“Antelope Island and Clouds”

“Antelope Island and Clouds” Utah. © JoelAddams.com

ANTELOPE ISLAND, UTAH

While shooting with a friend of mine in the west part of the Salt Lake Valley, we noticed what the clouds were doing to the north of us around Antelope Island, one of the state parks that harbor all the bison in a protected sanctuary.  The sun was brilliantly hot, but as the clouds moved overhead, they illuminated parts of the scene, including the island itself.  Multiple images are put together to make this high resolution panorama. I felt like the X-PRO 1 sensor did a fantastic job at both the dynamic range and the detail of this scene.

Camera: Fujifilm X-PRO 1
Lens: Fujifilm 35 mm f/1.4
Settings: ISO400, f/5.6, 1/2000 of a second
Filters:  None

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Day for Night – Hot Springs

A day for night shot in central Utah. By Joel Addams

CENTRAL UTAH

Think of this as a sketch in the ol’ sketchbook.  There is a lot of cleaning up to do in a post-processing sense, but this is what I was envisioning when passing through the beloved hot springs in Central Utah.

Central Utah Camping + Hot Springs

Camping – Central Utah

Camping – Central Utah

Central Utah Camping

Camping Central Utah

Hot Springs – Central Utah

CENTRAL UTAH – CAMPING

This was a great weekend in central Utah with good company.  Awesome trip, good exploring, good campfires, and good hot springs.  Nothing better.

 

“Evening Fog and Pier” Golden Gate State Park, California
Alta’s Albion Basin in Summer
Naturalist Basin, High Uintas and A Little Photography

Creighton Lowe, Sarah Jackson, Justin Brown: Cycling, Trailrunning

Creighton Lowe and Sarah Jackson prep for the shoot by Joel Addams

Creighton holds the full moon by Joel Addams

Sarah Jackson with long strides over Salt Lake City by Joel Addams

Two runners at sunset by Joel Addams

Creighton Lowe, Cycling by Joel Addams

Creighton Lowe preps for the running portion by Joel Addams

Creighton holds the full moon by Joel Addams

Justin Brown trailruns in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah by Joel Addams

Justin Brown trailruns in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah by Joel Addams

A couple of great outings with these great people.  It’s nice when your athletes are accommodating, creative, and have valuable input in to your photographs.

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New Image – “Wildflowers, Albion Basin, Utah”

ALBION BASIN, LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, UTAH

Ah, yes.  Spring moving into summer.  With Mother’s Day just around the corner, it seems appropriate to feature a new image with more wildflowers than you can shake a stick at.  Last year, I was able to work on a project for a Utah-based firm and took some images of the wildflowers in Alta, Utah.  The mosquitos were pretty powerful, but the imagery in front of me was much more powerful.  The last light on the towers above Albion Basin was a nice touch to the foreground of yellow spray.  I always focus a few feet in front of me or about 1/3rd of the way back into the scene, depending on my aperture setting.  Somewhere between f/11 – f/16 is pretty tasty to get most things in focus in a scene like this.  The aperture f/22 certainly does work, but most people will admit (if they are excruciating about it) that it lowers the focus and contrast ever so slightly.  The 24 mm TS lens by Canon is really fantastic…and sharp.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 24 mm Mark II Tilt-Shift Lens
Settings: ISO200, f/11, 0.6 seconds
Filters:  Circular Polarizer, Singh-Ray 4-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density, Singh-Ray 3-stop Graduated Neutral Density
Other: Manfrotto Tripod, Cable Release

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“Three Gossips and Courthouse Towers, Sunrise” Arches National Park, Utah

"Three Gossips and Courthouse Towers" Arches National Park, Utah by Joel Addams

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

Ahh.  It’s always good to be back home.  Home is where the deserts meet the mountains in Utah, and a mere four hours by car from Salt Lake City will land you squarely in Moab, Utah.   Only a stone’s throw from this mountain biking mecca are two National Parks, Canyonlands and Arches, both with accessible shooting opportunities.  This shot was from late winter with the receding snow in the park somewhat of an anomaly at times.  I’ve often been frustrated by the haze that settles in over Arches, but this sunrise was pretty reasonable.  A good old Singh-Ray external graduated neutral density filter does the trick of deepening the blue in the sky.  On to spring…

