Zion Canyon Falls

March 23, 2005, Late afternoon. I worked hard in trying to capture this image. Zion has a wild quiet charm in the spring, as the trees bud out and the wet flow is heavy in and across the red earth. As it was seemingly always cloudy during this trip, again I find myself trying to get closer to the image, to the very rock and water itself. Zion Canyon is a long story of water and rock, and ever present power. The falls and presence of the stone humble me, make me feel threatened, and sweetly -- I delight in the knowledge that I am safe from it. As I compose, and shoot, I am thinking that there must be a way for me to capture the presence I feel in this canyon. I wonder.

"If man's imagination were not so weak, so easily tired, if his capacity for wonder not so limited, he would abandon forever... fantasies of fhe supernal. He would learn to perceive in water, leaves, and silence more than sufficient of the absolute and marvelous, more than enough to console him for the loss of the ancient dreams."

Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire



Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, All rights reserved.

Zion Canyon Bottomland

March 23, 2005, Afternoon. There was alot of rain while I was in Zion, and clouds were seemingly always present. It was difficult to find interesting shots of the cliffs around the canyon, so I spent a bit of time looking down to the earth. The canyon was alive there and this pond full of fallout from the recent storms and years past, gave me something to look at.


Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, All rights reserved.

Lower Kolob Plateau Morning

March 23, 2005, 7:00 AM. As is my style when I am on the road, I was up well before dawn. It was a crisp morning with temps below freezing. The neighborhood here was still sleeping and the snow from the night before was untouched on the road before me. Signs of life were beginning to rise from the houses. I was thinking it must be nice to live in a spot like this. Clouds gathered and parted to threaten both snow and sun.


Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, All rights reserved.

Pilgrimage

Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, All rights reserved.

Trip Report March 2005

This was a one week excursion with destinations including Zion Canyon NP, the ghost town at Grafton, UT, Death Valley and the CoralPink Sand Dunes State Park. A much larger collection of images is available at my site. It rained and snowed -- was wet and snotty, and was gorgeous at times. It was a good trip overall -- and I found myself again the first vehicle on untrekked snow laden roads. It could have been better -- but I can't imagine how.




Photograph Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, all rights reserved.

Peregrinefund.org Field Report

OK -- it's 1:00 am mostly -- Having taken a nap this afternoon, I am up late doing research on the idea that I would like to try to photograph California Condors in the area of the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park. Basically this seems simple -- find out where they are -- go there with the right equipment -- and take the pictures.

While I was out looking around I found this sad post on the Peregrinefund.org site.

Wild Turkey Tom, Zion Canyon

Copyright 2005, Shawn Kielty, all rights reserved.

Is Digital Ready for the Outdoors?

Now my Canon 20D camera is back at the factory, being cleaned. After ten days in the outdoors in some wet weather, out on the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and then more activity at Death Valley, and at various points along the road, the camera is producing nice pictures -- but with spots from some miscreant on the sensor. Despite following the suggested cleaning method -- blowing it off with a sucky ball -- the spots remain in all my images to varying degrees. It has been gone for roughly ten days now and really -- I am ready to have it back.

This really begs the question "Is digital photography really ready to do things like backpacking, and still be counted on to produce professional results?" I think today the answer is a resounding no. When I called Canon Customer support they asked me if I had changed lenses in the field -- to this I responded yes, about 10-20 times a day. They asked if I had been in any unclean environments -- and I was wondering is snow or sand or rain or pollen dirty? I said -- just in the field.

I have only had this camera for three months -- I have used it a lot. I have several thousand images. But the truth is -- 10-15 days is a long time to go without a camera -- especially if you are using it, and to anticipate this after 5 days of a ten day trip -- or even once every three months, is entirely too frequent to call it reliable.

As it turns out -- I have other cameras -- that use film. Never mind the nuisance of processing, waiting for the results, and having to manage all the film. The film is always clean when it comes off the roll. The process of waiting for the results to return from the lab is nothing compared to manually cleaning little spots off several hundred otherwise worthy images

So if my 20D isn't back by the time I leave for my next event, I am sure I will pull my F1n out of the mothballs and load it -- *it* is a reliable camera.

Hello and Greetings

Today was spent preparing for a trip to Bishop CA, securing hotel, looking for sites to shoot and re-connecting with contacts in the area. I am eagerly awaiting the return of my Canon from the shop, as it seems the sensor is dirty from the last trip. This week has been a mixture of taxes and cleanup from my recent trip to Zion Canyon and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Southern Utah. After 5 or 6 days of snow, rain and mixed snow and rain, I bailed out at the suggesting of the park gatekeeper to head for Death Valley to see the wildflowers.



Photograph Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, all rights reserved.


Canon 20D with EFS 17-85mm Zoom. It was wet under these falls and messy but the camera performed admirably. Notice the drops of water falling everywhere in front of the camera.



Photograph Copyright Shawn Kielty 2005, all rights reserved.


Canon 20D with EFS 17-85 Zoom.