The Olympus system should be seriously considered by photographers specializing in travel or looking for a small lightweight camera system. This article gives an overview of the Olympus 4/3 system: camera bodies, lenses, flashes, and accessories, and concludes with some starter system recommendations.
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Southern Utah is well known for its geological beauty. Some of the most
spectacular landscape in the area are designated as national parks, national
monuments, or state parks. The five major national parks in southern Utah
are: (1)Zion, (2)Bryce
Canyon, (3)Capitol Reef, (4)Arches,
and (5)Canyonlands National Parks.
This article is not intended to be a detailed description on how to
photograph those national parks. In fact, so far I have been there only
once, during a one-week trip that visited all five parks in mid-May, 1999.
While I managed to spend two days each at Zion, Bryce, and Arches, I only
visited Capitol Reef and Canyonlands briefly for a bit of scouting. And
keep in mind that a lot of interesting landscape is in the smaller, less
visited state parks. However, one may need a lot more time, a four-wheel-drive
vehicle, camping gear or even a recreation vehicle to explore and photograph
some of those locations. This article is a trip report that describes what
I was able to see in a one-week driving trip. If I have time, I can easily
dedicate an entire week to Arches alone.
Orientation
Even just the southern part of Utah is a broad area. Zion and Bryce are
on the south-western side of Utah while both Arches and Canyonlands are
located near the town of Moab in south-eastern Utah. From the east entrance
of Zion to Bryce is a short, less-than-two-hour drive. However, from Bryce,
through Capitol Reef, to Moab is about five to six hours. If one only has
three to four days, you are much better off concentrating on either the
eastern parks (Arches and Canyonlands) or the western parks (Zion and Bryce).
Otherwise, you would be spending a large portion of your time driving from
park to park, cutting into the time for photography. A typical travel day
for me is to photograph early in the morning at one park until about 10am
to take advantage of the best light. The mid day harsh-light hours are
spent driving. By the time I arrive the next park, the light is good again
past 3 to 4pm.
The closest major airport to south-western Utah is Las Vegas, which
was where my driving trip began. It is about a three-hour drive from Las
Vegas to Springdale, Utah, a town just outside the main entrance to Zion.
There is a time zone change though, as Las Vegas (Nevada) is in the Pacific
Time Zone while Utah is one hour ahead in Mountain Time (GMT -6 in the
summer). To visit south-eastern Utah only, the nearest major airport is
Salt Lake City in northern Utah. It is about a four-hour drive from Salt
Lake to Moab.
The main road in Zion is along the Virgin River that cuts the mountain
into a deep V-shape valley. Unfortunately, because of traffic congestion,
private vehicle will be limited along the valley starting from year 2000,
and most visitors will have to use public trams. The official map from
the visitor center lists a number of attractions along the road. While
the landscape in beautiful in Zion, the mountains on either side of the
valley cast some hard shadows in early morning and late afternoon when
the quality of light is at its best, thus creating some serious problems
for photographers. In fact, in some narrow areas, the best (and probably
the only reasonable) time to photograph is around mid-day when the sun
is right above.
Instead of a broad view, I prefer to use a short telephoto lens to highlight
a smaller section of rocks and trees in the valley.
The Mesa Area
Near the south entrance at Springdale, there is a T intersection next to
a bridge across the Virgin River. The branch of the road that goes towards
east leads to a tunnel to the Mesa Area, which has a lot of layered sandstone
formations. I find this area more interesting to photograph than the valley
because it is wide open and the rock formation, while different from that
in the valley, is also interesting.
At the end of the Mesa area in Zion is the east entrance. From there, the
drive to Bryce is a little less than two hours. Near the entrance to Bryce
Canyon is the Best Western Ruby's Inn,
a very large motel with over 300 rooms, two restaurants and several stores.
A lot of tourists stay there as it is just a short drive from Bryce, but
the Bryce Lodge inside the park is even closer to the attractions.
Bryce Canyon has a lot of eroded rock pillars which form a forest of
rock columns that is very unique. However, after the novelty wears off,
it can get boring as it is more of the same thing throughout the park.
Therefore, if you don't have a lot of time, a one-day visit to Bryce is
sufficient. Bryce Canyon is also the easiest to photograph among the southern
Utah national parks. Instead of standing at the bottom of a valley looking
up, the setting at Bryce is just the opposite. The main road is along the
rim of the canyon where you can get a panoramic view. The canyon is well
illuminated from sunrise to sunset. To top it off, the most photogenic
areas in Bryce are concentrated along the rim from Sunrise Point to Bryce
Point. The rim trail that connects Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration Point and
Bryce Point takes about an hour to complete. The only problem is that if
you leave your car in the parking lot on one end, you either need to walk
back or get a ride to pick it up.
As usual, the best time of the day to photograph in Bryce is early morning
and late afternoon. The sunrise itself is not very interesting to photograph
because the sun is already intense when it emerges from behind high mountains.
However, the low angle of the sun creates long shadows from the rock formations,
thus giving definition and depth to the landscape. The most beautiful area
to photograph is around Sunset Point while Bryce Point provides a broad
view of the canyon amphitheater.
In addition to shooting from the rim, it is also important to hike down
the canyon. The lower angle of view provides a completely different perspective.
There are a lot of trails from Sunrise Point or Sunset Point down to the
Queen's Garden area where one can get close to the strange rock formations.
Some trails are short but some are moderately strenuous.
