Photographing Grand Canyon and Yellowstone N. P.

[25asa]

I don't think we'll be anywhere near the park come sundown. Either on the bus or hotel room.

[25asa]

But just in case- I do have a roll of Fuji 1600 in the freezer. It wouldn't be too hard to bring it.

[ted_marcus1]

With a whirlwind itinerary like you describe, the opportunities for good photography will be rather limited. Rather than bogging yourself down with 35mm and medium format, I'd leave the medium format at home and bring the 350D (and plenty of Preparation H). If you want to economize on cards, shoot large fine JPEG only and forget about raw. The image quality is indistinguishable, assuming you get the exposure right.

[25asa]

I considered just using the 2 EOS bodies, but someone said 16x20s from either will result in low resolution. At 8 megapixels that works out to 140 dpi. It would be easier to just bring EOS since the P6x7 equipment is the heaviest of all of it. I still may consider this route, especially if I don't use a wide angle with the medium format. The thing is bringing the digital makes bringing the film almost redundant. Of course I could use film as the main camera and digital for the "highlights" of the trip. I already have two batteries for the XT with the grip. I'll have to think this over. What tempts me is the big chromes I'd get from that natural wonder. I'll see. If I knew how many stops we'd be making during the day, it would help knowing what photo ops I'd have. Given the short distances between all the days, I'd guess we're not on the road as much as previous trips I've been on. It really only takes two days to travel to the Canyon from here, yet on our trip its day 9.

[aaron l]

You're going to blast through a ton of the US in no time. You'll miss Olympic national park, North Cascades, Glacier National Park going to Missoula..you'll get to see why Montana is big sky country. The drive there from BC via Wenatchee and Leavenworth will be pretty. Strange to spend that long going from Leavenworth to Wenatchee. That's a lot of ground to cover and you haven't even gotten started! Wenatchee to Missoula...long drive. Montana can be cold! Missoula to yellowstone (YS) - long drive.

 

If you're only spending .8 days in YS based on what you wrote in your itenerary, you'll see old faithful, artist's point at the canyon, paint pots, few pools, YS falls, mamoth hot springs if you're lucky (easy to shoot elk there as they're right in town) and you'll be gone. Travelling there is very slow. You'll be ferried to the viewing point, let out for 1/2 hour to 2 hours, will shoot your shots and hop back into the bus. You won't have time to hike anywhere appreciable unless you're an athlete. Sounds like you're staying in the park, so get up EARLY to see the geisers - it'll be cold enough that the steam will be intense and you might get some beautiful shots.

 

Bring warm clothes!! September in YS can be downright cold. Handling cold cameras in the morning will make you wish you'd brought a hat, gloves, warm jacket etc. It's not uncommon to have a dusting of snow there in September. That being said, you can also get a sunburn from cold/wind/sun due to elevation. This will also help you at grand canyon (GC) in the evening/morning.

 

Be careful about bringing too much gear - you'll spend more time fiddling than shooting. I've shot 4x5 + 35mm and it was annoying. And I had time to poke around. Also, YS is at 6,000' (2,000m) - running around will make you short of breath if you're not ready. Carrying lots of gear will increase the effect. Do not underestimate the weather there. It's the Rockies. You'll normally luck out, but bring a heavy coat. I'm not kidding on this, either. It's better to have it should it freeze - you'll look smart.

 

The Tetons are stunning...you'll probably stop at snake river overlook, shoot the obligatory shots, might see buffalo (bison), elk, deer, antelope, moose. That's 35mm shooting. You won't have time to hike anything in the Tetons. The view is awesome, though. If you can, shoot from somewhere besides the stone wall at the overlook....be different. It's been shot millions of times.

 

Sounds like you're staying in Jackson... Tons of photo galleries, including Mangleson & others. Check out the million dollar cowboy bar, see the saddle bar stools and the grizzly killed by a man's hands (believe it or not), see the silver dollar bar at the wort hotel, the elk antler arches at the square, stuffed game store in one corner with every animal imaginable, Jackson pharmacy for a soda, mangy moose and boom, you're gone. If you're an athlete, get up early to get to the top of snow king and back. I used to live there, can you tell? Check out the geese at the south end of the elk reserve. You can almost walk up to them, so wide angle lens. Telephoto for the swans in the marsh. Endless shopping, fancy food. Whew... It can be cold and windy, even dust snow.

 

Travelling Jackson to SLC 5-6 hours. A full day in SLC? IMO, a waste compared to spending more time in YS, jackson, moab, GC etc. Take it as a day of rest. See the mormon temple from the outside and such. SLC to Moab via Arches...you'll pretty much blast through there. Page...interesting place.

