Monument Valley: Travel and Phototips

First of all, this is not a national park, so your inter-agency seasonal park pass from NPS will not work here. Despite that the fees are very reasonable (especially for one whose travel budget is really tight). I paid 5 dollars per head and 10 dollars for camping. Since you are in the middle of the desert do not expect a high-end camping accomdations. This place is primitive and that is exactly where we stayed at their Primitive Campsite. Here are some travel tips if you decide to camp here:

1. There are basic porta-poties, but make sure that you bring your own toilet paper. It has a tendancy to run out fast.
2. Pay for camp first before going to the campsite.
3. Campsites are first come first serve and you can camp anywhere. Once you have paid set-up your tent to book your spot, then go for a drive or a jeep tour.
4. There is a small grocery near by where you could purchase firewood, charcoal and food.
5. There are no tall trees here, so it really does not matter where you set-up your tent.
6. It gets noisy at night. Yeah no one comes around and shuts people up at night. I wish they did.
7. Find a spot and book it with your tent, it gets really crowded by evening.

Here are some of my photography tips that I used to capture the pictures on Khakis, CamelBak and a Camera:

1. Invest in a tripod. You will be taking some amazing pictures in low light.
2. Set your camera to the aperture priority mode (Av for cannon and A for Nikon). Since I wanted to capture as much of the landscape as possible I set mine to about 11.
3. Cable release for night shots to prevent vibrations.
4. Take as much pictures as possible. The colors here change in an instant.
5. To turn some of my pictures like a Marsian landscape I used a Cokin soft gradient orange and 4-stop neutral density filters.
6. To capture the sunrise. I removed all my filters to prevent shadowing.

I hope that these tips will help you when you visit this place.

Along US Route 160: Photography Tips

I know that most professional photographers will tell you that the magic "photophylic" hour is during dawn and dusk. Realistically speaking if you are travelling on a dime and do not have the time to be at these places during the magic hour. Unfortunately for me, it was about 10:00 am in the morning with almost clear skies and bright white clouds - in other words really harsh lighting.

Landscape Shots:

To compose the landscape shots, I used a 2-stop Neutral Density Filter by Tifften. Neutral Density Filters allow you to be more flexible with your appeture and exposure time. It actually controls the amount of light that enters to your sensor.

I also considered the light angle. I tried as much as possible to keep the sun either at right angle to the subject or behind me.

I noticed that these techniques reduced over exposure of my images.

The road shot:

I simply set my ISO to about 600 (the higher you go the more noise or grainy you will get). To avoid the bug-splattered windscreen focus on the horizon.

I hope these simple tips will help you.

Acoma: Sky City

Driving in from the I-40 you are immediately lost in the forest of jutting stone and rock. Unlike most places that I visited this area is not photography friendly. You cannot just get out of your car and take your vacation pictures. I was kinda irritated with all the sign boards that say NO PHOTOGRAPHY without a permit…BLAH BLAH BLAH, until when I found the reason why. Unfortunately some idiot years ago thought that it would be smart to desecrate some of their rock formation and destroying age old petroglyphs by known artists.

Finally arriving at the visitor center we paid our tour ($12.00 per head) and $10.00 for the photography permit. Our tour pass and photography permit in hand we headed out to the boarding area. At the boarding area we were greeted by our friendly bus driver who drove us to the top of a 367 foot mesa. The short drive to the top was scenic, but what captivated my attention were the old pueblo homes and outhouses that line the edge of the cliff. This little village of the sky had no electricity or running water. These people are living they way their ancestors did.

The most interesting part of the tour was the San Esteban del Rey Mission. The walls of the building were made of wood, stucco and Conquistadors. Yes, Spanish missionaries and soldiers were "PLANTED" in the walls of the church!

If you are traveling through the I-40 at exit 102 is a must see. I highly recommend it to any traveler searching for the past. Make sure that you get your photography permit before taking your shots.

Photography Tips:

During this time I switched between my 2-Stop Neutral Density and my Polarizer filters depending on the position of the sun and the picture composition. Neutral Density filters can block some of the unwanted harsh lighting and the polarizer filter (as long as the sun is at 90 degree to the subject) generates vibrant colors e.g. sky more blue and brighter white while reducing over exposure.

Since I was part of a tour group and could not set my tripod (which I prefer to get sharper images), I set my camera to Program mode with ISO 200.