New Niece + Moab trip

First off, I excited to announce that we've welcomed a new niece into our family. Ruby was born last month and after a difficult summer we're so glad she's here.

Shot on 4X5 Portra 400NC, with a Symmar-S 150/5.6 @5.6,1/30. White reflector on the left.

This is the false kiva in Island in the Sky. Wish we stayed down a bit longer, because the sky really lit up after if got under a cloud bank that can't be seen here, but this is the shot I had envisioned and we were worried about climbing back out in the dark.

Unfortunately I didn't give enough compensation for the falloff on the 75mm and have less shadow detail than I would have preferred, especially since I still had a good amount of clearance for the highlights in the center of the image.

larger here

4X5 Portra 400 NC, Super Angulon 75/8, 2 stop soft GND

Made a stop at Deadhorse for sunrise. I've been going to Moab for a ~15 years, but I've never made it over to this area. We got a clear but hazy sunrise, so I waited a bit for the light to be a bit more intense in the canyon.

4X5 Portra 400NC, Symmar-S 150/5.6, 2 stop hard edge GND

We were planning to hike out to Chesler Park, but the night before we were tortured by high winds and were late getting on the road. By the time we got down there, it was already high 80s in the Elephant Hill parking area and we decided to skip that hike. We headed down to Cedar Mesa and Natural Bridges instead.

I think this one needs a little tweaking with luminosity masks to make it pop, but the bones are there.

4X5 Portra 400 NC, Symmar-S 150/5.6

The CPL got me a bit on this one, but it really made the clouds pop.

35mm Portra 160VC, EOS3, 17-40L, CPL

One last shot and a big thanks to Brent for the E100GX.

Popcorn clouds at sunrise - Balanced Rock - Arches

35mm E100GX, EOS3, 17-40L

I've got a fair bit more to scan, but this was a start.

Really sharp shots Mel. I really enjoy that last one. The horizon on the Deadhorse one looks a little tilted to me, but really sweet shot.

Congrats on the new niece, a real cutie!
Glad to see you were able to get away on a trip.

Coming out from False Kiva after dark isn't a big deal, as long as you don't lose the trail.

Thanks Bill. It was a short trip and I had a rough week when I got back to work, but it was still nice to be away for a couple days. Hope you guys had a good float. I'll look forward to seeing a few pictures sometime.

I wasn't really worried about the False Kiva trail myself, but Sandy wasn't real comfortable with the idea of doing it with a headlamp. I thought maybe we could get to the Green River Overlook for end of the sunset, but when we got over there the light was pretty much blocked anyways.

Congratulations on the new niece, Mel!

Great set of photos from Moab, too. I really wish the False Kiva image had more shadow detail as you had a killer sky and some nice light in the canyon. All in all, a nice collection of photos.

How do you like the Portra 400NC? Seems to be very popular.
And congrats on the family addition.

Congrats on the new addition, I know there were some concerns earlier.
I really like the Deadhorse Pt shot and the Balanced Rock sunrise. I like the sky and midground in the Kiva shot but the foreground is too dark in both of the postings. Maybe you can pull more out of the shadows to give that area some interest. This looks like a good case for a couple of exposures and a 4x5 blend!

If I had compensated for the falloff, I would have been in good shape on the Kiva shot with a single exposure. I calculated exposure so that my exposure was set at 2 stops above the darkest tones. This usually works well with Portra to keep plenty of shadow detail, but I forgot that the shadows were on the edges and the 75 loses about 2 stops which really put me at -4 in those regions. I just didn't compensate for that, but its a lesson learned. I don't use the 75 or 65 that often and I've never shot them where there were such deep shadows in the worst parts of the falloff and don't have the falloff issues with any other lenses I own.

There are some details in the lower shadows, but keeping them made the shadows look gray, so I added contrast and let them go pretty black.

Still, I think the hint of what's there lends some mystery to the shot. I like the sky and the canyon detail, so I'm happy with the shot overall.

Your shot of false kiva is one of my favorite from the place. I love the comp and the dark tones, and you can still see all the details. I find the Dead Horse Point shot too saturated (this is from a former Velvia user). Thanks for posting.

Great shots, looks like you had great trip.

Congrats on the addition and it is good to see new work from you.

RichieV

That first Moab shot is great, I really like the composition.