 

Grand Canyon will be the south rim. From Page, you will enter GC at the east entrance. You will see the desert tower first. It can be roasting in the day and freezing morning/evening. Again, the elevation is 6,800' (2072m). You can get winded easily there. You'll stop at the visitors center, desert tower and several inbetween places. Probably will miss the indian ruins. If you have time at the desert tower, walk out to the peninsula of land that you can see from the tower. It's about 15 minutes downhill walking, but you'll get away from the crowds and maybe have it to yourself. Haze cutting filter/polarizer important. Test your weapons before heading to the field.

 

Vegas...what can I say? Check out the Bellagio water show, lions at MGM, tigers at Mirage, slingshot at the stratosphere. Sit at a slot machine and enjoy free drinks. Vegas to fresno... You will blow past Mojave, Death valley, Sequoia, Yosemite and probably miss it all unless there's a superfast side trip... Too bad! Fresno is a pit. Found a sushi bar there once that was halfway good amazingly, though! The weather will be nice in Fresno.

 

Napa in september is nice...not too hot and less crowded. Lots of nice wines, lots of gross wines. Depends on your tastes. People watching is fun there. V. Satui has a neat wine cellar if you get there. Hope you get to see some of the smaller places, too. On to Ukiah, you'll blow past San Francisco, Santa Cruz, the coast, redwood park... To Grants pass on the I-5 will be boring, though the Siskyou mtns on the CA/OR border are pretty and you'll pass Mt Shasta, again awesome. Hope you get to see some redwoods! The weather will be temperate, not too cold or hot.

 

Rogue river will be pretty, though down in water due to late season and drought. Great country. Then back to BC, huh? Nice during September.

 

You're not on the road as much as other trips you've been on? This is HUGE road coverage! You're pretty much going to see more than many have but yet you'll see very little of those places you're at. A trade-off. You will travel at a minimum of 3,784 miles (6054km), shortest day 22m/35km, longest 395m/632km, average 236m/378km per day, you'll spend 5 hours a day on the road minimum based on a 50mph/80kph average.

 

Enjoy it but come back for in-depth one place searching! That trip is even more brutal than my long trips and I have a reputation.

[aaron l]

Film:

Now that the coverage part is over, the film part. I used to shoot about 20 rolls on a trip like that, being stingy. For me, that's $6/roll + $6/process for slides, about 20x$13 = $260 in slides. 4x5...would end up with $64 in 4x5 slides. At least.

 

Digital vs film:

Buy a storage tank/cd burner and shoot yourself silly. Come home, only print the photos you want. You don't want to print ALL your shots...that's wasteful, even if you have a photo store hookup. I've reverted to digital, now shoot 5x what i used to, e.g. 3,000 shots in Japan, 10 days; 3,000 shots in China 21 days - my ex-gf slowed me down Hahaha. Each trip woulda been the cost of a D70+kit lens in film/processing alone. And the constant x-rays woulda ruined much of it anyway.

 

I now come back with tons more keepers, can shoot more variety, can shoot in the dark or day, don't waste huge money on processing lots of junk. And yes, I consider my compositions carefully but when things get wild, I can blaze away. What happens when you go from bright to dark in 10 minutes...do you cary multiple film bodies? Rewind film early? Get blurry/grainy shots? Digital - rotate a dial. Shoot. Rotate it back.

 

The initial digital cost is high but it costs Nothing to view and dispose of your snaps. I come home, sort my junk and gold, chose which to print and only print those. What a deal!

 

6x7 film will garner you lots of big shots, very nice. You won't shoot a ton of "best viewpoint" shots with the time you have. They'll be great, though!

 

This is not a slight to you, but if you intend to get great photographs, your trip will NOT allow you to be at the best times and places, nor to talk to the locals too find out (Oh, there's a moose down the creek and catch him at sunrise/set behind him). Only being at a place a day will never compete with those who can spend days/weeks at a place. Don't be dissapointed when you can't match, but be very happy when you can!

 

You're considering using Gold 100 and spending this much time/cash on a trip? Gah! Velvia, 100VS/100GX, 400UC, 160NC/VC would be my choices. Slides are less forgiving but much more beautiful. Reala will be okay. Don't use cheap film alongside pro film. You'll be sorely dissapointed. You have time to scan all that stuff? Have fun as you have more patience than I! Sounds like you're at the same place I was last year with film vs digital. Digital won for me.

