Business Writing Resources

The Cleansing of American History

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:39:00 +0000

I was reading Nick Coleman's column in the Star Tribune today about some pieces of history from the 1862 Uprising that was intentionally not on display at Fort Snelling in St. Paul and it got me thinking. Why are we reluctant to teach our children what really happened in our expansion west?

We teach them about honesty and always telling the truth, but we are less than truthful when we explain our past. When it comes to some of the more unsavory events, we get out the scrub bucket and soapy water, and cleanse the data. In the end after it is nice and clean, we end up riding in on our white horses and save the day. Why not teach our children what REALLY happened - the good, the bad and the ugly. Heaven knows we have enough ugly in our past.

We all know that several thousand Indians died as a result of several white man's diseases. Were all those deaths unintentional? After all from a media standpoint, wouldn't it look better to report a thousand Indians died from disease rather than from gunshot wounds? The result is the same - a thousand dead Indians. It would have been nothing more than an old form of biological warfare.

And why was it when the Indians attacked our settlers, everyone was appalled - massacre! It was the white man who was invading the Indians' territory. They were just protecting their land.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is another example. Why was it O.K. for Custer to kill Indians, but it was not O.K. for the Indians to kill him and his soldiers? He was taking their land away from them, right?

Now turn the tables. When terrorists try to invade and kill our people, it creates a national outcry, but we are doing just what the Indians were doing - protecting our land.

We did the same thing in Vietnam. The number of American casualties were routinely underestimated while the number of Viet Cong killed exaggerated. Why did we do that?

Maybe it depends on which end of the gun you are on - if you are the one catching the lead or throwing the lead.

I think we should educate our children with the facts and explanation, so they have a broader (and more accurate) picture of the past. Just my thoughts. Now back to the washing of data.

Crosscut Trail Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sat, 29 May 2010 12:58:00 +0000

It was such a beautiful day here in Arizona's East Valley that Sue and I had to do a hike. Originally, we were going to start our hike at the First Water Trailhead, but then we decided to do the Crosscut instead. The path is very good with few rocks. Most of the surface is packed sand.

This is one of the most beautiful hikes we have done since we have been here. Very little elevation change. The crosscut intertwines with some other trails, but basically starting at the trailhead, the trail heads toward the Superstition mountains. One trail runs along a ridge and eventually intersects another trail which brings you back along a parallel ridge with a ravine in between. The foliage is higher than a man is tall, so it is almost like walking in a forest. Fantastic!

It took us 1 hour and 10 minutes to hike up one ridge and back down the other. A couple of photographs are posted to give you an idea of what the scenery is like. Sue commented that this is one hike she would like to do again.

Heiroglyphic Canyon Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sat, 29 May 2010 12:38:00 +0000

Sue and I went on on a hike on the subject trail based off of a recommendation from one of our friends. The hike was great. Around 3 1/2 miles round-trip. The best part was at the far end.

The trail terminates into a box canyon with a stream coming out of the mountain. With all the rain we have had in the recent past, there was much water flowing.

On the rock wall next to the stream is a great collection of Hohokam petroglphics. These native people scratched these drawings into the rock around 700-800 years ago as a way to document what life was around them. We spent around 45 minutes taking photos of the rock art and scenery and just enjoying the sights and sounds of the area.

The hike takes about an hour to get back into the box canyon. As always, be sure to take water and wear hiking boots for ankle support. The trail is rocky, but the elevation does not change much.

Definately a hike I would advise taking.

Directions: From Apache Junction, AZ, go east on Hwy 60 to Kings Ranch Road. Turn left on Kings Ranch Road and proceed for 2.8 miles to Baseline. Turn right on Baseline for 0.2 miles to Mohican. Turn left on Mohican and proceed for 0.4 miles to Valleyview Road. Turn left on Valleyview Road and proceed for 1.4 miles to Cloudview Road. Turn right on Cloudview and proceed for 0.4 miles to the parking lot. You can also look for the brown and white signs showing the 2 persons hiking and the signs saying "Trailhead" and an arrow pointing in the appropriate direction.

Sedona's Red Rock Country

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:39:00 +0000

One day this past winter, we decided to drive up to Sedona to shoot some red rock photos. We left Gold Canyon at 7:10 in the morning so that we could get up there early as it is about an hour and a half drive. We did get up there early - too early - as the sun was on the wrong side of the mountains that I wanted to shoot. Probably poor planning on my part. If you go to shoot photos, there isn't any reason to get up there before noon.

So we drove around for awhile, stopped in Sedona to do some shopping and by that time the sun had moved around so that it was shining on the side we wanted to shoot.

We started about halfway up Oak Creek Canyon and started to work our way back down into Sedona, and then on past the town to Red Rock Crossing. We were lucky in that Sedona had gotten a light coating of snow in the higher elevations the night before, so we were greeted with white on the red rock which was a pleasant surprise as it always adds to these types of photos. The red rock with snow, the bright blue sky and the green scrub shrubbery makes for some awesome landscape photos.

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We found an overlook of Cathedral Rock at the end of Chavez Ranch Road as a great place to eat lunch and the Bell Rock Visitor Parking lot in Oak Creek Village made a great place to take some of the final photos before we decided to head back to Gold Canyon.

This was one of many trips I have made to Sedona, but I'm always in awe with each trip and always come back recharged - maybe it is the energy vortexes in that area. But that is another blog at another time as that is our focus for the next trip to Sedona.

Massacre Grounds Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:11:00 +0000

This is the second time we went on this hike. The first time, about two weeks ago, we had a slight technical error with my camera - I forgot to put a media card in it, so we took the hike with the camera equipment, but was unable to take any pictures.

