p.1 #1 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Happy New Year everyone. Hope 2013 brings health, wealth and peace to you and your family. Also, a lot of great photographs
Everyone shoots Night Watchman from the Junction Bridge during sunset. I have done it too. However, my favorite location turned out to be little foot bridge over the river further downstream from the highway bridge. It bounces when anyone walks on it, so is a pain when you are trying to photograph. Also, I wanted to do a sunrise shoot there to see how the Night Watchman looks like during the rising sun. I did the sunrise shoot at the museum and hurried over to the bridge to catch the still warm rising sun rays on the Night Watchman.
Symbolically, I wanted to post a sun rise photo on the New Years Day.
Thank you for letting me ramble and your time. Your comments and criticism are always welcome. Thanks to Jim for telling me how to reduce for the web on here. I hope this is better than my previous efforts.
p.1 #2 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Nice view Amaji, I never tire of this view and yours does it justice...
The next time I'm there, I'll be getting down low along creek side for my shot, hopefully I won't be in anyones view finder
p.1 #3 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Thanks for the Nice photo, AMaji!
I have travel plan to go to Las Vegas this February for 10 days.
Want to check Death Valley, Valley of Fire, and perhaps Zion NP.
Any tips you guys can give me as to time and location? What NOT to miss?
I appreciate it. I will ask in a separate posting on this later, though.
-Kee
p.1 #7 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
thank you every one for your kind comments.
Kee,
I don't know how many days you want to spend in Las Vegas proper and how many days you have to travel. I recommend you doing Grand Canyon, Valley of Fire, Zion and Bryce. If you can swing it, try to squeeze in Page (Antelope Canyon) and Coyote Buttes/White Pockets. It will be intense but well worth the effort. Death Valley can be done in a day tour by itself. The others will need to be part of a multi-day drive/night stay.
p.1 #8 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Very nice. I was down that trail checked out two bridges but never figured out an angle, but next time I will try again. Great idea to go in the morning. This is a world class scene. Must have been about the same time.
p.1 #9 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Hey Maji,
What a really cool shot you got here. I really like what you got, you captured it well, and I am glad the reducing/sharpening tips were helpful.
I have a spattering of shots from Zion, primarily trips to the Subway or to the Narrows, I definitely do not have any really good Watchman shots. I am thinking I really need to get over there and do that now...
p.1 #10 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
AMaji this is a beautiful shot! I love the breathtaking views from Zion and you definitely do it justice! I hope to visit this year and join the watchman party.
Also I would love to hear your take on reduction for web techniques. I am not always pleased with the the way I do it (by reducing ppi in PS)
p.1 #12 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
Thank you guys for the kind words. Zion is a magical place with every turn and corner presenting opportunities for great photos. The sunrise at Night Watchman presented me an opportunity to do something a little different for a oft photographed icon. To those who have not been to Zion, I say go there as soon as you can.
to ninhja... Here is what Jim Fox advised me on another thread.
Also, for reducing the D800 files I have found I had to make 2 changes to how I reduce mine from how I used to reduce my D700 or D7000 files. On Image Size in Photoshop, the first thing I do is just change the Resolution from 300 to 72, and very importantly, Instead of the default "Bicubic Automatic" I change it to "Bicubic (best for smooth gradiants)". I have found that helps the image not to get some of the small sharp edges that can be in an image from getting so overly sharp looking. Then, I open up the Image Size option again, this time reducing the size of the image down to 800px on it's wide side. Again I change the default "Bicubic Automatic" to be "Bicubic (best for smooth gradiants)". I then go to Unsharp Mask, and do a very slight sharpening, usually only from 25 to 35 depending on the shot. Have the image at 100% at this point on your screen so you can see how much for that final sharpening for the web.
p.1 #13 · Happy New Year - Sunrise at Night Watchman (Zion NP)
A great picture but somehow (may be its just me) you need to do better color correction and enhance the colors so that you can get more depth in the pictures. I love the composition though
