Photographing Zion 2018 Day Three Video and Journal

Photographing Zion 2018 Day Three Video and Journal

"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man."

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The accompanying short film is from the morning of our third day. I worked on just two compositions in the morning, shared with you in this film. The afternoon was spent hiking and exploring but was not filmed nor were any images taken. As I put these short films together I am very present to the fact that I need more footage and that I enjoy learning film making. I look forward to capturing more footage of upcoming trips and sharing it with you in these short films.

Our third day thankfully began with quiet solitude on the East side. I used the Fuji GFX 50s to capture back-ups of some the 4 x 5 images as I was still gaining confidence in my process, mostly metering and exposing the scene correctly. Without the instant confirmation that I have with the digital camera, being able to view the histogram and the image captured on the rear screen, I have to wait a couple of weeks before I get my film back to see how the images came out. As I am still somewhat new to large format photography I didn't want to come away with nothing from the trip in case I got it all wrong. It was an easy thing to do in most cases as it takes me just a few minutes to set up the GFX as opposed to 15-20 minutes to set up the 4 x 5.

After getting the film back from the lab I was delighted that almost all the negatives were properly exposed. A big step was taken this trip towards my confidence. Once the negatives were scanned into Lightroom and having a chance to review the digital next to the film versions, I chose the film versions without exception. Even though I really enjoy the GFX and the results are superb for a digital camera, there was something about the film images that had more dimension and depth. The images revealed from this day are both shot on Fujifilm Velvia 50.

The washes we found this morning were still untouched and freshly sculpted from the water that had flowed the previous two days. As the water receded it left beautiful patterns in the sand that I enjoyed including in the compositions. I knew that we weren't the only photographers out as several, who I respect and learn from, were visiting Zion at the same time we were there so we were careful as we walked to do our best to leave as much of the scenery in the untouched state.

It was a beautiful day lost in wonder at times in the beauty we had immersed ourselves in.

Next up, Day Four from our day in The Narrows. We are beginning to prepare for a week in Death Valley a the end of the month. Another location that neither Lisa nor I have ever visited.

Thank you for taking the time to watch and read!

To view the two images in high res, click here.