The history behind Massacre Grounds is that the Peralta Family was mining gold in the area and their burro train was moving the gold down into Mexico. All this land at the time was land of Mexico, but that was about to change. Once the Gadsen Purchase was signed, this land would then become part of the United States. They were trying to move as much gold out of here as possible before that land deal went through. Back in that valley along the trail somewhere, the Apaches attacked and killed almost all of the miners.

One account has the two surviving miners, one of which was from the Peralta family eventually making their way back to Mexico. Through a twist of fate, the Peralta miner met a Dutchman named Jacob Walz. Walz asked Peralta to take him to the mine. Peralta agreed and they started back up here.

After getting to the location of the mine, a short time later, Peralta died mysteriously. Some say Waltz killed him after getting the location of the mine - some say someone else killed Peralta. We will never know the real truth.

Fast forward in time. Jacob Waltz eventually died and the mine location, which became the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine, has never been found. Legend has it that the entrance to the Lost Dutchman Mine lies in the shadow of Weaver's Needle. From the Massacre Grounds Trail, you can see the the tip of Weaver's Needle, so the mine could be in that area. We do not know which way the burro train was heading when they were attacked. were they coming from the direction of Weaver's Needle? The pieces of the two stories fit together and are what makes this whole story so intriguing.

To validate this story, a couple of miners found $15,000.00 worth of gold in a pile in this area back in the early 1900s. It could have been gold the Apaches dumped from one of the saddlebags. At today's gold prices of $1,000.00 per ounce, can you imagine what that $15,000.00 pile of gold is worth today?

Today, the weather was just too good to pass up. It was sunny, of course, and in the low 80s, so we decided to try it again - this time with a media card installed.

To get to the trail head, take Arizona Highway 88 east out of Apache Junction. After you go past the turnoff for the Lost Dutchman State Park, look for the First Water Trail head sign which is the next road to the right.

Turn right at the sign onto the gravel road. Now you may think this road is bad in terms of the roughness of the surface and washouts requiring one to just move along at a snail's pace in places, but it will seem like an interstate compared to the road leading back to the trail head. After turning onto the First Water Trail head Road, proceed for about a mile.

Turn right onto the only road you will see up to that point. There are some turnoffs where people park their cars to take other trails, but these are not roads. Once you make that right, the road ceases to be a road and is classified more as a trail.

I put the transmission selector in "1" and just let the pickup crawl along and at times that crawl is even too fast. Take your time getting back to the trail head and you will be rewarded with some of the most gorgeous scenery in the area. Once at the trail head, park in the parking area and proceed through the opening in the fence and onto the trail. Be sure to have drinking water with you.

As we started out on the trial, in the not-to-far distance, we saw a side of the Superstition Mountains we had not seen before. In the foreground we came face-to-face with a formidable rock spire. To the left is a high ridge of mountains and to the right the landscape gently drops off into a valley. The trail takes you up and around the left side of the rock spire and down the other side across a dry wash. From there, the trail climbs up out of the wash and turns left, following alongside another wash, which may or may not have water in it. The first time we went on the hike, it was after a rain and it had a small amount of flowing water in it.

From here the trail goes up and down along the way towards Massacre Grounds, but there isn't any great rise of fall in elevation. The trail is generally good, sandy in some spots and rocky in others until you come to the slickrock.

This gets alittle tricky getting up and over the slickrock. Sue attempted it, but decided not to go any further after she was about halfway up. She told me to go ahead and she would stay there.

I worked my way up and over the small mountain, along a ridge, down into a small valley and was starting up another rise when I met a couple on the trail coming back down.

I asked them how far it was ahead to the grounds and he said about 15 minutes to the waterfall. Then I ask them if they had seen the massacre grounds and the women told me she had read in her guidebook that the actual grounds are not marked and that they are somewhere in the valley over that next rise. Then I ask about the waterfall and she said it was about like a stream of water coming out of garden hose.

With that information, I decided to follow them back down the trail and hook back up with Sue.

Although it was somewhat disappointing that the actual grounds where the massacre happened isn't marked, the scenery and blooming wildflowers more than make up for the minor disappointment. If you have about two-hours of time and want to take a very rewarding hike, consider taking the Massacre Ground Trail hike - you won't be disappointed.

Digital Photography - Photographing Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:35:00 +0000

Many of us fall into photographing themes of one sort or another. I love to photograph waterfalls and cascades, mountains, desert scenes, flower close-ups, lighthouses, water-powered mills, covered bridges, and sunrises and sunsets.

I find myself constantly looking for these themes wherever I go regardless of the purpose of the trip or photo shoot. Consequently, over many trips, I have built up a large stock file of these themes. Without really thinking about it, it created a good base for my stock photography.

With theme photography, you develop an eye for seeing theme topics. Along with the knack for seeing, you develop a procedure specific for photographing each type of theme. Digital photography tips one: photograph the subject of each theme the same way each time in different places.

For example, when I photograph water-powered mills, I photograph the device driving the main driveshaft whether it is an overshot wheel or vortex turbine. I also photograph the crown wheel coming off of the main driveshaft. Before I leave, I also photograph the mill race, mill pond and outside of the structure. By photographing these same subjects in each mill, I have built up a library of several different water powered mills each with photos of the aforementioned subjects. The various miscellaneous shots varying from mill to mill as I do not want to overlook the uniqueness of each mill as each one is unique in its own way.

With the photography also comes learning about each theme. The learning acquired through research, along with the photographs taken over a number of years, creates a knowledge base defining you as an expert of that theme which can result in a niche market for you. Eventually, through networking and other sources, you will be known as one of the go-to persons when someone has a photo need in one of your theme categories.

Themes can be general or more specific. For example, one of my themes is flower close-ups. One of my sub-themes within flower close-ups is orchids. Another sub-theme is wild cactus flower close-ups, so you can see you can get as specific as you want.

