There is no place I've found that has as much, and as beautiful wall patterns and shapes than Capitol Reef National Park. The entire drive from the east entrance to the park to the Visitor Center is lined with walls covered with all types and shapes of designs and earth tone colors. There is also a significant amount of wall art in Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge. Depending on the time of day and year, the light will bounce off one wall and cast reflected warm light on the opposing wall, causing colors to be enriched and the sandstone to glow. There is so much to select from that shooting it in 4x5 could get really expensive, and even tricky, because you often have to stand in the middle of a 45 mph road to take the pictures in between passing cars. So on a recent trip, I came up with the idea to shoot my favorite patterns in 35mm. Plus, it gave me something very creative and entertaining to do with the middle of the day, between that sweet light in at sunrise (Capitol Reef is mainly a sunset place) and sunset. These are the results of that endeavor from just one afternoon. I used a 50mm, 35mm and 28mm lens and metered the reflected light off a white card and set my dials on the spot meter accordingly, and crosschecked the readings against the readings off the walls. Now I wish I had shot some of these in 4x5. Good luck in me trying to find the exact ones and composing them the same way again.
JJ tried to email you but got a failure notice. Yes, these are largely untouched. The trick is to catch reflected light on these walls. The sun reflects off the north face of the canyon along the Fremont river and cast yellowish light on the south face walls - which are the only ones you can really shoot from the road. The north is on the other side of the Fremont river. I used an actual spot meter I use with my 4x5 to meter these, and might have bracketed some. Easier to do with 35mm - not so when it costs $5 a shot with 4x5. Notice the same kind of light on many Bryce Canyon shots, and some Coyote Buttes shots.
JJ
14-Jul-2010 16:12
amazing colours are these pictures "untouched" = no digital enhancement ?