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII,
Lens: 17-40 mm lens at 17 mm
Settings: ISO100, f/13, 1/6 of a second
Filters:  Singh-Ray 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter, LB warming polarizer
Other: Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod, Cable Release

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“Telephone Booth in the Forest”

"Telephone Booth in the Forest" by Joel Addams

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA

It was hard to pass up this illuminated telephone booth in the middle of the forest a little while back.  Admittedly, you always think a bear is creeping up on you when you are standing outside in the black night of the forest photographing a telephone booth.  Alas, no bear.  But it was cold.  Why this Pacific Bell telephone booth is still standing and illuminated is beyond me.  I think I photographed it because of its message…absurdity or loneliness or whatever.  And I like naturally dark edges on my images.  All of these combined to make this image interesting to me.  Enough to risk the bears and the cold for awhile.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2
Settings: ISO2000, f/1.2, 1/25th of a second
Filters:  B + W UV Filter
Other: Handheld

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“Turret Arch” Arches National Park, Utah

"Turret Arch" Arches National Park, Utah

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

Arches National Park is somewhat of a “drive, drop, and shoot” lover’s dream.  My hope was to hit up the North and South Windows (two rock formations) on this particular evening, but the clouds hung low, and I didn’t find the angle I wanted.  It was on the short trail back to the cars that the sun peeked out of a sliver of clouds on the horizon.  This shot was taken of Turret Arch, and I was lucky to have some nice clouds help out the interest in the shot.  I chose f/22 because I wanted to get as much of a sunstar as possible on this shot.  This slowed down the shutter, of course.  The slow shutter speed didn’t bother me though at 1/8th of a second since I was on a sturdy tripod.  Overall, I opted to leave the image dark where it was supposed to be dark.  I prefer the contrast rather than a more brash HDR image.

Camera: Canon 5D
Lens: Canon 17 – 40 mm f/4 lens
Settings: ISO100, f/22, 1/8th of a second
Filters:  Warming Filter
Other: Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod, Cable Release

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How I Got That Shot – “Galicia Forest in Fog, Spain”

"Galicia Forest in Fog" Spain by Joel Addams

CAMINO DE SANTIAGO, GALICIA, SPAIN

Some many photographs came out of the walk across across northern Spain, know as the “Camino de Santiago.”  This ancient pilgrimage trail remains one of the very many approaches the faithful would make towards the bones of St. James in the city of Santiago, Spain.  The Galicia is part of the last of the journey, where high mountain passes and scorchingly hot vineyards along the way turn to misty hilltops and sometimes heavy rains.  I couldn’t pass up this scene as the trail wound through a forest, the shapes of the trees outlined in the fog. I used a Canon 24 mm Tilt-Shift lens at full tilt, giving a selective focus somewhere in the center.  Doing this also naturally darkens the sides of the frame that are also out of focus.  This can definitely give a bit of a nostalgic look, which I think enhanced the image.  Some minimal post-processing warmed some of the highlights and then usually I work with the curves in either Lightroom or Photoshop to work on contrast.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 24 mm Mark II Tilt-Shift Lens
Settings: ISO640, f/3.5, 1/100th of a second
Filters:  None
Other: Handheld

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How I Got That Shot – “Between Here and There, Antelope Canyon” Arizona

"Between Here and There, Antelope Canyon" Arizona by Joel Addams

ANTELOPE CANYON, ARIZONA

Just outside of Page, Arizona is the Navajo Nation that owns and operates several extraordinary canyons in the area.  Possibly one of the most visited slot canyons in the world, these two canyons (Lower and Upper) are separated by several miles and can only be accessed by permission, a fee, and a guide from the area.  I was shooting with a fabulous group of participants in a workshop last year, and we were blown away by the fantastic light show of beams that stuck walls, the floor of the canyons, and certain objects that become stuck when the water rushes into the canyon during storms.  The combination of this log and the light streaming in around called my attention, and we stuck around for a moment looking almost straight up to photograph it.  One key here is overexposure.  If you are shooting in manual, then manually increase the meter to 1-stop and then 2-stop and then 3-stops overexposed.  Review your histogram knowing that some of the highlights will likely be blown out.  I didn’t mind much as it gave the appearance of a serious flood of light.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 24 mm Mark II Tilt-Shift Lens
Settings: ISO100, f/11, 1.6 seconds
Filters:  None
Other: Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod, Cable Release

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