Themes can also be about the format of the photo. Some photographers have a theme titled panoramics. This theme is more about the format of the photo being long and narrow and not so much about the subject matter.

Still another theme category may be the format orientation of the photograph. Some photographers shoot certain themes as verticals. Some theme topics look better when shot in a horizontal format. Digital photography tips two: A flower photographed from the side at the level of the flower, including the stem of the flower, not only falls into the flower category, but also into the vertical format theme.

Some themes focus on photographs shot in black and white. Some photographers shoot only certain subjects in black and white and other subjects in color. Many of the subjects having texture look better when photographed in black and white as the lack of color focuses the eyes of the viewer on the texture of the subject without the interference of color.

Themes do not have to be of just the natural world. Some photographers shoot themes of subjects resulting from the hand of man. These themes range from architecture, to pottery, to machines in addition to many other subjects.Themes can also be of topics undesirable to look at, such as damage to the environment, air or water pollution, global warming, erosion, wrath of Nature and many others.

Some photos cross into other theme topics. A desert sunrise or sunset not only falls into the sunrises/sunsets theme, but it also fall into landscapes or into the sub-theme of deserts within the landscape theme. It is all in how specific you want to get as a photographer. The larger number of specific themes can lead to a larger opportunity for niche marketing of your photos.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. You are bound only by how much time you have to photograph your themes and then marketing them.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing our digital photography ebook at our Business Writing Resources website. It is instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

Great Images Through Metering

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:45:00 +0000

Almost all of the newer Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have multiple TTL (Through The Lens) metering modes. Each manufacturer calls their metering modes by different names, but basically, they all fall into four categories: spot, center-weighted, multi-pattern and matrix metering, the last one being proprietary to Nikon.

Spot Metering - Spot metering, as the name implies, reads the light from a very small spot or portion of the overall scene. This mode reads the light reflecting from what is inside the small circle or rectangle in the middle of your viewfinder. It will not be more than 9.5% of the overall scene. With spot metering, you can pinpoint the area you want metered for reflectance light. The disadvantage is you pinpoint the spot you want metered for reflectance light.

Now wait a minute, how can pinpointing be both an advantage and disadvantage? The advantage is you are free to choose where to take your meter reading from in a scene. Just put the circle or rectangle on the area you want metered and press the shutter button half-way down to see the shutter speed and aperture settings.

The disadvantage is the TTL meter in your camera sees everything as middle tone or 18% reflectance. If the spot you pick is not middle tone, the exposure of the whole scene could be either over or under exposed. To get an accurate exposure, choose something close to middle tone, such as green grass, tan tree bark, blue sky or light brown flesh tone. Or as an alternative, take the reading and manually dial in exposure compensation to achieve middle tone settings. The spot meter can be difficult to learn, but once you have mastered it, you will find it indispensable when you want your subject, the part in the spot, exposed correctly in a high contrast situation.

Center-Weighted Metering - Center-weighted metering is the most common of all the metering systems and the one used in all point-and-shoot cameras. Center-weighted metering reads light from about 75% of the center of the scene, weights it heavier, then reads the light from the remaining 25% of the scene and weighs it normally . This information is computed by the camera coming up with the final exposure reading. Remember, the overall area metered needs to average out to middle tone. Anything other than middle tone requires you to compensate by using the exposure compensation feature in your DSLR camera.

Multi-Pattern Metering - Multi-pattern metering is also known as evaluative metering. With this method, the viewfinder is broken down into several metering segments built around the auto-focus sensors. Once you choose the auto-focus sensor, a center-weighted metering pattern is built around that selected sensor. This system is basically the same as the center-weighted metering system except the center-weighted reading is taken from the selected auto-focus sensor instead of from the center of the viewfinder.

Matrix Metering - Proprietary to Nikon, matrix metering uses multiple metering segments arranged around the auto-focus segments in the viewfinder much like the multi-pattern metering system, but it also uses a database of actual photographic situations. This system works by each segment metered individually and assigned a light level. These light levels form a contrast pattern. The contrast patterns are then filtered through the database in the DSLR finding the proper exposure compensation for a given scene. With this system, no manual exposure compensation is needed because the metering system automatically does it for you.

When To Use Each Metering System - Each metering system has its own use in specific situations. Generally, center-weighted is best to use when learning how to take photos. As you master this metering system, you can move to spot metering. Here you will pinpoint a spot in the scene and manually apply exposure compensation. Use matrix or multi-pattern metering for rapidly changing light situations or when faced with highly complex lighting.

Now would be a good time to dust off your camera manual and read up on metering modes specific to your camera. Mastering metering modes takes your imagery to a whole new and higher level.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

How To Take Better Photos Of Fido

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:47:00 +0000

Nothing gets an “ahhh” quicker than a cute pet photo. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most frustrating ordeals to get that photo. Below are some tips to make pet photography more enjoyable for both you and your pet.

Consideration for your pet
Before we go further, most important thing to remember while taking pet photos is the welfare of your pet. Yes, your pet will tire of being the subject of your study and he/she will tire even quicker if they are not enjoying the photo shoot.

Strike a pose
If you have a new pet, begin to train that pet to pose for photos right from the beginning. You can condition your pet to strike the pose when you say a command word such “picture” or “camera” or anything else you choose to call it. The key is practice, practice and more practice. Practice both the posing and the actual taking the photos so your pet will get used to the camera. Whenever possible take your photos with the flash turned off. Pets quickly tire of having that bright light repeatedly flashed into their eyes.

Rewarding good photo behavior
PAfter taking your pet’s photo, be sure to reward that acceptable behavior with a treat your pet enjoys. Make the photo session an enjoyable experience for both you and your pet. Also, if your pet knows a treat will follow a photo session, he/she will be more willing the next time to do it again.