I have two boxes of Velia sitting in my fridge going nowhere. Want to buy at 1/2 off? ;)

 

Lenses:

Wide angle at grand canyon (GC)....could be more dissapointing than you might think. Try a compressed shot or two. Many places you're going to want a great tripod to justify all that gear. Don't go that far with that much and come back with blurry photos. At GC, wide will give you lots of canyon if you stand on the edge or tons of blank sky. Chose wisely. Desert tower has reflectoscopes - black mirrors to photograph with. Try it...you'll be surprised.

 

Your widest lens is 28mm? Not very wide but keeps junk out of your shots.

 

Any animals at YS, Jackson or otherwise are going to be telephoto save the funny geese. A 100-300mm will keep you happy. Take the digital and use it for its 1.5x factor to get more reach on your tele.

 

Good luck!

[frank_kimble]

As much as you want those big prints, I doubt seriously you'll be in a position to take them. You'll need a tripod for the 6X7(and also best for the 35mm) and taking it on a bus will be a pain. You may want to inquire if you will be allowed to have your tripod in the passenger compartment of the bus. Seting up for tripod shots will consume a lot of your time at each stop. A pol. filter will be a must but shooting midday will not produce the best pics. I'd go with the 35mm and the digital.Your one card shooting 1 or 2 notches down from raw will hold a lots of pics. The advice about dumping your cf card to a cd every evening sounds good, but you may not be anywhere near a shop that has that ability or that is still open when the bus arrives. This would be doable on your "off" days. taking just the Canon's would reduce your baggage both bulk and weight. Lens would be intercahangable. A broke body would not seriously hurt your ability to take pics. Now when you go in an auto where you have controll of where and when and for how long, the 6X7 will be the main camera and you can get some great shots. As to the luggage area of the bus, it should not get too hot, but you may want to get a softside little cooler to keep your film in, and it could be kept in the passenger area. Sort thru everyone's advise and figure what makes sense to you. Most importantly enjoy your trip.

[25asa]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably just bring the two Canons. I test weighted both with lenses in the bag, and its less heavy, but still weighty considering. I could see lugging that around for a bit being tiresome. I may just get one more card if I can before I go. We don't offer it in our store, but maybe the US is different: I was not aware you could dump raw files as is to CDs. Our printer is not setup for that, so I was assuming other places would be the same story. We can however dump Jpegs down to CD, but they get changed to 1500x 1000.

 

I will be putting some of my good pics in my folder after all is said and done. As for using Gold 100- I was going to leave that for a backup and places I'm not too concerned about. I may pick up some more rolls of Reala if need be.

[craig_gillette]

Weather will be all over the map, just as you will be. I'd agree with the recommendations that you might expect some rather cold weather at the higher elevations, especially in the northern areas.

 

Between Page and the GC, you'll likely stop at Cameron or one of the trading posts, be aware of photo sensitivities, and at the Little Colorado, check out the canyons more than the tourist jewelry. At the GC, you can walk the rim trail and plan on picking a good spot for sunset, hopefully timing will be good for that. It's a guess but I wouldn't be surprised if you did stop at Hoover Dam on the way into Las Vegas. While the film on construction is interesting I'd pass on it if time is tight, if timing is right, take one of the tours that will get you into the powerhouses and out at the base. Otherwise walking about the top can be interesting, catch both sides if you can and the electrical facilities (if your interest run that way). It's entirely possible that you'll see desert bighorn in the area.

 

Grand Canyon at it's altitude will likely be pleasant, maybe warm to hot, Las Vegas, almost certain to be hot (we camped there at this time of year a couple of years ago.). At the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, you might even plan on some rain. There's often a monsoonal flow and there will be thunderstorms. These would likely be brief but potentially very intense - helps clean the air and can provide for some wonderful clouds. In Vegas, you can walk most of the main strip area at night - maybe too hot to walk it much in the daytime and it might still be rather hot at night. You may want to consider some kind of tripod or clamp, (I bungee a monopod to various structures), to allow for long exposures of the lights. Many of the casino/resort interiors are very interesting but not real well lit (the gambling areas aren't usually real welcoming of photography). I think the exteriors are more fun. If it's humid, and it can be with the monsoons, be at least somewhat aware of the potential for condensation if you go in and out of the air conditioned buildings. The Bellagio, besides the fountains, has two interior areas that may be of special interest, there is an art glass ceiling in the main lobby, and the atrium, directly to the rear of the main lobby usually has seasonal floral displays. I don't know that I'd make a special effort to capture any of the other exterior "shows."

 

Stay hydrated in the high altitudes and desert areas. Wear a hat and sunscreen. You don't want to feel bad or be sunburned.

[25asa]

Our trip at the last minute was cancelled by the company because not enough people signed up. So it looks like we'll have to wait another year. She doesn't want to drive the trip either, so that is out. I'll keep these notes for future use.