Local Texture

This post contains a few recent Ashland Reservoir photos. Local scenes taken with the attempt to make the ordinary seem a bit extra-ordinary. I titled it local texture, as opposed to local color. That's weak photography humor.

After returning from Zion, and capturing a few silky water shots of the Virgin River, I thought I'd try to duplicate the concept using an extremely tiny stream which feeds the Ashland Res. It is only a minor trickle, perhaps a foot across.

Instead of silky water, I got this:

Water Dance

Even though it was a 1/10 second exposure, the nature of a tiny waterfall is different from a large river. I've no doubt a much longer exposure and perhaps less camera movement would have yielded a different result. The "dance" you see is from the reflections of some of the surface water. The sun was illuminating the falls quite strongly but only on the uppermost surface spray.


Here's a shot of the bottom of the stream:

Watercolor

Green Folds

All shots were taken with my 60mm macro. I focus stacked 8 shots of the green folds plant as I continue experimenting with focus stacking on occasion. Here's the result:

Green at a Distance

While this is technically accurate, and has a lot of the plant in focus regardless of distance from the lens - sort of a "photography feat," I can't help but feel the focus stacking feature, at least in this instance, feels clinical in nature. I much prefer the previous photo. It would appear that having asymmetry and parts of an image out-of-focus aren't bad things in photography :)



All photos © 2016, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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Zion Day One

Zion is amazing.

We could not believe the beauty here.


On our first hike we took the Emerald Pool trails and visited the lower, middle, and upper pools. We were greeted by this lovely waterfall on the lower trail. The trail goes *under* this.

Emerald Pool Falls

Rainbow Spotted at Fall's Base

After the Emerald Pool trails, we headed to the Weeping Rock trail.

This next photo is one of many classic views in Zion one gets by looking up.

Zion Grand Theater (my name for this, not theirs)

Indeed Weeping Rock weeped. Again, the trail takes us *under* the water, where we watch from behind the spray. Amazingly this water is not a waterfall, but rather, the spring water sourced far above seeps through the porous Navajo sandstone, a process that takes nearly a thousand years before it reaches the overhanging blind arch we are standing under, known as Weeping Rock.

Weeping Rock

Flowers Bursting on the Weeping Rock Wall

High Tree

Next up, we took the Riverside Walk along the Virgin River to the start of the Narrows.  Zion Canyon was created by the Virgin River.

Silky Virgin River

Late Day Red Walls

This relatively flat stroll along the Virgin River goes for one mile, and was definitely one of the highlights of our Zion visit. The river scenery and surrounding majestic walls were breathtaking.

Virgin River near Temple of Sinawava

We Felt Small Compared to Walls like These

The Narrows was closed due to high April snow runoff. For those that aren't familiar, this "hike" involves walking directly in the water upstream (or downstream). Here is the enticing "bottom-up" entrance to the Narrows seen during the golden hour.

These next two photos are two of my favorites taken in all of Zion and Bryce:

The Start of the Narrows

Deb wanted to get her feet wet both to soothe them from the day's hiking and so that she could get at least "two feet" into the Narrows. She says they turned purple right away in the icy cold water. You can see a few other brave souls in the background that actually went up river even though it was "closed".

Narrows Therapy

More on this trip will follow in my next blog entry.

All photos © 2016, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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