Indoors or outdoors
Whether shooting indoors or outside, use natural light whenever possible. Normally it is a softer, less direct, light resulting in photos with less harsh shadows.

If you are shooting outdoors, try to control your background or throw it out of focus if it is distracting. If your pet is not of the cage or habitat variety, you can make a simple non-distracting background from a solid color bed sheet, bath towel or craft paper. If you pet is a tree climber, you can use the blue sky as a background.

If the weather is not conducive to taking photos outside, you can always pose your pet near a window or patio door and take advantage of the soft light filtering in. If you are going to shoot in an area not normally frequented by your pet, spend a few days getting your pet used to this area before the photo session.

Selective focusing
With any of the photos, you can blur the background by zooming in with a telephoto lens. These lenses inherently have a small depth-of-field so the background will blur. A telephoto lens also gives you more room to work without having to be right in the animal’s face. Be sure to focus on your pet’s eyes. If the eyes are in focus, the picture is a successful shot.

Viewpoint

Another technique is shoot from your pet’s eye-level instead of always shooting down. If the sun is in back of your pet, you will have to turn on your flash to fill flash mode to fill in the shadow areas and balance the light on your pet’s face.

Props
Props are widely used in pet photography. Fido, with one of his favorite toys, will make a picture you will long endear for years to come. If you are not using a favorite toy, the key to using props in pet photography is to introduce the prop early, so your pet has time to become familiar and comfortable with the prop.

Controlling eye direction

You can control the eye direction of your pet in many ways. For dogs, you can train them to look a certain direction when a whistle is blown a set number of times. A flashlight can also be used and they will normally look in the direction of the light.

For cats, usually a dangling toy will work or they will respond by looking in the direction a voice came from.

Caged animals
If your animal is of the caged type such as a reptile, you can create a photography box to use as a mini studio. Line a cardboard box with a solid-color fabric or paper to avoid having to work around the wires of the cage. On the open side, place a piece of glass or acrylic. You can shoot down into the box or through the clear panel.

The best way to light this setting is with a bounced off-camera flash. The bounced light will be softer and the flash will freeze any sudden movement of the animal. If you are shooting through the clear panel, avoid flash glare by either using a polarizer filter or shoot at an angle to the clear panel so the light will bounce away from the flash and not back into the camera. Here again you could move the photography box near a window or patio door and take advantage of the natural light instead of using the flash.

Aquarium animals
For pets living in water, such as fish, you can use a flash, but it is better to use it off-camera and held over the top of the aquarium and pointed down into the water. If you have a light colored gravel on the bottom of the tank, the lighting will even out with light being reflected off of the bottom. If the bottom of the tank does not have light-colored gravel, try surrounding the outside of the tank on three sides with a light colored paper to get the light distributed as evenly as possible. If the tank happens to be near some natural light, you can try to use that also.

The key to pet photography is to make the photo session as enjoyable for both you and your pet. Part of that enjoyment is ensuring nothing you do to take the photo will harm or endanger your pet. Otherwise, all of a sudden it is no longer fun for your pet and it will be reluctant the next time to pose for pictures.

Pet photography produces some of the most-treasured photos you will ever take. Using the techniques above will assist you in capturing those treasures.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

Harvesting The Crop

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:39:00 +0000

In this post, we’re talking about how to make a good picture better though the use of cropping. The “harvest” is a better picture though the use of the techniques in this article.

So what is the perfect crop? The one that creates the strongest image – generally the crop that fills the frame with the subject. Remember the old advice of fill the frame? That advice is just as good today as it was in the past.

In any picture, there are many potentially better, or at the very least, different pictures. Framing as you shoot and cropping once the image is in your computer are two ways to find other, perhaps better, pictures in a scene or image.

Cropping

There are two types of cropping, in-camera and after-the-fact. Cropping in the camera involves using something as a frame around a scene. The frame can be natural or manmade. Natural framing could be overhanging tree branches, a gap between two boulders, a natural arch, etc. Manmade framing might be a doorway, arch, open window, bridge or a gap between two buildings. By framing an image, the field of view is more limited than without framing and it thereby draws the viewer’s eye right to the subject. Framing can be applied to just the sides of the scene in the viewfinder or it can also involve the top of the scene.

Framing
As I said above, usually framing is used to draw the viewer’s eye into the picture, however, it can also be used to hide a distracting element within a scene such as powerlines, waste receptacles or anything attracting attention away from the main subject.

Vertical or Horizontal?

Another consideration when framing a shot is to ask yourself if this shot is better framed vertically or horizontally. Long, tall subjects tend to look better framed vertically. You can also crop in a camera by using a zoom telephoto lens. As you increase the focal length of the lens, the angle of view gets narrower. By reducing the angle of view, you are reducing the amount of negative space around your subject and are thereby cropping the photo.

In-camera cropping
In-camera cropping is preferable to cropping after-the-fact because photos cropped in the camera gives you a full size photo to work with. For those times when cropping in the camera is not practicable, cropping after-the-fact is a viable, and sometimes the preferred, option.

After-the-fact
There are several other times when you may want to crop an image after-the-fact. You can crop in the computer to straighten a tilted horizon, or to reposition the subject in the scene using the Rule of Thirds. Several image-editing programs allow you to specify a standard print size. So you can take the image size on the screen and crop it down to a standard print size.

To crop in Photoshop, first open your image. Next, with your left mouse button, click on the marquee tool. Move your cursor to the upper left part of the open image that you want to keep.

With the left mouse button, click and drag down and to the right creating a rectangle. When you get it the size you want, release the mouse button. Now, move your cursor to the top-line menu and click on Image and then Crop.

