Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Finding the Truth at False Kiva

Canyonlands National Park offers visitors sweeping vistas, interesting rock formations and less crowds (as compared to nearby Arches National Park). The Park consists of three areas: Island in the Sky, the Needles and the Maze.

False Kiva, along with Mesa Arch, was another area of the park I wanted to photograph. This is one of the "secrets" of the park and the location is not found anywhere in the park literature. The park rangers will not volunteer the location unless you ask them. It is a fragile area and they do not want hordes of tourists trampling all over the place. Earlier in the day I met Bob, a retiree traveling around the Southwest taking photos, and we agreed to hike out to find False Kiva (he attempted to find it the previous day but with no luck). After much scrambling we did find it and we were rewarded with an amazing view!

Equipment used:

Canon EOS 5D ,Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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Saturday, September 24, 2011

A Window into Turret Arch

Arches is a great little National Park to photograph. Unlike Yellowstone, which requires hundred of miles of driving, Arches is a manageable park with most of the classic sites within reach of parking your car.

Photographing Arches is also made very pleasant since nearby is the handy gateway town of Moab, Utah. This also makes it a great base to photograph nearby Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.

Some photo and travel tips regarding my trip to Arches National Park and vicinity:

Think small: Fly into a smaller regional airport. Rather than flying into a big airport hub like Salt Lake City and driving five hours to get to Moab, I flew into Grand Junction, Colorado and drove an hour and half along a scenic highway to get to my destination. In addition, the much smaller regional airports are a breeze for travelers as opposed to the behemoth airports that require miles of walking and tons of headaches.

Get an alarm clock: Many people have e-mailed me asking how I get such brilliant colors in my photographs. Get up early and stay out late to photograph at sunrise and sunset when nature's light returns the favor of your early rising with deep saturated colors.

Read before you see: Before I even click my shutter button I do extensive research of the places I photograph. I read guidebooks, magazines and photo website forums for advice on the best shot locations. Also, I'll read books that feature my trip destination to give me a better appreciation of the places I'll discover. For example, for my trip to Savannah, GA I read John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." For this trip I read the classic, "Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness," by Edward Abbey.

Rock Steady: To get those super sharp photos you'll need a tripod. I travel with a very lightweight carbon fiber tripod that is small enough to fit into my carry on luggage. Good landscape photography requires shooting in weak light (sunrise and sunset) and small apertures. Canon "L" lenses will deliver some great shots for you but if your camera isn't steady you will get blurry photos. Invest in a good tripod before you invest in quality lenses.

Seek Inspiration to be Inspired: In downtown Moab, UT you can visit Tom Till's photography gallery. Yes, you can duplicate his classic shots but this will inspire you to search deeper to find your own "classics" while improving your photography skills.

What a Bargain: Invest in a National Park Pass. If you want to meet Europeans there is no need to go to Europe just visit your local National Park. I have met many more Europeans than Americans in the many National Parks I have visited. There's a reason why so many foreign travelers visit our parks because the wondrous beauty of our national treasures are unparalleled. Visit our National Parks before some of our national treasures are gone.

This is a sunrise shot of Turret Arch looking through the North Window. Get here early to catch a spectacular light show. In the Windows section of the park take the trail toward the North Window and hike right under it until you see a trail that you can scramble up on to get to a ledge. From here you can shoot the classic photo that you see above. That little white speck you see on the upper left hand side is the moon.

Be a Traveler not a Tourist!

Equipment used:
Canon EOS 5D ,Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di LD IF

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Practicing Delicate Diplomatic Relations at Delicate Arch

Feast your eyes people! This is a rare photograph I captured of Delicate Arch, the iconic symbol of Utah, in Arches National Park. Okay a simple search here on Flickr or Google and you’ll find more photos of this freestanding natural arch then all the inhabitants of China.

Why is this a rare photograph of Delicate Arch?

Because there are no tourists posing under it!

No, I didn’t “clone” anybody out in post-processing, I simply did it the old fashion way...I screamed at them to get out of my frame (I had some help too).

A 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot will deliver you to the signature arch of the park. The 45 minute hike is easy to do but carrying two camera bodies, five lenses, a point and shoot camera, tripod and water made for a challenge. But if you get here right at sunset you will be rewarded with one of nature's best light show.

You will also be in the good company of hundreds of budding photographers and oblivious tourists. Of course, many of those tourists want to get a photo op under the arch thus angering many of those budding photographers which included myself. In unison we politely asked them to get out of our frame momentarily but to no avail.

As I was standing shoulder to shoulder of what looked like a firing squad of photographers with our tripod mounted cameras, I grew frustrated by the moment. So I took the initiative and grabbed my tripod to get a closer shot and a couple of photographers followed me (I love playing follow the leader). I then politely asked the “Arch” models if they would please move temporarily and again they ignored my pleas.

Finally one of the other photographers next to me pointed out that they were European tourists who didn’t comprehend my English speaking pleas (in reality most Europeans speak and understand English perfectly so they probably just wanted to piss off another American).

So the German photographer to my left said something in German and the German tourists moved. The French photographer to my right said something in French and the French tourists moved. I then said something in my parents native language, Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines for those not in the know), and the rest moved (okay I made that last part up...I’m an American and I only speak one language).

In the end everybody left happy. Hiking back to the parking lot with Bud, the German photographer (yes, that was his name), he shared with me his travel stories of four months of traveling solo in America.

“This was the first time I was traveling to America and I was confident my English was good enough to communicate with the locals,” Bud paused for a moment to reflect “but what I wasn’t prepared for was all the Spanish speakers I’ve encountered.”

“Bud, this is America,” I replied “Spanish is our national language.”

Adios my Flickr amigos!

Equipment used:

Canon EOS 5D, Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di LD IF, an overpriced Manfrotto tripod

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Busy Bee in the Beehive State

This is from a recent business trip I took to Salt Lake City, Utah a couple of weeks ago. I have been to Salt Lake City numerous times but every time I wanted to photograph the capitol it was always covered in scaffolding due to renovations. This was the first opportunity I had to photograph their beautiful state capitol during the blue hour.

Utah is known as the Beehive State because the beehive symbol to industry and the pioneer virtues of thrift and perseverance. I was a busy bee for couple of days in the Beehive State meeting work deadlines and giving presentations. Fortunately I had one free evening to photograph the state capitol without any distractions.

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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