by 4:45. We piled into our identical Secret Service suburbans and we were off to our first shoot at Colorado National Monument. Ian, Fred and I would be in the same group for the duration of the workshop. Andy drove us the first day. It was still dark when we got to Colorado NM around 5am.
Shooting at sunrise.
Nightingale chasing a lizard.
L to R: Skip, Jim, Ian, David, and Marc
Lesson #1: Don't blow out the sky. If blown sky is unavoidable, minimize it.
Colorado National Monument, CO
Colorado National Monument, CO
More photos of Colorado NM.
We then headed for breakfast at a local diner. After breakfast we were off to Goblin Valley State Park. We shot there in the afternoon and had lunch.
Driving to Goblin Valley in our Secret Service suburbans.
Schmooo, taking a picture of Fred, taking a picture of hoodoos.
I lost my sunglasses while we were there. They were nice ones too, Raybans. Three other people lost or broke their sunglasses on this trip.
Lesson #2: Don't bring expensive sunglasses to the field. Bring cheap sunglasses. In fact, bring several. Better yet, don't bring sunglasses at all.
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
We checked into our motel in Hanksville around 3pm. We had our first review session. I think schmooo and Skip were up. Skip showed a photo that was almost identical to this one:
Lesson #3: Don't take pictures like this.
You see something that you find interesting. You center it in the frame, point, shoot. Marc referred to this type of photo as an "I was here" photo. Although you may find it interesting, the only reaction you'll get from anyone else is "yawn, so what?" Try to make interesting subjects interesting to your viewers.
After the review we were treated to a Dutch Oven dinner.
Chowin' down.
After dinner we raced back to Goblin Valley to catch the sunset. We then had our first night shoot. We did long exposures
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
and light painting
We got back to Hanksville around 11.
Day 3 - 2007-05-19
Hanksville UT
Up at 4:30am for a sunrise shoot at Goblin Valley. We were in Marc's car today.
Lesson #4: To do sun-stars use a wide angle lens with a small aperture and the sun half hidden.
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
You can do this anytime of the day, not just at sunrise or sunset.
Arches National Park, UT
We shot till about 8am, then headed back to Hanksville for breakfast at Blondie's. Another review session and then we headed out into the San Rafael Swell with our guides, Gary and Murphy.
Schmooo, taking a photo of a stump.
Skip, showing how it's done.
Fred and Andy.
I tried to do some canyon shots but the light was completely flat. Had to settle for flowers.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
The San Rafael Swell was probably my favorite place. The scenery is comparable to Capitol Reef or Canyonlands. The really great thing about it is that it isn't a national park. Places like Zion, though quite stunning, have been processed and packaged to make it safe for busloads of tour groups. The San Rafael Swell still has the rough edges of the American Outback. To enjoy the swell you have to put some effort into it. I think the San Rafael Swell would completely lose its character if it were made into a national park.
We drove along rough dirt roads for a few hours till we got to our dinner site. Gary and Murphy got dinner going while we went out to shoot. The light had improved considerably by then and we got some good photos.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
Lesson #5: Use a 28mm tilt-shift lens to turn your DSLR into a field camera.
Use the shift to create perfectly flat panos, and the tilt to increase dof.
Marc, showing us the 24mm TS and pano head setup.
For dinner our guides fed us fajitas and the best coffee I ever had.
Chillin' after dinner. L to R: Cathy, Jim, Skip, Ian, Sheila.
Afterwards we were off to the petroglyphs for the evening shoot. That lasted until around 11pm.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
The drive back to Hanksville took an hour and a half over winding dirt roads. We had it easy because we were in the lead car. Andy and David had a hell of a time. We finally got back at 12:30am. A twenty hour day!
Day 4 - 2007-05-20
Hanksville UT
We all decided to sleep in after the long day yesterday. Breakfast at Blondie's then off to Cathedral Valley. Riding with David today. Everyone seemed to be dragging a bit today. I admit, I didn't feel too inspired. All the rocks started to look the same. In fact I was so desperate to get my inspiration going I started taking weird pictures like this:
I was standing at the edge of a ditch about 2 foot deep. At the bottom of the ditch was a little gully, about 6 inches deep. The gully had a mud roof which formed a tunnel. I wanted to see what, if anything, was inside the tunnel. I wasn't about to stick my head in there, so I set the camera on manual focus, manual exposure, and timer. I hit the shutter, held my tripod upside down by its legs, and lowered the camera into the tunnel. Not much to look at and I'm surprised it actually worked.