Your image will now be the size of the rectangle you formed using the Marquee tool. The cropping tool shows up as a rectangle and you can move that rectangle over your photo to create a crop you deem the best.

What you are actually doing is cropping to eliminate nonessential or distracting elements within your image. You can also crop to a print-size photo, such as a 4” X 6” from a larger size image in your computer.

With Adobe’s Photoshop Elements software, you can crop a photo down to different photo sizes by specifying the height and width from the Crop screen. Once rectangle appears on your computer screen, use your left mouse button and move the rectangle to where you want it. Click on the green checkmark on the bottom right corner of the image.The image is now cropped to the size you indicated and with just the part of the image inside the rectangle.

Another reason to crop is to isolate action. With action shooting, you don’t always have the time to switch lenses. So, as a result, you have extraneous elements around your actual subject. In these cases, take the image and then crop down to just the right amount of action. Lastly, you may want to crop to create a more compelling message or for artistic effect. Usually this last crop is most useful when you have a specific use for that image such as on a web site or in a newsletter.

Cropping, both in the camera before you take the picture and after-the-fact, once the image is in the computer, are tools to make good pictures great. Here is a great video on the cropping process.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

Fun At The Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000

In this post, we focus (no pun intended) on how to shoot photos at zoos, wildlife parks, aquariums and nature sanctuaries. As in any type of animal photography, patience, persistence and creativity are the secrets.

Composition - When setting up to photograph animals in a zoo environment, there are several considerations The first one is varying your composition. Take some shots with the subject looking straight at you along with some looking left or right. To achieve this you may have to reposition your digital camera several times. This is the patience and persistence part. Use a tripod to maximize the sharpness of your photos.

The other part of composition is subject placement. Apply the rule of thirds. To use this rule, mentally create a grid by separating your viewfinder into three sections, both vertically and horizontally - like a tic-tac-toe board. The rule is to place your subject on one of the intersecting points in the grid.

Time of Day - The second consideration is time of day with early morning and late afternoon the best times to shoot. Photographing from sunrise to about 2 ½ hours after and again about 2 ½ hours before sunset to sunset, produces a soft, golden, highly directional lighting saturating the colors of the subject and background.

Another reason for shooting early or late in the day is the lack of crowds during these two times. And the final reason is the animals are most active early and late in the day. In the wild, this is when they normally hunt and eat. During the middle of the day, they are more lethargic and not as photogenic.

Illumination - Illumination of a subject occurs from three possible directions: the front called frontlighting, the back called backlighting, and the side called sidelighting. Each have their advantages.

Frontlighting minimizes shadows and thereby texture, but it will intensify color. If you are trying to accent the fur of an animal, this is not the best lighting. Use sidelighting instead.

Backlighting creates a rimlight effect. This type of lighting creates a glow around the subject giving it a halo type of look, but it also can fool the TTL in your digital camera and your subject can come out as a silhouette.

Sidelighting defines the texture of the surface of an object. It creates a 3D effect by highlighting the high points bathed in the directional light and forming small shadowy areas in those that are not with the result being texture - texture so distinct that your viewers can imagine how it feels just by looking at the photo. Of the three types of directional lighting, this best because of its texture accenting ability.

Chains, Fences and Enclosures - If you are trying to show the animals without their containment, you will want to try avoid showing the bars, barriers and wires. When this is impossible, their presence can be minimized by using a long millimeter lens and shooting at wide apertures to blur both the foreground and background.

To make a chain link fence disappear, put the front of your lens up to the fence and centered in one of the openings. Set the lens aperture to wide open and shoot. This will give you a very shallow depth-of-field thereby obliterating the wire of the fence and softening the background.

While shooting in this non-natural environment, shoot close-ups to minimize the environment. In wildlife parks, where the environment is more like it would be in the animal’s natural habitat, create an environmental portrait by including more of the animal’s surroundings. Here, you will want to use a smaller aperture to hold both the foreground and background in focus.

If you are in a wildlife park with a driving route, shoot from inside your vehicle. Use a window camera mount or a bean bag. Be sure to shut off your vehicle’s engine to minimize camera movement.

If shooting through a glass barrier, try to find a piece of clean glass and place the lens hood up against it to minimize reflections. If using a flash, use it off camera and hold it at a 45 degree angle to the camera and up against the glass.

As far as sensor speed ISO, for the outside shots, use a slow ISO such as 100 on sunny days or 200 if cloudy. For indoor aquarium shots, use ISO 400.

Summary - Shooting at the zoo is exciting. Where else can you get, in one location, a collection of animals from around the world. Take your time, plan your shots and enjoy the photography of animals. If you are marketing these photos, do not try to pass them off as shot in the wild.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques.

To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

Composing For Impact

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:57:00 +0000

Composition controls how much impact your photos have on the people viewing them. Below are some tips and techniques you can use to maximize the impact of your photos.

Rule of Thirds –

The rule of thirds, also known as the Golden Grid, was discovered by the ancient Greek painters. The rule says to mentally divide the scene in your viewfinder into thirds both horizontally and vertically. If your main point of interest is a static spot, place it on one of the intersecting points. If your main point of interest is horizontal, then place it on one of the horizontal lines. Place vertical points of interest on the vertical lines. Using this technique by itself, will give your photos impact.

Other factors influencing impact on your photos include:

- Framing

- Depth

- Focus

- Viewpoint

- Brightness

- Color

Framing –

Framing is used to draw the viewer’s eyes into the photo – right to your subject. Once you start to look for items to use as frames, you will see them all around you. They can be natural or man-made. Tree branches and limbs, doorways, and windows are three popular ones. A mistake many make when first using framing is placing their subject too far away from the framing. When that happens, the subject appears small thereby losing the impact of the framing.

