Canyon Dwellers

[Loose Canon]

Greetings Everyone!

Just got back from an Epic Boating Adventure a week or so ago. Plenty of war stories, and amusing anecdotes! As it turns out, being back in “reality” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be! I didn’t want to come home!

So during Happy Hour one evening I fired off a quick Group shot of the Canyon Dwellers (finally got everyone to hold still in one place). My intention is to get an 8x10 or so print version of this shot to give to all the Motley Crew as a kind of surprise momento for them along with some other smaller print candids of each of them.

No extra lighting gear, obviously, and kind of a “vacation” shot! The Canyon Gang will love it and as “civilians” will not be able to tell the difference. In fact, to tell you how bad it got, they were asking me for pointers for using their Run & Guns! If they only knew! I can’t get back to reshoot so what you see is all I am going to have! But I was hoping to see what the Pros here thought and where it might be helped.

Regardless of the technical aspects of this shot, it is going to prove to be an important shot for the Gang. They considered it a “Trip of a Lifetime”.

Well, at least until we go on the next one!

manual
1/80 sec.
f/22
ISO 100
23.0mm
Shots of High Octane Adult Beverage- 5.3 (That last 0.7 dribbled down my shirt!)
Demeanor- Ecstatic. The hot shoe level was right on, I was about a half bubble off!

Any suggestions are always welcome!

All the Best to Everyone!
Terry

[Shadowman]

Terry,

Difficult time of the day (I'm guessing early afternoon) to shoot so over exposure should be expected. I would have shot at 1/500 or faster. With f/22 aperture setting you captured the landscape beautifully. One other comment, your group have no feet. I know the composition was tight and you would have to sacrifice the mountain.

[PopsPhotos]

I think you did extremely well. The important thing on these shots if to make sure everybody is recognizable and not being (too) goofy looking at the time.

You captured the moment well, with the right background and just enough foreground clutter to keep it from appearing "staged."

Pops

[Loose Canon]

Thank you for the comments, Shadowman and Pops. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with me.

I found that while in the canyon, there was very little “good” light. Being in a hole, the good light happened above us on the rim. When the sun got low enough to produce the warm glow in the evenings, it was starting to get dark on the canyon floor. Same only opposite in the mornings. By the time the sun got high enough to illuminate the inside of the canyon, it was already pretty harsh. One thing I noticed when I got home and got the shot on a computer, everyone but the gal without shades has their eyes closed!

So it was pretty much either shoot during the “wrong” time of day or just don’t shoot. The latter was just not an option. There was just no way I was going to come out of there with nothing, or not even trying! When floating a river, the scene is constantly changing and that is the attraction. And that is with the harsh desert sun. Once you stop to camp of an evening, you are limited to what is around you and can then hope for some good light. And the result was a lot of “vacation” shots rather than “art” shots.

That mountain you see is actually the canyon wall, Shadowman. The top of it is the rest of the world and it would be flat for miles and miles around. Nothing goes up in the Canyonlands. It always goes down. The scale is pretty unbelievable in there. I thought that to make the shot decent for the guys would be to include all of the scenery possible, and that was my reasoning for stopping down the lens. They already know who they are and when they look at their photo, I hope they will have fond memories of where they were and what they have done to pull this trip off. Not that I could even hope to pull off a super formal group-type portrait like what I have seen in here, but I think in an “expedition” situation a certain “roughness” or “outdoor” feel might a good thing, maybe.

Of course, that kind of reasoning does not really do much to improve my skills and ranges from lame to no excuse at all! Which is why I appreciate you commenting, Pops and Shadowman.

Pops, since you mentioned one of the main goals is to hope everyone isn’t too “goofy” looking, I guess I had better scrub this one…



Now the gal without the shades has her eyes closed! I just couldn't get a break! You just never know what is going to happen whilst in the throes of Happy Hour!

[PopsPhotos]

I have some experience with such, as I grew up wandering the canyons. the forst one you posted is the one you have for sale to the other members. Those such as your second are the ones you use to blackmai ... errr ... convince the others to buy the first one.

Pops

[Shadowman]

The photo wouldn't be the same without the canyon wall shown in detail. In fact it almost steals the scene from the happy campers. This is one of those travel moments where you want to scenery to be a big part of the vacation experience.

I can understand your desire to shoot anyway without perfect lighting. I had the same experience arriving at the Grand Canyon at 2:00PM. I knew I wanting to capture what I could and hope to be able to come back during sunrise/sunset. I didn't have one at the time but would have loved to have had my circular polarizing filter with me. Let the debate start.........now.

Thank you for the comments, Shadowman and Pops. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with me.

I found that while in the canyon, there was very little “good” light. Being in a hole, the good light happened above us on the rim. When the sun got low enough to produce the warm glow in the evenings, it was starting to get dark on the canyon floor. Same only opposite in the mornings. By the time the sun got high enough to illuminate the inside of the canyon, it was already pretty harsh. One thing I noticed when I got home and got the shot on a computer, everyone but the gal without shades has their eyes closed!

So it was pretty much either shoot during the “wrong” time of day or just don’t shoot. The latter was just not an option. There was just no way I was going to come out of there with nothing, or not even trying! When floating a river, the scene is constantly changing and that is the attraction. And that is with the harsh desert sun. Once you stop to camp of an evening, you are limited to what is around you and can then hope for some good light. And the result was a lot of “vacation” shots rather than “art” shots.

That mountain you see is actually the canyon wall, Shadowman. The top of it is the rest of the world and it would be flat for miles and miles around. Nothing goes up in the Canyonlands. It always goes down. The scale is pretty unbelievable in there. I thought that to make the shot decent for the guys would be to include all of the scenery possible, and that was my reasoning for stopping down the lens. They already know who they are and when they look at their photo, I hope they will have fond memories of where they were and what they have done to pull this trip off. Not that I could even hope to pull off a super formal group-type portrait like what I have seen in here, but I think in an “expedition” situation a certain “roughness” or “outdoor” feel might a good thing, maybe.

Of course, that kind of reasoning does not really do much to improve my skills and ranges from lame to no excuse at all! Which is why I appreciate you commenting, Pops and Shadowman.

Pops, since you mentioned one of the main goals is to hope everyone isn’t too “goofy” looking, I guess I had better scrub this one…



Now the gal without the shades has her eyes closed! I just couldn't get a break! You just never know what is going to happen whilst in the throes of Happy Hour!