Virgin River- Zion National Park, a photo from Utah, West

Photographer's Note

This image was made in a spot where the Virgin River makes a couple of bends as it flows through Zion Canyon. It was a wonderful time to be there, early before the sun crested the canyon walls, with soft and even illumination. Some of the trees had turned bright yellow, looking as though they were giving light. A nice contrast with the dark orange and red sandstone walls of the canyon.

I photographed this with the tripod in the water. I used plastic food bags banded to the tripod legs to keep from contaminating the river water with something that may have still been on my tripod. The Virgin River is home to some unique wildlife.

I exposed to place some of the deeper shadows on zone II, and developed N+2, with selenium toning of the negative to give it more contrast.

There was some breeze and the long exposure shows movement in the trees, which I think adds to the composition.

Hauke, kivar has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Hauke (12) 2004-12-08 13:33

Fine contrast of trees and stones, I like the little blur in the leaves, strenghtens that there still is motion in nature. Not only postcards ;-)

kivar (136) 2004-12-08 19:59

great shot, happy to see someone using the 35mm film. did you use a filter to bright these trees in the foreground? im thinking that you've used a yellow filter (you said that these trees were yellow...) to bright it up. im suspecting that you've burn the bottom of your picture.. im right? :P nice picture though! great composition and i like the contrast. nice choice of overdeveloping the film!

diser (618) 2004-12-13 12:31

Nice IR photo. Why does it fades in the lower left corner?

flydragon (0) 2004-12-14 13:37

Hello Dana
this is a verry good work
and beautfull B&W
Sinar ,o) well not bad
i guess your neg should be verry
cool with a lot detail
well done this is verry nice
••simon••