Depth –

The illusion of depth occurs when there is a noticeable distance between the foreground and background. Photos showing depth tend to draw viewers into them. When two items of the same approximate size graphically appear to be different in size, the eye interprets the small one being farther away from the larger one. Atmospheric haze contributes to the illusion by making the smaller item appear lighter in color.

Focus –

The viewer’s eye naturally goes to the object in focus. Use this phenomenon to your advantage. You can make this happen by using selective focusing. Having your subject in focus and the rest of your photo slightly out-of-focus happens when you use a small f-stop number. Using a small f-stop equates to having a very small amount of your photo in focus from the front of the scene to the back.

By focusing on your subject, you will ensure your subject is in this small plane in focus. The farther you move both ways away from the plane of focus, the more out-of-focus the items appear.

Viewpoint -

Viewpoint is the physical placement of your camera at the time the photo is taken. Before taking a picture, look for other viewpoints. Try shooting from a position higher than the subject, a position lower and finally, from a different lateral position. See how these viewpoints change the way your subject appears in the viewfinder. Digital cameras are great for this because you can take a photos from several viewpoints and instantly see the photo. Now you can keep the one(s) you like and discard the ones you don’t without having to pay for the processing and printing.

Brightness –

The brightness of a photo is the greatest contributor to the feeling of that photo. A photo having a very light tonal range, known as high-key, conveys a feeling of youth, hope, beauty, or softness. Often, you will see a beautiful young girl or flower portrayed in a high-key setting. Conversely, low-key photos imply seriousness, sobriety, age or impending danger. A photo of an impending storm will convey the feeling of danger.

Color –

In a photo, color serves two purposes. It sets the mood of the photo and enable us to distinguish the different elements in that photo.

The more color of an object contrasts with its surroundings, the more likely that object will become the subject of that photo. Location photographers use very colorful props when photographing people. It identifies them as the subject and separates them from the rest of the photo.

A uniform color of a photo overall establishes a mood also. A photo having a bluish cast will convey a feeling of coldness. A reddish color conveys a feeling of hotness, endangerment or adventurer.

Experiment with these compositional factors the next time you shoot photos. If you are visually aware of these factors, your photos will have impact.

There are many more compositional factors that will give your photos impact including position of the horizon, line, balance, contrast, shape and pattern. I chose the seven discussed in this article as they are some of the more overlooked compositional factors.

If you liked this article, and you would like us to ghost-write you an article or ebook on digital photography, please contact us and request a quote.

If you enjoyed this article on travel photography, you'll enjoy my ebook titled How To Improve Your Travel Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website, Sunlight Media Digital Photography.

Festival Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:09:00 +0000

Spring signals the arrival of festivals, parades and other community events. It doesn’t matter if you are four or eighty-four; these events are fun for everyone. Below are some basic photography tips and techniques to maximize your photography at medieval festivals, civil war reenactments and Native American pow-wows.

Festival Photography Basics -

Find a great spot. This usually involves getting to the event early so you have a choice of spots. Don’t expect to get into the areas where the press photographers shoot, though. That usually requires you to have a Press Pass. If the event is being televised, try to get close to the area where the TV cameras are located. The passing bands and other parade members are the most lively when passing this area.

With the right lens, you can get great photos shooting from a sidewalk or bleachers. If you’re shooting from a sidewalk, stake your claim early. If you’re shooting from bleachers, get up a couple of rows higher than street level. Also check the location of the sun and try to position yourself so it will be at your side or back. Avoid shooting into the sun.

Deciding on which camera and accessories to use -

If you are using a compact camera, one with a Zoom lens range of 38-110 or greater should be adequate. If you are shooting SLR, carry both a 28-80mm and a 80-300mm zoom lens. Also, carry a flash. As with all flash photography, know the range of your flash and stay within it. Many photographers don’t think of using fill flash during daylight hours, but fill flash will prevent dark face areas especially if your subjects are wearing caps or hats that shade their face.

As far as sensor speed, use an ISO 200 on sunny days and ISO 400 if it is overcast. The higher ISO will give you more motion-stopping shutter speed on cloudy days, but still your photos will have great vibrant color.

Medieval Festivals -

If you like festivals, it is hard to beat a Renaissance Festival. Check out RenFestUSA to find out where the nearest one to you is located. There is something in almost every state. Most feature a medieval castle with a full royal family, knights in armor, village tradesmen and of course, court jesters.

All festival participants are in traditional costumes which are usually brightly colored and very ornate. It is easy to shoot photos of knights in shining armor jousting or craftsman practicing their medieval trade.

Civil War Reenactments -

During the summer there are many events reenacting Civil War battles. The Re-Enactment Headquarters website lists those events.

Usually included in a reenactment is an encampment where the participants and their families live in tents for several days. Horses, authentic clothing, flags, and other period paraphernalia add authenticity to the event.

You will find numerous participants willing to be photographed. They may ask for a print in return, but that is a small price to pay for the privilege of shooting. In this setting, semi-candid photos – pictures of the people interacting while “working”- are the best. Take pictures as they cook over an open campfire, discuss battle plans and don their colorful uniforms. The battle recreations usually take place in the afternoon, but get there in the morning to shoot individual pictures as they prepare for the “battle”.

Native American Events -

Pow-wows, the traditional dance and music competitions, are incredibly colorful events. Stop by this website for a nation-wide listing of events. Arrive at least an hour before the dancing and music begins to ensure you get a good seat. Try to get a few rows up in the bleachers so you can shoot down and eliminate distracting backgrounds.

These competitions tend to get very crowded so it is difficult to photograph individual participants, but it is still possible if you work at it. Use a 100-300 mm zoom lens to get those tight shots.

