akavalun

I have to disagree with Steve. Horseshoe Bend is not an hour's hike from the car park. In fact, it's well under a mile, and shouldn't take you more than about 15 minutes one way. As far as doing both canyons in one day, thats a toughy. I prefer morning light in lower. I'd suggest being in lower from 10-1(Utah time), then head directly over to upper, and leave Horseshoe bend for near/after sunset, pray for some nice clouds.

Does anyone here have any experience printing onto Ilfoflex paper? It looks

like it's one of Ilford's new digital papers for this spring. I've been a

little unhappy with Fuji CA when trying to print vivid reds. For some reason,

the CA papers are weaker in reds than anything else. I've always loved the

saturated reds that Cibachromes can produce, and I'm wondering if this new

Ilfoflex is similar. From what little I can find, one review said that the

Ilfoflex prints look great next to Cibachromes, but that doesnt really say much.

 

Adam Kavalunas

www.plateauvisions.com

Thanks Greg, it helps greatly to see some images of the canyon. It looks like a pretty photogenic slot. Me and a friend are thinking of heading there in 2 weeks!

Posting this in a forum such as this is a sure way for this new canyon to become just as crowded as Upper Antelope is now. I've also spoken with Carol about this canyon and she suggested I look at your website. I only see 2 slot canyon images. Are these from Mountain Sheep? Before dropping a couple hundred bucks on a guided slot tour, I'd like to see images that prove that this canyon is truly as photogenic as Upper or Lower Antelope.

If I understand your problem correctly, here's the answer. When changing the canvas size, the "canvas color" becomes the background color you have set. If you are changing your color using the color picker, select the desired canvas color, hit ok, then hit "x" (on a PC) and that color will then move to the background color. Now stretch your canvas and it should be the appropriate color.

You could spend the first day and night at the strip. Head out early the next day, and spend the day at the South Rim of GC. Shoot sunrise the next day, then head up to Page and do the slots during the day, and maybe stay in Page that night. You could then head to Monument Valley and spend the afternoon and next morning shooting there. Then you could head all the way back to Bryce for the afternoon and sunrise the next morning. Finally, head down to Zion and spend the afternoon and next day there, then head to Vegas for the last night. I think that works in your schedule, or close to it. Of course, this is all based on good weather, and you and your family being satisfied with seeing all these areas, even if you dont get great pictures of each location. Its a comprimise between seeing everything, and coming back with wall hangers. It'll be difficult to do both to the maximum.

 

Adam

I would say not to waste your time with Red Rock Canyon. If you want to spend a day somewhere near Vegas that is scenic, go to Valley of Fire instead. As far as what to do in Vegas, if you do go to the Venetion, definately go see the Peter Lik gallery. Mostly southwestern landscapes, printed HUGE, maybe too big, but nice none the less. Also, head to the stratosphere and ride the Big Shot, an amazing experience at night, if you're a thrill seeker! Dont try to cram too much in to your week. You'll spend more time driving than photographing.

Monarch ski resort, just to the west of Salida.

This wont help you if you can't wait another week, but later in the spring you should head up to Whitefish Point in the eastern U.P. One of the best bird migrations anywhere. While your up there, the central U.P. has some gorgeous waterfalls in and around the Munising area, not to mention Pictured Rocks. Also, close to home you have the Silver Lake Dunes area over on the shores of Lake Michigan. Great for landscapes. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of picturesque landscapes in Michigan. I used to live there and have since moved out to Utah. In my opinion, your best bet is to head to the U.P.!

 

Adam

I agree with the above poster. When I do my final sharpening for a print (already re-sized mind you), I do so viewing at 50%. I've found that the print most resembles this view in my opinion.

 

Adam

Steve pretty much hit the nail on the head. If you go to upper, you have to ride up the canyon with one of the Native guides or hire one in town. The fee is included with your entrance fee if you take one of the guides at the entrance. Once in the canyon, they urge you to stay with your guide. The regular tour lasts just over an hour and the photography tour last up to 2 i think. If you go from May to September, it will be extremely crowded. I'd suggest to go to the lower canyon where you pay your fee, and then can just walk to the entrance and explore at will. They usually have no problem letting you stay atleast 4 hours or more and you'll want to make the most of it. I usually walk all the way down while shooting, and back up, and back down and so forth since the light changes quickly there. Good luck!