As we went deeper into the valley I started getting my juice back.
Andy in the desert.
Lesson #6: Slow the f*** down!
Do not rush. The landscape isn't going anywhere. Rushing will lead to bad photos and wrecked gear. Because I was in a hurry, over the last two days to I've managed to:
1. take overexposed, underexposed, out of focus, and blurry images.
2. completely wreck my polarizer by sticking it in my pocket all day, along with loose change. I now have a $250 coaster.
3. put my 24-105 f/4L face down on the sand without the benefit of a lens hood, lens cap, or filter! Luckily no damage was done.
4. get sand in my ballhead. The ballhead is now almost completely seized up.
5. drag my camera thru the dirt while crawling under a barbed wire fence. Again, no damage was done.
I wrecked about $350 worth of gear by rushing and being sloppy. Only dumb luck kept it from being alot worse.
Dinner tonight was pasta and that great coffee.
After dinner. L to R: Schmooo, Skip, Phil, Fred, Andy, Marc, Ian, Cathy, David.
The evening shoot was at the Temple of the Sun and Moon.
Temple of the Moon. Capitol Reef National Park, UT.
Temple of the Moon. Capitol Reef National Park, UT.
By now we were getting the hang of night photography.
Lesson #7: Located the LCD backlight button on the camera. Now I won't have to use a flashlight to look at my camera settings when shooting at night.
Day 5 - 2007-05-21
Hanksville UT, Grand Junction CO
Sunrise shoot at Factory Butte. Again, the light wasn't the best this morning.
Back to Blondie's for one last breakfast. Checked out and drove back to the Doubletree Hotel in Grand Junction. Lunch and a final review session. Workshop wrapped up at 4:30.
Going to workshops is a great learning opportunity. You don't just from the pros, though. You also pick up a lot of information, as well as draw inspiration from the other photographers. Overall a great experience. However, if you do go to one, be warned that you will work your butt off.
After the workshop I went on to Moab. While at Arches NP the lessons of the workshop began to sink in. This process lead to new lessons...
Lesson #8: Chimp often.
To avoid blown skies (Lesson #1) I began chimping. Chimping (reviewing your photo) is probably the best way to flatten the learning curve. (Hey, I'm not too proud to chimp.) I used to review my photos only to check composition. Now I began checking exposure as well. I turned on the histogram and the highlight/shadow warnings to avoid blown skies and blocked shadows. I started to get a better idea of how much to over/under expose a scene. Chimping also forces you to delete bad photos on the spot and to retake photos till you get it right. I increased my proportion of keepers.
It was while I was chimping that I had my Zen Moment. I would reshoot and adjust exposure until the sky was no longer blown. It was a trial and error process. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to meter just the bright spots instead of the whole scene. It would make avoiding blowouts much easier."
Moment of Zen: Spot meter!
I've used the spot meter before with almost no success, because I didn't know what to meter off of. Now I do. I set the camera to spot meter, metered off the brightest part of the sky, set exposure to ev+2 and bingo! No more blown skies. And no more trial and error, just straight to the point exposure control.
So, simply avoiding blown skies (Lesson #1) lead to an overall increase in the quality of my photos (Lesson #8), and a knowledge of how to use the spot meter (my Zen Moment).
I went to the workshop to learn about landscapes. I actually learned how to be a better photographer.
Taken before the workshop: Angel's Landing, Zion National Park, UT
Taken after the workshop: The Narrows, Zion National Park, UT
Day 1 - 2007-05-17
Grand Junction CO
We all gathered in Grand Junction, CO on May 17. I started my trip on the 12th and spent five days shooting Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef before the meet up in GJ. The participants were:
Jim and Cathy (Pathfinder and Nightingale)
Stephanie (schmooo)
Sheila (slflash)
Fred (Fred W)
Phil (philiphutson)
Ian (ian408)
Skip (henrytd)
Andy (Andy)
Marc (Marc Muench)
David (DavidTO)
and yours truly
Dan (dkoyanagi)
Ian would be my roomie for the next 4 days. Great guy and a terrific photographer. In fact, they were all very nice people and everyone got along famously. I was feeling a bit intimidated going to the workshop because I was the least experienced of the bunch. However, there was no need as everyone was there to learn and to help each other out.
