Breaking the rules

Its definitely not best practice to fire shots into the sun until it is right near the horizon or getting close and/or you are using an ND grad filter or using multiple exposures to create an HDR image...that is unless you want everything but the sun and sky to be in silhouette.

This is not always the case though as I have "recently" found out... if you have partial cloud coverage and you can properly meter your exposure using either manual adjustment of shutter speed (watch your histogram!), or dialing back on your exposure compensation, a "dramatic" effect can be achieved by shooting into or partially towards the sun. Here are a couple of examples, now granted, some post work will be needed to bring up the shadow areas:





In the example directly above you can still see details and atmosphere in the foreground... sure the area around the sun is pretty much blown out, but I think the overall effect works. In the first image the shot is more angled partially into the sun and it creates a nice effect with the texture and shadows....never mind all the footprints, some of them probably mine!....another tip, try not to stomp all over your foreground when setting up shots! :)

Its easy to get into the habit always having the sun behind you and I certainly have mostly followed that but it pays to experiment with new things!

PS... I do need to get back on the Southwest trip update but I really have gotten sidetracked with the new site and also working on some older images. You never know what you will dig up when you are revisiting older shoots and trips. Typically you get tired of sifting through the images of a recent trip after a week or so.... Here is one that I dug up from my Eastern Sierra trip in the spring of 2007:

Testing New Widget tool from Photoshelter

I guess this counts as an entry:)...as promised more on Antelope Canyon, in fact here is a slide show, you can click in the right corner to go to a full screen show.


Upper Antelope Canyon - Images by Tom DiMatteo

What kind of light makes for good Photography?

I had to take a detour from the Arizona trip report... I got tired of working through all the images and had nothing clever to add (what?). Those of you who cheated ahead on flickr probably found the best stuff was from Antelope canyon in Page, Arizona:











Upper Antelope canyon is one place where midday bright sunny skies actually work to your advantage. You need the clear skies and midday light to get the brilliant (but not so original) lightbeam shots from down inside the canyons...more on this later. Most other times cloudy and overcast may get you the mood you need for a shot even if its in the middle of the afternoon. This shot from Baxter State park in Maine would have sucked had it been clear, sunny, midday skies. If you think it sucks anyway, well it would have sucked even more in midday sunshine :)











So be careful what you wish for on your photo adventures, I'll take a mix of crap and hopefully some good weather over all "bright and sunny" myself!

Arizona Road Trip! (and a little bit of Utah)

May 2:

Flew into Phoenix and headed to Glendale to stand on the hallowed ground that is University of Phoenix Stadium where MY ARIZONA CARDINALS WON THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP!! It it still hard to believe it really happened. It was crap midday light and haze so nothing really worth posting. I headed north to Sedona where I planned to hit Cathedral Rocks/Red Red Crossing at sunset. I arrived in plenty of time and made my way down to the SPOT. There were of course about 7-8 other photogs already setup with their tripods in 1-1/2 feet of water. I left my tripod in the car but I finally gave in and took my shoes off to wander into the water. I heard from some locals there is almost never that much water flowing there.



I wanted to do some shooting of a different kind as a few folks made ther way right into the middle of everyone's shot and parked there. It was all I could do not to scream "get the #@@# out of the way"! I was in Sedona after all, where meditation and zen like moments were supposed to be king. I obviously hadn't been there long enough yet.

I cut out of there after a bit and put my dirty socks back on my wet muddy feet, which is pretty gross, to go out and try to get some other shots. The sun was dropping behind the clouds and I didn't think the magical last light was going to hit Cathedral Rocks. The rest of the folks there stood their ground with their tripods and continued to murder the same composition :)



May 3:

I Slept in after the long flight and drive on Saturday and besides I didn't have any compelling compositions planned for sunrise. Sleep sounded much better!

Next stop was Grand Canyon South Rim for two nights, while stopping for gas along the way I thought I was seeing a mirage... Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale! I quickly grabbed two six packs just as the clock was striking noon. Ugly I know, but things were looking good! I got situated at the hotel near the south entrance to the GC. I battled to get my internet setup... never easy. No ATT cell coverage except for a small area about a mile up the road toward the park. It was really bizarre, that became my office when I needed phone more than internet. Sunset was OK - the place was PACKED and from what I understand it only gets worse as the summer progresses. The tour buses rock out here, they bring them in EARLY and run well after sunset.

Earlier that day I found a decent front to back compo, which are not that easy to come by. I didn't want to end up with a bunch of wide open shots of the Canyon as in most cases the pics just don't convey the vastness of seeing it in person.



Sunrise and sunset the next day had pretty average to crap light... and again the tour buses were parked outside my hotel by 5 am! I tried to make the most of the average light...

sunrise:


and sunset...out of position again :)


Man this blogging is harder than I thought it would be - this might be the only post!
Sunrise my last day was pretty much crappy hazy cloudless skies. I would see plenty more of that. I finished up the last of the celebration ale with a burger king breakfast sandwich :) which just reminded me of something; they take your head off at the knees for fast food and coffee and everything else out there... a large fries from mcd's was $3. A large latte with an extra shot was almost $6! Next stop Page/Lake Powell... more shots from the rest of the trip are already up on flickr if you want to cheat and look ahead. I'm not too worried because I don't think anyone will read this...really, I mean that.