 

Adam Kavalunas

www.plateauvisions.com

My most used lens on my Tachi is the lens mentioned. There is plenty of room for movements. For all those saying its not useable, have you actually tried it? When using a 75mm lens you dont need nearly as much movements as with longer lenses. I've never ran out of movements with my 75 on my tachi. For architecture, it may be limiting, but for those who have said movements will be non existant, you might want to get your info straight.

Feisol! Check them out.

Pentax digital spotmeter. Has been and will continue to be one of the best meters. Make yourself a little scale that has ev values on it and tape it on to the dial. It has to be the simplest meter and easiest to use once you understand how it works. It works fine in low light situations, probably half of my images are taken before sunrise or after sunset when ev values can be around 1 or 2.

Check out Feisol. The CT 3441 looks to be right up your alley.

4th vote! I made my own little scaled to tape on mine showing a range from -3 up to +3 so I can set my ev values right where I want them tonality speaking.

Thats quite a question. First of all I'd suggest doing some research. www.lfphoto.info is a great resource to get started. Without knowing what you plan to shoot i.e- architecutral, landscape, portraits, color, B$W, long hiking, car shooting, studio.....etc it would be impossible to even start suggesting any equipment.

 

Adam

Just order it from any professional lab like Photocraft, Reed, or WCI. They will print any dimensions you want and cut it for you. I've never messed with the cheapo online labs. If you want professional looking prints, go to a pro lab.

 

Adam

Its called Large Format! You can change the plane of focus.

There is a new company making lightweight field cameras by the name of Chamonix. I havent used one myself, but i will be purchasing one this spring. I currently use a Tachihara which i really like. The Chamonix is only $100 more @ $699, is the same weight or maybe a little lighter at around 3.2 lbs i think, has almost 400mm of bellows which is considerable more than my tach., and from what i've heard of current users, is one of the sturdiest and solid field cameras around. They also come with double spirit levels on the back of the camera. If you'd like to read more, go to www.lfphoto.info and do a search for Chamonix.

Eye One Display 2. By far the best bang for the buck, has a great interface and does an excellent job. Many on ebay right now for well under $200.

The Towers of the Virin are located directly behind the museum. I'm not sure of any good sunrise shots of the virgin river, but at sunset most people head to the bridge over the river by the mouth of the canyon. The hike up the Virgin to Mystery Falls is only about 5 minutes past the end of the Riverside walk. I'd consider going much further than that. If you are carrying a tripod, its easiest to strap it to your backpack, that way your hands are free for using trekking poles.

I'm not a lens expert, but I know Sinar rebrands Rodenstock lenses and lables them Sinaron, as compared to the Rodenstock Sironar series. They say that Sinar and Calument(Caltar) lenses can be of slightly better quality since they are "hand picked" off the line, but I somewhat doubt this. If this is the case, then you are just fine. Its just a rebranded lens, which is probably your case. There are lots of lenses floating around that are mounted in Sinar DB boards which are not your typical mounts. I'm not sure how they work, or how difficult it is to unmount them and then remount them on to a standard linhof type board.

Here's what I do for web images and it works great. Take your full size image (edited but unsharpened!) and flatten it, then duplicate your background layer. Now downsize to 3x of what you want your web image size to be ( example -if your final web image is to be 1000 pixels on the long side, downsize your original image to 3000 pixels on the long side. Then Filter-Sharpen. Then downsize to 2x your final image size (in our example we would downsize to 2000 pixels on the long side). Then Filter-Sharpen again. Then downsize to final web size ( 1000 pixels in our example). Then Filter-Sharpen again, and then Edit-Fade to about %50. Good luck.

 

Adam

Another vote for the Dell 2007 FP(not W). Calibrates well, lots of working space at 1600x1200 for only $320.