We had dinner at the hotel and were treated to a slide show and lecture by Marc. He didn't go over rules of composition or the techniques. The technical points would come later in the field. His main point, iirc, was the importance of finding your own vision. It was interesting.
Day 2 - 2007-05-18
Grand Junction CO, Hanksville UT
Up at 4am and out of the hotel by 4:45. We piled into our identical Secret Service suburbans and we were off to our first shoot at Colorado National Monument. Ian, Fred and I would be in the same group for the duration of the workshop. Andy drove us the first day. It was still dark when we got to Colorado NM around 5am.
Shooting at sunrise.
Nightingale chasing a lizard.
L to R: Skip, Jim, Ian, David, and Marc
Lesson #1: Don't blow out the sky. If blown sky is unavoidable, minimize it.
Colorado National Monument, CO
Colorado National Monument, CO
More photos of Colorado NM.
We then headed for breakfast at a local diner. After breakfast we were off to Goblin Valley State Park. We shot there in the afternoon and had lunch.
Driving to Goblin Valley in our Secret Service suburbans.
Schmooo, taking a picture of Fred, taking a picture of hoodoos.
I lost my sunglasses while we were there. They were nice ones too, Raybans. Three other people lost or broke their sunglasses on this trip.
Lesson #2: Don't bring expensive sunglasses to the field. Bring cheap sunglasses. In fact, bring several. Better yet, don't bring sunglasses at all.
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
We checked into our motel in Hanksville around 3pm. We had our first review session. I think schmooo and Skip were up. Skip showed a photo that was almost identical to this one:
Lesson #3: Don't take pictures like this.
You see something that you find interesting. You center it in the frame, point, shoot. Marc referred to this type of photo as an "I was here" photo. Although you may find it interesting, the only reaction you'll get from anyone else is "yawn, so what?" Try to make interesting subjects interesting to your viewers.
After the review we were treated to a Dutch Oven dinner.
Chowin' down.
After dinner we raced back to Goblin Valley to catch the sunset. We then had our first night shoot. We did long exposures
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
and light painting
We got back to Hanksville around 11.
Day 3 - 2007-05-19
Hanksville UT
Up at 4:30am for a sunrise shoot at Goblin Valley. We were in Marc's car today.
Lesson #4: To do sun-stars use a wide angle lens with a small aperture and the sun half hidden.
Goblin Valley State Park, UT
You can do this anytime of the day, not just at sunrise or sunset.
Arches National Park, UT
We shot till about 8am, then headed back to Hanksville for breakfast at Blondie's. Another review session and then we headed out into the San Rafael Swell with our guides, Gary and Murphy.
Schmooo, taking a photo of a stump.
Skip, showing how it's done.
Fred and Andy.
I tried to do some canyon shots but the light was completely flat. Had to settle for flowers.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
The San Rafael Swell was probably my favorite place. The scenery is comparable to Capitol Reef or Canyonlands. The really great thing about it is that it isn't a national park. Places like Zion, though quite stunning, have been processed and packaged to make it safe for busloads of tour groups. The San Rafael Swell still has the rough edges of the American Outback. To enjoy the swell you have to put some effort into it. I think the San Rafael Swell would completely lose its character if it were made into a national park.
We drove along rough dirt roads for a few hours till we got to our dinner site. Gary and Murphy got dinner going while we went out to shoot. The light had improved considerably by then and we got some good photos.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
Lesson #5: Use a 28mm tilt-shift lens to turn your DSLR into a field camera.
Use the shift to create perfectly flat panos, and the tilt to increase dof.
Marc, showing us the 24mm TS and pano head setup.
For dinner our guides fed us fajitas and the best coffee I ever had.
Chillin' after dinner. L to R: Cathy, Jim, Skip, Ian, Sheila.
Afterwards we were off to the petroglyphs for the evening shoot. That lasted until around 11pm.
The San Rafael Swell, UT
The drive back to Hanksville took an hour and a half over winding dirt roads. We had it easy because we were in the lead car. Andy and David had a hell of a time. We finally got back at 12:30am. A twenty hour day!
