We were discussing the MacGuyvering of photo gear on the PhotowalkingSLC Flickr site today, which reminded me that I had rediscovered this pair of photos. The location is the Big Bend pull-out in Zion canyon. It was mid-afternoon on Halloween, with the sun pretty low and directly in front of me. The Virgin River flowed between the road and the deeply shaded canyon wall. Crossing the river wouldn't work; it would be too low because I wanted to keep the image plane parallel to the wall. There was absolutely no wind, but the sun was giving me fits with the glare.
I needed the mother of all lens hoods. Luckily, my location was close to the parking lot, and I rummaged through the truck for something to shade the lens.
Repeating to myself: "it doesn't matter what it looks like if it's outside the image frame," I grabbed the one thing that seemed workable.
Go ahead, laugh. Even I was laughing at the time, although I did have one eye out for "serious" photographers--the place was thick with them that week--who wouldn't appreciate the comedy factor of several thousands of dollars of camera and optics (that's my D2X so ignobly adorned) being modified with a piece of trash. I could stand the snickering, but I wouldn't want to cast shame on our clan. I did leave it on long enough to grab a shot with the D70, perplexing the climbers gearing up for some death-defying feat that involved packing lots of metal implements and nasty-looking energy bars.
The images from that series have been difficult to work with in Adobe Camera Raw, which is perhaps why I moved on and forgot about it. It made a good test image for my new installation of Lightroom, and I like this version much better than any I've done before. The resized version for the web obscures the great detail I've got for printing.
Now you know what has fueled this entire Highway 89 project--you can trust that I'm never without the mother of all lens hoods when I'm on the road.
Comments (1)
That is a sweet use of a Pepsi box!
Posted by malandro95 | January 16, 2008 9:22 AM
Posted on January 16, 2008 09:22