Before and after the actual competitions, walk around the grounds with your camera. Here you will be able to get some individual shots, but ask permission before shooting and observe the rules of courtesy.

Portions of the events may be closed to photography and those will be announced beforehand. Respect the wishes of the tribes as during these times, as these portions of the events are very sacred to them.

Asking Permission -

When photographing large groups or parades, you really don’t need permission because photography is taken for granted. However, when you photograph individuals or small groups of participants, ask permission first. If they decline, observe their wishes and move on.

Try to develop a rapport with the individuals before asking permission to photograph them. Your semi-posed shots will be much better.

Aside from the entertainment value, photographing these events gives you an opportunity to develop your people photography skills. Even if you are a shy photographer, soon you will be caught up in the moment and snapping away.

In Summary –

Use the tips and techniques presented in this article to take some great colorful festival photos. Once you see your results, you will be hooked on festival and event photography.

If you enjoyed this article on festival photography, you'll enjoy any of my three digital photography ebooks. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website, Sunlight Media Digital Photography.

Improve Your Travel Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:41:00 +0000

It’s almost time for that winter vacation. Whether you are going snow skiing or going to just lie on a nice warm beach, travel photography is always exciting. However, many people return with disappointing photos at best. Below are some hints and tips that will improve your future vacation photos:

Researching Destinations – Before you go, spend some time at your local library or on the Internet reading all about your destination(s). See when the festivals will be. Read about its flora and fauna. Don’t over look the area’s politics, culture and history.

Shooting Themes – It is easier to see potential photos if you have a theme or self-assignment in mind. Some good topics are markets, festivals and holidays, music and dance, people at work, handicrafts, food, architecture, clothing and transportation. By focusing (no pun intended) on one or more of these topics each time you travel, you will eventually have a nice selection of those themes from all of your destinations.

Time of Day – Get up early and stay late for some great shots. From sunrise to two hours after and the same time before to sunset are optimal times to shoot. The quality of light during these times is great. The soft golden light is more pleasing to the eyes than the harsh mid-day light.

Also, because the sun is lower during the early morning and late afternoon, you have longer shadows, which add texture and depth to your photos. The texture and depth makes your two-dimensional photos look more life-like.

A Photo is Worth a Thousand Words – We have all heard this phrase. While at a destination, photograph its people, landscapes, buildings, flowers and markets. Use your telephoto, wide-angle and macro lens to tell the story of that destination. These photos say more than any writer can put into words.

Filters – Generally, you only need one - a polarizer. Use a polarizing filter to darken a blue sky, intensify colors or remove unwanted reflections. Remember, a polarizer works best with sidelighting. To remove unwanted reflections, make sure you are at an oblique angle to the reflection you are trying to remove. To keep the auto-focus feature of your camera, use a circular polarizer.

White Balance - While many times the Auto or AWB setting works well, there will be times when you will want to manually set your white balance. If you are shooting in open shade or right before the sun comes up, you may get a bluish tint to your images. Eliminate the blue by switching to the Shade setting.

If you take photos lit by household lamps, use the tungsten or incandescent setting to remove the orange cast. Or depending on what you are trying to say with your photos, you may want to leave that orange cast in the photo. In that case switch to the Daylight setting. Our eyes don’t ascertain the differences in light like a digital camera sensor does, so beware of the causes of the bluish and orange cast and how to remove them.

Talk Before Shooting – When photographing people, talk to them before photographing them. Most strangers are not keen on being photographed by someone they don’t know, let alone someone they have never spoken with. Even if you have to use another individual as an interpreter, talk to your potential subject. After a conversation, they will warm up to you and you can work in some photos. Also, many of these locals are privy to a hidden location not covered in any of the guidebooks.

The Eyes Have it – When photographing people and animals, focus on the eyes. Don’t forget to use fill flash to brighten a face when in the shadows or open shade. The flash will also add highlights or small white dots to the subject’s eyes, which is a pleasing effect.

Look for the Bright Light – Your eye naturally goes to the brightest part of a photo. If you have varying light, try to place your subject in the bright light. Be cautious of staying within the seven-stop range of your sensor. This seven-stop difference is from the brightest to darkest light in your scene. You can check how many stops difference you have by spot metering on the brightest part of the scene and noting the recommended shutter speed and f-stop settings. Then, spot meter on the darkest part and note how many stops difference there were from the first spot meter reading. If it is over seven stops, your darkest part of the scene will lose it’s detail and will go black. To our eyes, it is within our 16-stop range so we can see the full range of light difference.

On The Move – When photographing people or animals work fast. They appreciate it and it will ensure you will not wear out your welcome.

Creating the Photo – Think about making the picture rather than taking the picture. Painters start with a scene and add elements as they go along. Photographers start with a scene full of elements and take out the excess to end up with a resulting photo having a single center of interest.

Break The Rules – It is important to know the rules of photography, but don’t be afraid to break them occasionally. Don’t get so locked into them that you can’t experiment.

In Closing – Travel photography is exciting. It is great to see and record images on how and where other people live, work and play. By using the above hints and tips, you will have great images of your destination to show family and friends.

If you enjoyed this article on travel photography, you'll enjoy my ebook titled How To Improve Your Travel Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website, Sunlight Media Digital Photography.

Daniel Boone’s Fort Boonesborough

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:59:00 +0000

It is a short walk from the parking lot to the fort, but once inside, the sounds, sights and smells instantly transport me back to an earlier and much simpler time.

Upon entering the fort, I hear a sharp crack, turn and in the courtyard, I see the puff of smoke from a marksman’s black powder rifle. After paying our entrance fee, we begin walking around the inside perimeter of the fort. One of the first buildings I encounter is an interesting cabin – one of many inside the fort. After stepping inside and letting my eyes adjust to the dim light, it is easy seeing the meager re-constructed furnishings the settlers used while living here – a crude four-legged table with a small slab-wood top, a mud and stick fireplace used for warmth and cooking, and a straw-filled mattress lying on the floor to sleep on. That was it.

