I'm little nervous about the following post because it's essentially me introducing my new website to a lot of great photographers that know how to critique. My main concern with my images is oversaturation. I like color and have been known to crank up the vividness, however I don't like my shots to resemble the Emerald City in Wizard of Oz.
I spent 10 days and 9 nights last month in the Needles District, Canyonlands. The first 5 days were spent backpacking the Salt Creek area. The last 5 days were spent camping with my family at Squaw Flats Campground. I had the time of my life! Love that place.
My images are a combination of both areas which are different from one another. The Salt Creek area will convey towering sandstone peaks, often over 1000-ft high. Angle Arch is represented well too; considered the largest, most remote arch in the park. I've researched the photography aspect of Salt Creek and the word in general is the area is average for scenic value. I'll let you be the judge of that. It may be average to anyone that sticks to the trail because the trail stays low in a winding canyon, shooting upward can make composition average I suppose. However with some work it's possible to climb out of the canyon in different areas and get a birds eye view of the spectacular scenery. My buddy and I did spend a lot of time exploring the SC4 campspot area which is definately has the best scenic value. Exploring involved some scrambling and plenty of bushwacking. BTW, the Salt Creek area is loaded with Anasazi Indian ruins.
The Squaw Flats area is a lot less work and provides great views with minimal effort. Most of my favs from this area were taken from a cone shaped peak about a half hr south of the campground. The peak is unnammed but obvious from the campground. Its an easy class 3 hike with good routefinding. Sunsets and surise fram that summit are unbelievable.
Let me know if you need any more specific information on the area and I will be happy to share.
Posted by Jim Casteel on April 20, 2010 at 9:18 PM
Well first of all welcome! You will find the most amazing group of people in this forum. Not like any other forum I belong to. The posted image looks nice from what I can see but I would like to see it larger. Our image requirements allow the images to be upto 720 pixels on the long side.
The stuff on your website looks great. I really like your b&w treatments.
Whoaaaa....you got some great images from this trip!
I especially like (in order) the toned b&w version of Angel Arch and the Molar, the pano. view of the Needles, the sunkissed sandstone monoliths and the b&w version of Angel Arch.
Not too saturated for my taste. Well done, Kane...what a fine trip you had!
Damn, nice web site Kane! I've always admired the unusual views you get of these locations, and it's nice to see them with such solid presentation. Nice to see the shout-out to SummitPost people on your about page; SP was a big influence on my increasing fascination with photography. I love the Utah stuff, and the saturation seems generally fine. I struggle with the saturation issue as well. Sometimes I feel like I push it a little far, then I try and back off and feel like my images get unreasonably dull. Still looking for the balance....
Great image. Loved your images on your website as well and your unique views. Ditto on the summit post props.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on April 20, 2010 at 10:18 PM
You took an awesome selection on this trip! My favs on your website are the tenth one down and the eighth one down. Remember to post them big over here, they are certainly worthy of it. Really, really cool stuff.
Posted by Paul Martin on April 20, 2010 at 10:27 PM
Kane,
You have some great images from needles -- way to ignore warnings that certain aeras aren't photogenic, as you showed. I am a fan of the saturation as well.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on April 20, 2010 at 10:49 PM
Very nice collection! I love that area and I think you've captured it well. I like the arch shots with the arch in the background giving it a different role in the image. No saturation issues from me!
Posted by Brett Deacon on April 20, 2010 at 11:14 PM
Hi Kane. Welcome, and thanks for posting such a great collection of images! Truly inspiring landscapes! I Aside from the third image from the bottom on the first page, I didn't notice any excessive saturation, but even that image could be attributable to my monitor. I'm not sure what you're shooting, but an HDR program like Photomatix would help you dig additional shadow detail out of some of these shots if that is desirable to you. You have some great images on your site; I'm especially partial to your B&W and Ice galleries. Keep up the good work.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on April 21, 2010 at 1:11 AM
I enjoyed viewing the set on your website, Kane. I especially liked the Angel Arch composition at the top of the second page.
Your saturations appear fine to me.
FYI: some of the images on your gallery page are showing as a red 'x'.
Great series and web site. I've really enjoyed perusing your shots.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on April 21, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Kane, when I select your galleries tab, I don't see the images posted for Lost Creek, Sawatch and Utah galleries. When I enter those galleries, I can see all the images, except for Utah, which has a SQL error message.
Welcome! And I will just ditto what Nick posted. Nice work.
Posted by Scott Fricke on April 21, 2010 at 6:29 PM
I've been wanting to hike out to Angel Arch for awhile, you might have inspired me to get out there. My favorite is the B&W of the arch and then #8 on your linked page. But the whole collection is pretty sweet, nice work!
Scott F, know that Angel Arch is a sunrise shot. We got there around 11:00 am and still had backlighting. I have to be honest, Angel Arch was a last second "let's go" on the way out. The arch was in our original plans however we got consumed by the sandstone peaks around campspot SC4. There's some pretty amazing stuff inbetween SC4 and SC3 as well.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on April 22, 2010 at 8:27 AM
Nice series, Kane. I'm really enjoying your website too.
Discussion
19 repliesI spent 10 days and 9 nights last month in the Needles District, Canyonlands. The first 5 days were spent backpacking the Salt Creek area. The last 5 days were spent camping with my family at Squaw Flats Campground. I had the time of my life! Love that place.
My images are a combination of both areas which are different from one another. The Salt Creek area will convey towering sandstone peaks, often over 1000-ft high. Angle Arch is represented well too; considered the largest, most remote arch in the park. I've researched the photography aspect of Salt Creek and the word in general is the area is average for scenic value. I'll let you be the judge of that. It may be average to anyone that sticks to the trail because the trail stays low in a winding canyon, shooting upward can make composition average I suppose. However with some work it's possible to climb out of the canyon in different areas and get a birds eye view of the spectacular scenery. My buddy and I did spend a lot of time exploring the SC4 campspot area which is definately has the best scenic value. Exploring involved some scrambling and plenty of bushwacking. BTW, the Salt Creek area is loaded with Anasazi Indian ruins.
The Squaw Flats area is a lot less work and provides great views with minimal effort. Most of my favs from this area were taken from a cone shaped peak about a half hr south of the campground. The peak is unnammed but obvious from the campground. Its an easy class 3 hike with good routefinding. Sunsets and surise fram that summit are unbelievable.
Let me know if you need any more specific information on the area and I will be happy to share.
http://www.kaephotography.com/gallery/utah-large/
The stuff on your website looks great. I really like your b&w treatments.
I especially like (in order) the toned b&w version of Angel Arch and the Molar, the pano. view of the Needles, the sunkissed sandstone monoliths and the b&w version of Angel Arch.
Not too saturated for my taste. Well done, Kane...what a fine trip you had!
You have some great images from needles -- way to ignore warnings that certain aeras aren't photogenic, as you showed. I am a fan of the saturation as well.
Your saturations appear fine to me.
FYI: some of the images on your gallery page are showing as a red 'x'.
Thanks
I think Bill is referring to some missing images on the front page.
Great series and web site. I've really enjoyed perusing your shots.