In the Canyon

While Betsy went on a (once again) much longer set of hikes, I did part of the more moderate Queen Victoria hike, which takes you down amongst the hoodoos to the canyon floor. I found that at Zion, you got a lot of the best views from the stops and near the trail heads (or close enough). At Bryce, my favorite vistas were actually when you got down in the middle of things.

I spent about half an hour playing with this B&W conversion, which reminds me of something I learned later on at a photo gallery in Santa Fe. Ansel Adams has this famous shot, "Moonrise Over Hernandez"[1]. Notice the dramatic, black sky? When I was in Santa Fe, I learned that Adams' first version of this print had a fairly light sky, with more clouds visible. Over the course of the next thirty odd years, he darkened and darkened that sky, and upped the contrast on the crosses in the foreground. The last print was starkly different -- so much so I almost felt like it was a different photo.

Any time I fall into a pit of despair about the minutia of processing an image, I'll just think of that story. Imagining spending a lifetime to get a print you wanted.

It's either very inspiring or very depressing.



[1] I also think this image is a great example of a photograph which is way better viewed on photographic paper than on an LCD screen. As much as we'd like it to be so, some things look better in print (or vice-versa!).