Day 4 - 2007-05-20
Hanksville UT
We all decided to sleep in after the long day yesterday. Breakfast at Blondie's then off to Cathedral Valley. Riding with David today. Everyone seemed to be dragging a bit today. I admit, I didn't feel too inspired. All the rocks started to look the same. In fact I was so desperate to get my inspiration going I started taking weird pictures like this:
I was standing at the edge of a ditch about 2 foot deep. At the bottom of the ditch was a little gully, about 6 inches deep. The gully had a mud roof which formed a tunnel. I wanted to see what, if anything, was inside the tunnel. I wasn't about to stick my head in there, so I set the camera on manual focus, manual exposure, and timer. I hit the shutter, held my tripod upside down by its legs, and lowered the camera into the tunnel. Not much to look at and I'm surprised it actually worked.
As we went deeper into the valley I started getting my juice back.
Andy in the desert.
Lesson #6: Slow the f*** down!
Do not rush. The landscape isn't going anywhere. Rushing will lead to bad photos and wrecked gear. Because I was in a hurry, over the last two days to I've managed to:
1. take overexposed, underexposed, out of focus, and blurry images.
2. completely wreck my polarizer by sticking it in my pocket all day, along with loose change. I now have a $250 coaster.
3. put my 24-105 f/4L face down on the sand without the benefit of a lens hood, lens cap, or filter! Luckily no damage was done.
4. get sand in my ballhead. The ballhead is now almost completely seized up.
5. drag my camera thru the dirt while crawling under a barbed wire fence. Again, no damage was done.
I wrecked about $350 worth of gear by rushing and being sloppy. Only dumb luck kept it from being alot worse.
Dinner tonight was pasta and that great coffee.
After dinner. L to R: Schmooo, Skip, Phil, Fred, Andy, Marc, Ian, Cathy, David.
The evening shoot was at the Temple of the Sun and Moon.
Temple of the Moon. Capitol Reef National Park, UT.
Temple of the Moon. Capitol Reef National Park, UT.
By now we were getting the hang of night photography.
Lesson #7: Located the LCD backlight button on the camera. Now I won't have to use a flashlight to look at my camera settings when shooting at night.
Day 5 - 2007-05-21
Hanksville UT, Grand Junction CO
Sunrise shoot at Factory Butte. Again, the light wasn't the best this morning.
Back to Blondie's for one last breakfast. Checked out and drove back to the Doubletree Hotel in Grand Junction. Lunch and a final review session. Workshop wrapped up at 4:30.
Going to workshops is a great learning opportunity. You don't just from the pros, though. You also pick up a lot of information, as well as draw inspiration from the other photographers. Overall a great experience. However, if you do go to one, be warned that you will work your butt off.
After the workshop I went on to Moab. While at Arches NP the lessons of the workshop began to sink in. This process lead to new lessons...
Lesson #8: Chimp often.
To avoid blown skies (Lesson #1) I began chimping. Chimping (reviewing your photo) is probably the best way to flatten the learning curve. (Hey, I'm not too proud to chimp.) I used to review my photos only to check composition. Now I began checking exposure as well. I turned on the histogram and the highlight/shadow warnings to avoid blown skies and blocked shadows. I started to get a better idea of how much to over/under expose a scene. Chimping also forces you to delete bad photos on the spot and to retake photos till you get it right. I increased my proportion of keepers.
It was while I was chimping that I had my Zen Moment. I would reshoot and adjust exposure until the sky was no longer blown. It was a trial and error process. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to meter just the bright spots instead of the whole scene. It would make avoiding blowouts much easier."
Moment of Zen: Spot meter!
I've used the spot meter before with almost no success, because I didn't know what to meter off of. Now I do. I set the camera to spot meter, metered off the brightest part of the sky, set exposure to ev+2 and bingo! No more blown skies. And no more trial and error, just straight to the point exposure control.
So, simply avoiding blown skies (Lesson #1) lead to an overall increase in the quality of my photos (Lesson #8), and a knowledge of how to use the spot meter (my Zen Moment).
I went to the workshop to learn about landscapes. I actually learned how to be a better photographer.
Taken before the workshop: Angel's Landing, Zion National Park, UT
Taken after the workshop: The Narrows, Zion National Park, UT
0
Comments
Dan
What a fabulous review of not only what we did, and what it looked like, but many of the things we learned, and I agree that much of what we learned is applicable to all kinds of photography.