Unlike Zion and Bryce, there is no lodge, restaurant or general store inside
Arches or Canyonlands. The closest town is Moab, merely a 10-minute drive
from the entrace to Arches. Canyonlands is a much farther 45 minutes away
from Moab. The drive from Bryce to Moab through Highway 12, 14, I-70, and
191 is about five hours. Capitol Reef National Park is along the way on
Highway 24. However, you need a 4WD vehicle to explore much of the areas
in Capitol Reef. I just stopped by the visitor center and took some snap
shots at the "Castle" area.
When you enter Arches, pick up a copy of the official map and the park
newspaper, which describes the best time (early morning or late afternoon)
to photograph each one of the major arches. Similar to Zion, the road in
Arches is built along the main attractions. For example, the Balanced Rock
is right by a roadside parking area. The road has two branches leading
to the Windows Arch and the famous Delicate Arch (which is the symbol on
the Utah automobile license plates), respectively. The Windows is a short
10-minute hike from its parking lot while the Delicate Arch is a one-hour,
moderately difficult hike from its parking area. The end of the main road
is the Devil's Garden area where the very long Landscape Arch is. There
are a lot of trails that will take hours to complete.
Since the attractions are farther apart and some require longer hikes
to reach after you park your car, it take a lot more time to fully explore
Arches National Park. For example, photographing the Delicate Arch at sunset
usually takes up the entire late afternoon. If you also want to photograph
the Windows at sunset, that will be another afternoon.
Our first day at Arches was cloudy. We arrived "the Windows" arch about
an hour before sunset and the light was very dull as illustrated in the
first image. Watching the sun peaking through small holes in the clouds,
we set up our tripods and waited for opportunities. After about 45 minutes,
the sun finally illuminated the arch in glowing red for literally just
one minute or so. I quickly snapped about ten frames. Seconds later, the
light was gone and the sun finally set in about ten minutes. It sure pays
to be patient.
In our last day in southern Utah, we went to Canyonlands for a quick
look. By mid morning, we started our drive back to Las Vegas. It is another
7 to 8-hour drive on Interstate Freeway 70 and 15.
Lenses, Film and Accessories
A lot of people ask what type of lenses they should bring to photograph
southern Utah and the Grand Canyon. The simple answer is that the usual
landscape lenses will be fine. In the 35mm format, that means either a
28mm or 24mm wide angle and a medium telephoto zoom such as a 80-200mm
or a 70-300mm (or the equivalent fixed prime lenses), plus either a standard
lens or a 35-100mm type zoom to cover the middle range.
Because of the dry climate, there are few large mammals in these parks,
hence long telephotos such as the 600mm aren't very useful. At Bryce and
Canyonlands, there are plenty of panoramic view of the canyons. A super-wide
angle lens such as a 20mm may be applicable. Since I find its angle of
view too wide for my taste, I don't use my 20mm very often, but your preference
may differ.
In Zion, the Virgin River Valley is deep below high mountains on both
sides. They frequently cast hard shadows in images. A couple of graduated
neutral density filters in the two to three-stop range would be very useful
under those circumstances. And instead of dealing with broad views with
hard shadows, one can also crop out small sections of the landscape with
a short telephoto.
My standard landscape film is the Fujichrome Velvia while the new (new
in 1999) Kodak Ektachrome 100VS is quite similar. Since these national
parks are at high altitude and the contrast tends to be strong, some photographers
prefer less contrasty films such as Provia or E100S. That is simply a matter
of personal taste. The same rule applies to polarizers which are frequently
used to darken the sky and reduce glare, but a polarizer could lead to
a near completely black sky at high altitude.
When to Visit
The southern Utah national parks are at high elevation and in desert areas.
Bryce is at 8000-9000 feet (2500 meters) and gets quite cold in the winter.
Otherwise, the weather is usually good and dry with occasional clouds.
The best time to visit is probably May when the wild flowers bloom. In
the summer (from Memorial Day in late May to Labor Day in early September)
it gets hot and crowded. In particular, there are a lot of tour buses full
of international travelers at Zion and Bryce. If you want to avoid the
crowd, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands are less visited destinations.
Accommodation
The more comfortable way to photograph these parks is to stay in motels.
There are lodges inside Zion and Bryce and there are also plenty of motels
near their entrances. Arches and Canyonlands have no facilities inside
the parks, but Moab is merely a 10-minute drive from Arches and there are
also plenty of motels and restaurants. The entrance to Canyonlands is,
however, 45 minutes away from Moab and most of the viewing areas are yet
a long drive away from the entrance. Therefore, if one stays at Moab and
wants to photograph Canyonlands at sunrise, it means getting up very early.
And after sunset, that is another long drive home. To photograph Canyonlands,
one is better off camping or staying in a recreation vehicle inside the
park to avoid those long drives.
References
The United States government's official National
Park Service web site has information on all national parks under their
administration. If you are planning to visit many parks and national wildlife
refuges, the Golden Eagle Passport may be an economical way to pay for
the entrance fees. In 1999, the cost is US$50 and the passport is good
for 12 months from the day of purchase.
John Shaw's Landscape in Nature (ISBN 0-8174-3710-X) published in
1994 is an excellent book on how to photograph landscape with 35mm cameras.
This book has a lot of examples from the southern Utah national parks.
Well known landscape photographer David Muench's Portrait of Utah
(ISBN 1-55868-423-9) is not a "how to" book. Rather, it has a lot of excellent
images from Utah shot primarily with 4x5 large-format cameras.
Michael Reichmann's Luminous Landscape
web site also has a lot of landscape photography information about the
south-western United States. In particular, his article on the Arches National
Park and the Moab area is very useful.
Photo Traveler is a commercial
company that publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and travel guides for photographers.
Their guides are moderately priced, and I find them quite informative.
Instead of a broad view, I prefer to use a short telephoto lens to highlight
a smaller section of rocks and trees in the valley.
