NEX available from Warehouse Express UK

[bakubo]

Given then layout of the park, Zion is REALLY difficult to photograph. For red rocks in that area, Snow Canyon State Park in St George might have been a better bet and easier to photograph....

Yes, Snow Canyon State Park is good. We have spent the night in St. George several times and the first time in 1999 I spent all morning at Snow Canyon.

[David Kilpatrick]

Our problem was that Zion is three or four hours from Vegas even with my driving 5-10mph over the limit on cruise control most of the highway. We did not know about Snow Canyon.

A lot of our pictures, because of how we use them, are not typical anyway - a shot of the Zion tour bus is better for our income than any number of traditional 'pictorial' images of great subjects. But I do have one or two good scenics which will be carefully processed on return.

Here's something in between - the cave behind the Weeping Rock, looking out with a fisheye, and including a visitor for scale:

zionweepingrock.jpg (101.72 KiB) Viewed 4815 times

Of course we should have had the NEX kit and this would have been on the NEX fisheye in an ideal world Instead, A900 and my old Sigma.

David

[David Kilpatrick]

Here's another Zion Canyon problem - the light! This should have been HDR on the NEX-5 of course. Crude HDR on my laptop for the moment:

zioncanyonhdr-crude.jpg (192.37 KiB) Viewed 4812 times

David

[Birma]

The idea of visiting Wokingham - for any reason - will brig a smile to Brits.

I am reminded of the verse "Come friendly bombs and fall on Wokingham" (with apologies to Sir John B )

Much as I am interested in the new Nex, I'm enjoying the pictures of this area in the States even more . I hope DK and Shirley are enjoying the trip.

[Lonnie Utah]

Here's another Zion Canyon problem - the light!

True. It's one of the most contrasty places I have ever been. It's really hard to get a good balance between the sunlit rocks, the rocks in shadow and the sky....

[bakubo]

Pau Genge tells me he shares our limited appreciation of LV (he won't go to PMA, he says he hates prostitution and gambling and LV makes him into a grumpy old man!).

Since my wife and I have been in Las Vegas several times (staying one or two weeks each time) to take a break while on long road trips I know that Paul Genge has been going out of his way to be around the prostitution and gambling which he "hates". When we are in LV we are not around any of that. Lots of normal places and normal people. It is a fairly large city and has all the other things a normal city has too.

[David Kilpatrick]

My keyboard fingers were a bit fast there, Paul didn't say grumpy old, just grumpy He's not that old. A term we use though!

Well, we could not avoid gambling - even the Hilton, where we had booked to stay mainly on value for money grounds, seems very much devoted to gambling. Just the same way that Sedona turns out to be a nest of timeshare wasps, we have almost had to fight them off and the resort we are staying at has pressured us with all sorts of incentives to waste half a day at one of their 'presentations' ($50 loaded VISA card, free helicopter flights, you name it). At least in LV there is no direct hard selling of the gambling, if you sit at a bar with slots in the counter, you are simply asked if you want to pay for your drink, or are you playing? If you are playing the slot, you don't pay.

We put a token $1 bill into a machine during our stay. This was just to prove we had gambled, and lost, in Las Vegas!

As for the other side, a guy came into the Hilton bar deeply upset at having given $2000 to a woman ('was she your wife'? No - 'is she your girlfriend?' - no - 'do you know her?' - no...) who then went to a restroom and never appeared again. He was looking everywhere for this new-found friend.

David

David

[bakubo]

Here's another Zion Canyon problem - the light!

I know that since you were staying in Las Vegas that your time was limited at Zion NP and you had to allow several hours for the drive there and then again for the drive back to LV. That limits the time there to the middle of the day. That is unfortunate, but I know how that goes. Many times on our road trips we are not able to see a place in the best light for similar reasons. You see stuff when you can though.

Fortunately, I have spent the night in Springdale (little town right outside the south entrance) several times so could enter the park in the morning and be there for sunset. Also, I have been there 2 or 3 times in the winter when there is snow and often low hanging clouds and other softer light. I have some photos in the Utah gallery on my website. I don't even pretend to be a landscape/nature photographer so they are not the best, but you can see Zion in conditions other than bright, middle of the day, very contrasty conditions.