Your pictures are great, and I especially liked your choice of black & white for the documentary shots. Nice going!!
Skip
http://skip-dechert.smugmug.com
Nightingale and I had a great time too.
I don't think I broke any equipment ( I have experienced cleaning cameras after being in the desert before, so I brought paint brushes and microfibre cloths ).
I got to meet a lot of new friends.
I saw some really neat new areas to explore.
And I shot a ziillion frames
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Nice series, and very nice job of giving a sense of what it was like. Marc has a nice story about rushing and gear....maybe he'll share it with us all.
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Basking in the shadows of yesterday's triumphs'.
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Hmmm, sounds interesting. Marc, I'm all ears....
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Dan, great series, wonderful photos
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:haha
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Thanks Andy!
www.dkoyanagi.com
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Wow Dan... and Wow again
Nice work
These Dgrin Events are wonderful to attend, you can learn so much, make new friends, put faces to names you already know, go to places you've never been before, and have an absolute ball.
Glad you had a wonderful time, and thank you for you great post
.... Skippy
.
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:skippy Everyone has the right to be stupid, but some people just abuse the privilege :dgrin
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Nice images!
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
I had no idea you felt that way. I was willing to bet my right arm that I would have that Special Title but as you said it made absolutely no difference because we all learned something, regardless of what we brought to that first table!
Thank you so much for writing a wonderful post with not only some great photos (love your first Temple of the Moon shot, gorgeous) but reminding us of things that you learned. This is what I had the notebook for, but I see the benefit of you actually posting this for us to see. I had already forgotten about all the stupid stuff I did, too -- also attributed to rushing -- and I did learn many of the things you mentioned but had forgotten to jot down.
As for chimping, it goes both ways. I accidentally deleted two shots of a panorama because of careless chimping in the field. D'oh!
Definitely a 5-star post for a 5-star trip.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
www.dkoyanagi.com
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Thanks Sid! And you're welcome.
www.dkoyanagi.com
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Yeah, I'm not too crazy about the second Temple shot. I probably should have centered it more in the frame. Too much distortion at the edges.
As for accidentally deleting photos, yes I've done that too.
As for coffee, yes, I'm back on the evil bean juice. Damn those Hondoos!
Thanks!
www.dkoyanagi.com
www.flickr.com/photos/dkoyanagi/
Thank you for taking the time to create a wonderful and clever post. I enjoyed seing all you photos especially the Temple of the Moon
What always fascinates me is how everyone takes a little something different home with them from what I teach. I guess the one lesson we all have to revisit is, TAKING OUR TIME. As You pointed out so well in your writing, it was not until several days into the trip that you were able to slow down. I can appreciate that sentiment, as I too need several days of familiarizing myself with, who I become with only three hours of sleep a night
I don't mean to sound like I can't function for the first several days while on location, but rather find myself reacting to the environment not anticipating it.
Speaking of anticipation, David had to bring it up:cry.
Following the workshop, David, Andy and I visited Arches NP to find some great light. During the last evening when the light was getting low, I left my equipment standing on a rock and scrambled around a rock outcropping and into a cove where I found a cool foreground. However, unanticipated, while away scouting for two minutes my tripod shifted and fell over. The unfortunate part was that it was caring my Canon 1Ds M11 with a Tilt/Shift lens which, as well built as they are dont like to be slammed against rocks. Never-the-less, the lens snapped in two but the body still worked minus the vertical hand grip functions. Lesson to self - don't rush.
So Dan, ya gotta ask yourself - You goin to drink coffee or slow down:D
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My heartfelt condolences to your camera and lens...
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
This is the edge at Horseshoe Bend.. Its over 800 feet to the bottom
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I'm glad you made it to Zion and the Narrows!
Ouch! That's gotta hurt.
I only slowed down after I started drinking Hondoo's magic brew. I think I need to drink more in order to stay glacial and keep my gear intact.
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Thanks Ian, and thanks for the advice. It was definitely worth a second trip.
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Minus the deductable, the camera damage was covered.
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I have been very fortunate in my life, having not dropped much off cliffs, nore dropping off a cliff myself. :ivar
I always slow down near those big voids, maybe that is what I need to do all the time as Dan points out.
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But you do get so very close to the edge. Marc, be careful!
(not very well post processed)
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
This is why my wife has such a large life ins policy on me!
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