Canyon Country

[Downrigger]

Recent absence owed camping for the last week or so in Utah’s canyon country. Thought I’d share two images of an unmarked/unnamed scramble route on the east side of the monocline that comprises Capitol Reef National Park. This park is less visited than Utah’s other more famous ones, and there are wonderful routes for exploration throughout it where one can have the entire day to one’s self. Neither of these is to my satisfaction compositionally, but they tell a story of a nice place. It was a blaringly bright, very clear day.
The first shows the route up over multi-hued Navajo Sandstone and the water course from a recent May snowstorm that has, over the ages, scooped out the route taken to the crest of the "waterpocket fold monocline".
The second looks east from near the crest of the hike past some spectacular erosional geology of younger shaley strata and on to the Henry Mountains. On the horizon, faintly, the LaSalle Mountains, near Moab, and further, the San Juans of southern Colorado, perhaps around 150 miles distant.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Suzan J]

These are beautiful landscapes. The colours and textures of the rocks are nicely captured.

[Downrigger]

Thanks much, John, and Suzan. Very photogenic country, but I found it difficult to compose, I think, because everything is just so expansive.

[Marie Hass]

Mark, regardless of how you demur, these are nice pictures. Both images have nice diagonal lines. IMHO, the only thing I might have done differently would be to tone down the rocks/cliffs just one notch and see if that brings out more depth to them.

Marie

[Downrigger]

I might have done differently would be to tone down the rocks/cliffs just one notch and see if that brings out more depth to them.

Good thought, Marie, thank you. I'll experiment with your suggestion as you are right that depth is an issue... These do not succeed as I would like in conveying in 2D the scale here, which was pretty overwhelming. It would look good in IMAX.

Also, weirdly, the top image is compressed from 4x5 uploaded to 1x1 on my screen, which changes it a little. I wonder if that's because I used a small perspective shift in my PP?

[bnnrcn]

Very nice compositions with nice colours and textures Mark

[deetheturk]

Lovely captures Mark!

[FrankMi]

Both images contain beautiful scenes Mark. If there is something that makes them difficult to compose it would be that there is so much to take in. You likely could get several great images just by cropping different sections of the scene in the first one.

For the second, the background is almost too far away to retain much of its fascinating detail. If you get a chance to reshoot, see if a longer lens might be helpful to compress the depth and make the background just a bit more prominent.

Alternatively, you could open the image in Lightbox and go expanded to play with different cropping options. When I tried that approach, I found that you may just have a scene within a scene by effectively cropping about 10% from the top, bottom and right side. The neat thing about using Lightbox this way is that it is quick, easy, and no pixels are harmed in the process!

[Brownbear]

Beautiful! (both) I especially adore the first image for the light, colours, textures and detail in the first image.

[Mike Buckley]

Capitol Reef is one of the few places that I had a difficult time coming up with images that truly reminded me of being there. So, I understand the difficulties that you had.

Your first photo makes me wish I had taken that hike instead of the hikes we did take. Consider cropping your second photo at the top to eliminate all of the clouds. Doing so brings attention to the foreground texture while retaining the interesting detail in the distance.

[Downrigger]

Thank you very much Christina, David, Binnur for the look-in and nice comments. Frank - Your whole critique makes sense to me - I certainly think cropping in as you suggest makes a superior image. I did put on a 70-200 after these were taken, Frank, and play up the foreshortening - shown below, but I think I went too far in the other direction with this one:

[Downrigger]

Thanks, Mike - your crop does help, and your explanation as to why is something for me to ponder/remember.

Know of this trail from a fellow who used to be a ranger at Capitol Reef - he knows a bunch of great ones where you never see anyone. Nice for me because I can enjoy my pup on these without offending anyone or getting a ticket. It is a vast, dramatic piece of real estate with very few miles of designated trail.

[FrankMi]

play up the foreshortening - shown below, but I think I went too far in the other direction with this one:

Mark, I see a fantastic combination of color and pattern in this one. I think you've nailed it but for one minor detail, to me, the image is off balance. My eye starts in the lower left and follows the diagonal division between the foreground and middle ground up and right to the mountains. Unfortunately, there I can't go left so my eye goes right and out of the image.

I tend to like symmetry so it could just be my way of looking at things. I would crop to the upper right hand corner to get roughly 1/3rd of each visual element. Part red foreground, part brown middle ground, and part blue/white background. Then I'd play with the aspect ratio to get the most pleasing combination of all three.

Now when I follow that diagonal from the left lower corner, my eye catches the top left corner of the mountains and that, being much more prominent now, directs my vision left instead of right and I return by looping counterclockwise back to the starting point. But, it doesn't stop there, it goes back along the length of the red foreground and back up to the mountains to loop around once more. With each double loop I take in more and more detail, letting the entire scene soak into my memory.

So, for me, this is an outstanding composition and a scene I'll remember.

[Downrigger]

to me, the image is off balance.

Gosh, Frank, I think that is indeed astute help. Balancing the three main fields and adjusting the aspect ratio achieves something that works well for me - certainly better than what I had. Thank you very much. I think (hope) this addresses your great critique. Just shows: CiC rocks!

[Mike Buckley]

I didn't take the time to follow Frank's explanation but I really like the second composition and I didn't like the first one.

[TonyW]

I agree with the others. This last version is a beautiful, powerful image.

[PrintMan]

I really like your first image. Wonderful diagonal lines, nice textures, full of sharp detail. Not overdone! I also like the new, tighter cropping of your last image.

[Kaye Leggett]

I am no landscape photographer so my responses are not technical rather, do I like the shot ? Yes to all and especially the first and third. Do I wish I had captured the shot ? Yes to all and lastly, does the image tempt me to want to go there ? again, yes to all and especially the first and third.

[Saorsa]

They are all good. I tend to like panos for places like that. I think partly because my eyes go to the far reaches and depths so I would like a diagonal that leads my eye downward.



I can't think of a good way to show the depth of the canyon. I want a way to convey the feeling of someones first view of the Grand Canyon or the Hoodoos at Bryce.