In the conditions you were presented with though you got some good shots. I also realize that landscapes are probably not of much use for stock since there must be many thousands already. It is the other details, such as the shuttle bus you mentioned, that may have some commercial value. I hope you got something that might be worth putting on Alamy.

[bakubo]

The focus for visitors is generally the Strip where the big hotel/casinos are all lined up. We usually go walking down there once or twice each time we are in LV. Certainly on the Strip gambling is the main focus! And I have no doubt that at night prostitutes are around a lot.

We never stay at a hotel on the Strip so unless we go there we don't see much of that life. Still, it is Las Vegas so it is sort of funny to see slot machines even in grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. all around the city.

I wouldn't mind staying in one of the big Strip hotel/casinos sometime though. Nighttime is such a good time for taking photos on the Strip and it is so much easier and fun if you can just walk out of your hotel at night and wonder around without dealing with parking, etc. We went walking around the Strip in 2007 at night and I got a few photos.

[Lonnie Utah]

The "trick" with zion, and lots of the big landscape places out west is if you are forced to shoot in the middle of the day, is to ignore all of the large vistas that want to pull you in and go more marco in scale. There is lots of textrual stuff to do with rocks and other stuff.

(this is off my FB page so it's compressed all to hell...)

[Danjojo_Resurrected1]

Thank you for these photos, one of the places out here in the West that I haven't visited yet and hope to soon.

When I drove up to Montana I only had a p&s compact camera with me, would love to hit up this place and Montana again with a few more cameras. So many good opportunities just off the road when you keep driving up through Utah, Idaho, and Montana...at the time I was only focused on a writing position and checking out the homes around Helena, MT and missed a ton of perfect photo opportunities.

[bakubo]

The "trick" with zion, and lots of the big landscape places out west is if you are forced to shoot in the middle of the day, is to ignore all of the large vistas that want to pull you in and go more marco in scale. There is lots of textrual stuff to do with rocks and other stuff.

Yep, I do that too.

[UrsaMajor]

Thank you for these photos, one of the places out here in the West that I haven't visited yet and hope to soon.

When I drove up to Montana I only had a p&s compact camera with me, would love to hit up this place and Montana again with a few more cameras. So many good opportunities just off the road when you keep driving up through Utah, Idaho, and Montana...at the time I was only focused on a writing position and checking out the homes around Helena, MT and missed a ton of perfect photo opportunities.

If you drive through that part of the country again, Zion is just one of many places that are worth a visit. I encourage you to also visit Bryce Canyon National Park, and to walk some of the trails in the park.

The views from the rim that you have seen in so many photographs are gorgeous and well worth a visit by themselves, especially since the views can alter so much with changes in lighting. However, in my opinion some of the most memorable scenes are found when walking the trails. I can still remember our visit in 1951 when I was a child, and my family walked some of the trails of Bryce Canyon NP. i have been back several times as an adult, both before my children were born and with them, and I have experienced the same magic on the trails on each visit.

I do have one bit of caution for you, however. The park is at relatively high altitude (about 2400 meters, if my memory is correct), and all of the trails that I remember start and end at the rim. As a consequence, on part of the walk you will be climbing a steep trail with much less oxygen available than you are probably accustomed to breathing. If you rest and catch your breath when necessary, this does not have to be a problem. However, walking these trails may not be a good idea for anyone with pulmonary or cardiac problems.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Danjojo_Resurrected1]

Thank you for the advice Tom, going to put it on the list. Definitely need to have some one watch the kids (3 year old, 2 year old, and 3 month old twins) and go again with them when they are older.

[UrsaMajor]

We are forgiving Sedona its development a bit as most of the original good bits are there - and they have a free shuttle bus solving the distance problem with the strip development on the highways.

I'll agree that some of the "old" Sedona is still there - although you often have to look to find it. To me, Sedona has always had a quirky, "artist's town" feeling, even before it became a popular place for artists - which is probably why many of my photos from our 2007 visit seem to be of art works of various sorts.

Here is an image from that visit that I found hard to resist.

With best wishes,
- Tom -