Beautiful scenery I like photographing the desert as well what a great photography trip you took .I was lucky enough to photograph Arches last year at sunset. I did not have enough time to visit Monument Valley maybe next time. So I'll get to see it through your video
That you will! Arches is another love of mine. Wasn't able to squeeze it in this trip, but wow - fiery furnace was quite a highlight when I was able to go in 2022. Must have been brilliant for you during sunset.
Good thing you got there before the bad weather of the last two days hit. In fact your high winds are often the precursor to weather change. We've had two days of rain and a big drop in temperature from 90's to 60's, and snow on the mountain peaks. Now is the time to be shooting to capture that snow decorating everything. Tomorrow it could be gone.
When you go someplace like that you should consider supplementing your kit with some rental lenses like a 600mm. You can have them shipped to a location you're headed for so they are there waiting when you arrive. When I was a pro I rented all the expensive stuff, expensive lenses, even studio space, and added it to the clients bill, when I had a client. That was more my catalog and glamour photography. One of the perks I had as a camera gear reviewer is access to a lot of cool and expensive lenses, bodies and accessories like flash.
I like to start at Muley Point, then head on down to Valley of the Gods and the petroglyphs at Sand Island, with a quick stop near the Mexican Hat rock formation. Did Monument Valley so many times, and it has become pretty expensive now as well. These days, I only do the Valley with a Navajo guide, off the tourist path.
I couldn't take any photos out there unless I had my camera on a good steady tripod and wireless remote. If I didn't have them with me I'd be bracing myself on a rock using a rolled up jacket as a makeshift beanbag. I used to be able to get sharp images shooting with a 50mm, down to 5-6 seconds, as long as I stayed away from caffeine. I wish my health had been better the last several years or there's a good chance I'd have been in the background of your video, taking pictures. I retired to Utah a decade ago thinking I'd disappear for weeks at a time out shooting landscapes. As luck would have it first my legs, then the rest of me, started to have problems and I'm not doing any hiking with 20lbs of gear any time soon. I'm limited to shots from my neighborhood walking trails or my sister's backyard that has a million dollar view of the mountains. If I look down the street from my mailbox it looks like I live adjacent to the Grand Canyon. I'm a fanatic about getting the sharpest image possible, even with today's software ability to sharpen and de-blur. That goes to things like investing in very high quality filters or removing filters all together. I want to zoom into 600% in PS or Neo or Camera One and still see fine detail. Yes, I have all those photo editors plus RawTherapee, DarkTable, Nikon's, Canon's, Fuji's, Sony's own software, and other free or commercial software. I started testing software over a decade ago when I reviewed camera gear and software for several online publications. In fact before that, going back to the 1970s, I would test any software I could get my hands on, and it was pretty slim pickings back then before word processors, database software, the WWW, floppy drives, hard drives and lowercase for my Apple ][ computer. Now I'm testing stacking software to eliminate grain. The only thing I wish is that I had the money to buy/test one of the cameras with pixel shift built in. Did I mention I'm old, a former writer and stuck at home with nothing to do other than write novella length posts on YT channels?
Just found your channel. Great video, thanks for sharing. How bad is the dirt road, would my dodge ram promaster van handle it? I do have a 3 inch lift on.
Hey! Thanks for checking it out. I think you'll be fine, especially with the lift. Maybe just slow going in some spots. There was an RV out there at one point. Plenty of spots, so if you ever hit a point you're not sure of, no shame in calling it and enjoying one that was on the way.
Do you by any chance use a ColorChecker, like the Passport model? It's hard sometimes to get the colors of the desert accurate. The old Macbeth ColorChecker was always in my kit despite it's size, the Passport fits in my pocket and is in a protective plastic, fold open wallet.
I did this past week in New England. A visiting family trip, so time wasn't particularly spent around photo/video shoots, but I did make time for that. Not much video, but I may put a short together. I need to do proper edits yet, but some of the shots are on my instagram.
Enjoyable watch Christine. Quick question regarding your drone footage. Are drones allowed in Valley of the Gods? If it’s a National Park I’m pretty sure they’re not allowed.
@@TC_Conner definitely. Just look and make sure depending on the location. They're a lot more common out West where there's more federal land - they attract outdoor recreation enthusiasts of all sorts.
Depends on the sequence. Largely, no. My friend that was with me did have a dead cat on the mic for the sequence between 3:50 to 06:59 or so, which helped. Still dialing in the kit, I think I'll likely move forward with a dji wireless mic set-up at some point, but need to consider expenses. There's always more goodies in gear that look tempting.
