Willow Gulch

Having never hiked in a 'gulch' before, our day-long lazy hike down Willow Gulch kept presenting opportunities that I hadn't anticipated or 'previsualized'. This image was a nice surprise. I spent a lot of time at this spot waiting for the light to fully illuminate the tree. Jennifer made us a little lunch and we soaked our feet in a small pool that's just out of frame to the bottom while waiting for the perfect light. It never did catch the entire tree; another week or two and the sun would be high enough to clear the canyon wall and reach the left-most branches. But we didn't have enough food to wait that long!

Thanks to Guy who suggested this hike. The photography takes a back seat to the experience. It was really something else...

As always - critiques, suggestions and comments are welcome and appreciated!

D2X; 17-35/2.8; 5-stop GND, inverted to keep the foreground under control

Sounds like a great time and you got a great shot to go with it!! Congrats.

Nice! Great color, contrast, and light. I like the moist rock in the foreground. I know it can be hard to get differentiation and control the dynamic range in canyon shots like this. Good job.

Well done Rick, I like how the lines always take my eye back to the tree. Looks like a great place to hike. I hope you have some more.

Nice Rick
Willow is indeed a special place!

RIck,

I really like this shot. I love the colors. I'm curious about the use of 5 stops of GND. Is the foreground lit by direct sunlight? It doesn't appear so from the finished image, which looks very natural.

I really love this, the colors are wonderful.

I'm on the fence here. It seems too chaotic to me. I love individual elements (sunlit tree, sandstone wall w/desert varnish, etc.), just not so much the image as a whole.

Great shot Rick! Having been backpacking in several of the Escalante side canyons before, this shot really reminds me of the "What's behind the next corner?" feeling that get as you hike down through every twisty turn. Makes me want to go back there soon.

Beautiful image Rick. I understands Todd's thoughts on the amount of things to look at it the photo, but I suppose that is why I like it so much, I love how in these areas you can get such a diversity of patterns and textures in the rock in such a small area. I think it is a great composition and the colors are fantastic.

I like it Rick. My only nit is that I wish that the whole tree was lit up. Do tell about the 5-stop inverted ND. I get the inverted concept, but I haven't seen a 5-stop ND filter before. Did you combine a 2-stop and a 3-stop? or did you use a single 5-stop. Also, I'm assuming that it must have been a very soft (gradual) filter to look so natural. You did a really good job of controlling the varying light.

EDIT: I see that Singh-Ray makes the "George Lepp" 5-stop filters. Is this what you used?

Thanks everyone. Regarding the GND, I stacked 2- and 3-stop Singh Ray filters. Some selective dodging easily eliminated signs of the filters. Compared to my old Cokins, the Singh-Rays provide for a much more gradual, less noticeable effect. I also wasn't using the strongest part of the filters.

Tony, the foreground was being lit by direct sunlight most of the time; in this shot, a cloud was just passing through and filtered the light. I captured the shot just before the tree started to go into shade.

Great job Rick! Impressive use of 5 stops of GND and no evident signs of its use. I don't have a single suggestion. You filter experts just aren't going to be satisfied until you make me break down and buy $1500 worth of filters, are you?

Very nice comp and colors. The tree is the best part (obviously).

Beautiful shot! I really like the colors.