Found a little jewel today - Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

[Dixie]

I left Salt Lake City today headed for Bryce Canyon National Park and got side tracked. I saw a sign and the next thing I knew I was in Capitol Reef National Park.

Capitol Reel was proclaimed a national monument in 1937 and became a national park in 1971. It's a small park, but well worth the effort because of the photo ops. There are a lot of reds and with the early morning and late afternoon "sweet light" they really glow. Because of heavy rains and hail today the scenic drive was closed, but I hope that they have it open tomorrow. The only shortcoming that I found was a shortage of wildlife. I only saw two mule deer doe this afternoon while driving the main park road twice.

At any rate, here is one the vistas taken during the middle of the afternoon.

I hope that you enjoy and comments and suggestions are welcome.

http://dixie.smugmug.com/photos/35410349-L.jpg

[Khaos]

Beautiful shot! The layers of colors are wonderful.:thumb :thumb

[thdizzy]

Dixie...Where can I find your exif data? I was at the same spot in spring but couldn't nail it.

You did.

[Dixie]

Khaos - Thank you very much.

Todd - EXIF (http://dixie.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=35408934) ...and thanks for the comment.

Todd, I normally shoot my scenics fully manual in RAW. Most people normally shoot for center or slightly right of center for their histograms making sure that everything stays within the left and right limits. I tend to shoot left of center with both my Canon 10D and my Canon 1Ds. I know that it goes against the norm, but it works for me and the rest is PS CS2. I also keep the color space set to Adobe RGB in both cameras. The EXIF says 17:19, but it's set to CDT so the photo was actually taken at 16:19 MDT.

[thdizzy]

Since I am new to shooting, the advice was well taken. Don't always center meter,....Right?

[Dixie]

Left of center works for me when shooting RAW, but again I caution that it is not the norm and most people will definitely recommend otherwise. When I'm shooting JPEG, which is rare, I go for center or slightly right of center.

[Francois]

I left Salt Lake City today headed for Bryce Canyon National Park and got side tracked. I saw a sign and the next thing I knew I was in Capitol Reef National Park.

Capitol Reel was proclaimed a national monument in 1937 and became a national park in 1971. It's a small park, but well worth the effort because of the photo ops. There are a lot of reds and with the early morning and late afternoon "sweet light" they really glow. Because of heavy rains and hail today the scenic drive was closed, but I hope that they have it open tomorrow. The only shortcoming that I found was a shortage of wildlife. I only saw two mule deer doe this afternoon while driving the main park road twice.

At any rate, here is one the vistas taken during the middle of the afternoon.

I hope that you enjoy and comments and suggestions are welcome.

http://dixie.smugmug.com/photos/35410349-L.jpg

That sorta contradicts with 'All I do is push a button....." :wink

[Dixie]

Thanks Francois. Nature put it there. All the hard work had been done when I pushed the button. :):

[ginger_55]

Nice shot, only suggestion would be that it would have been interesting to see it in all lights to compare. Looks like a good one for that kind of thing.

Shooting birds, etc, all my histograms are left of center. Would blow the birds if they were right of center. ???? Even with non birds, I tend to have more darks than lights.

How do your histograms look when you get done. My darks are still Left of the end of the histogram...................

Well what do you do? My lights are usually right at the end of the histogram, but the darks are not, they go beyond.

ginger

[Dixie]

Ginger, in most cases and time allowing I will shoot in all lights. However for this one I am working my way home and don't have the extra days to morning, evening and midday so I was stuck with the time of day that I took the photo.

I try to keep my darks in the histogram when taking the photo, but center of mass tends to be left of center. Shame on me, but I rarely check the histogram after I've brought the image in from RAW and done my "thing" with it. At that point I go with what I see visually. Just my way of doing it.