Walking further along the fence, we come to the company store. Today, visitors can buy crafts hand-made by the artisans, but back in the late 1700s, it was the only place settlers could purchase staple items such as flour, sugar and coffee after they had used up what they had brought with them.

At the far end of the fort are period-clothed artisans working on their crafts. In one of the cabins, a man works leather making pouches and bags.

In another cabin, a woman weaves on a loom. In still another cabin further down, a woman works pottery using a foot-powered potter’s wheel. Across the path in the courtyard, we hear and see a blacksmith hammering red-hot iron just out of his forge.

The inside of the fort reeks with authenticity. It is easy to imagine that at any moment Daniel Boone himself will step out of one of the cabins, but as I walk around the fort, the one question in my mind is how did Boone come to settle this place called Boonesborough?

The story began during the French and Indian War (1753-1764), while the 19-year old Boone worked for General Edward Braddock as a teamster/blacksmith and became acquainted with a wagoner named John Findley. Instantly, Boone became intrigued with Findley’s stories of fertile valleys teaming with abundant game west of the Appalachians in a place that would eventually become Kentucky. Findley had been here before the war as part of a trading expedition with the Indians.

Four years later during the winter of 1768-1769, Findley met with Boone convincing Boone to join him on a hunting trip to Kentucky. During this trip, Boone fell in love with this new land and vowed to return someday. Four years later, Boone and five other families would make the journey and be among the first white settlers settling here.

In 1773, Boone and a group of fifty settlers having been commissioned by Colonel Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company, left North Carolina and began making a trail west which became known as the Wilderness Road. In the years following, thousands of settlers would follow this trail in a never-ending attempt to expand the west.

In the beginning, Boone and the settlers followed a trail used for centuries by the Indians called Warrior’s Path, and then Skagg’s Trace from the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, but the trails were too narrow for wagons to traverse and it was Boone and company’s job to widen the trails. Once at Hazel Patch, in present Laurel County, KY, Boone left the old established trails and began clearing a new one called Boone’s Trace.

Eventually the small party stopped and built a fort on the Kentucky River near present day Lexington, KY. Fort Boonesborough, became the second English-speaking settlement in this new land.

While enroute to Boonesborough, Indians relentlessly attacked the small group of settlers and over time murdered several in the party, including torturing to death Boone’s seventeen-year old son, James. After establishing the fort in September 1775, Boone went back to Clinch Valley, Virginia, where he had left his wife and the rest of his family two years earlier on the trip out, and brought them back to Boonesborough.

Fort Boonesborough became a target for Indian attacks as soon as it was built, and continuing for the next few years, as the Indians did not like the westward expansion of the white settlers. This land was their traditional tribal hunting grounds and the Indians were determined to drive the settlers back east, however as the Indians soon found out, the settlers were determined to stay here.

Boone, and those inside the fort, fended off devastating Indian raids between 1776 and 1778. During one of the raids in July 1776, Boone’s daughters, Jemina, along with two other teenage girls, were outside the fort and captured by an Indian war party.

Boone and some of his companions went after the girls. Within two days, they caught up with the Indians, ambushed and killed two of them, and rescued Jemina and the other girls. This rescue account became the basis for James Fenimoore Cooper’s 1826 novel Last of the Mohicans.

In 1777, Boone himself was captured by the Shawnee. About a year after his capture, he learned of a plan by his capturers to attack Boonesborough. He escaped and made his way back to Boonesborough, covering the 160 miles in five days first by horse, until the horse gave out, and then finishing on foot, warning the residents of the upcoming attack and leading them to a successful resistance.

Once things settled down at Boonesborough, Boone learned his wife Rebecca, fearing he was dead, had taken the family back to North Carolina. Eventually, Boone was able to go back east, retrieve his family and all return back to Fort Boonesborough. But because of his capture, and living with the Indians, Boone never felt like he was trusted again at the fort. Eventually, this caused him to leave and settle in several different parts of Kentucky over a period of a few years.

In 1799, Boone left Kentucky because it was “getting too crowded” and he pushed farther west into the new frontier called the Louisiana Purchase, now present-day Missouri. The Spanish Government gave Boone a tract of land to encourage more settlers into the area. Boone spent the rest of his days in Missouri and died there on September 26, 1820 at the age of 86.

If you are in the area and enjoy history from this period of time, Fort Boonesborough is a must-see stop. There are other Boone historical places nearby including Boone’s Station and Boone’s Cave that add to the history of Daniel Boone and are worth exploring.

Located 25 miles southeast of Lexington, KY, today, Fort Boonesborough is a reconstructed working fort and a Kentucky State Park. As you tour the cabins, in many you will find costumed artisans working their crafts much like the settlers did back in the late 1700s. The fort is complete with cabins, blockhouses and furnishings. With their craft demonstrations, modern-day visitors get a true sense of what life was like for pioneers in Kentucky.

Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for children ages 6-12 and free for children under age 6. Tours are available 1 April to 31 October, 9AM – 5:30 PM. The hours of operation are 9 AM-5 PM everyday from April 1 through October 31. call them at 859-527-3131.

If you enjoyed this travel history article, contact us and let us write a travel history article for you.

If I Only Have A Day In Zion National Park?

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:46:00 +0000

Many people coming to Zion National Park ask this question. With so much to do and so little time, visitors want to maximize their experience while here. Below are some of the don’t-miss hikes if you only have a day to spend in the park:

Angel’s Landing – If you are afraid of heights or have small children, don’t attempt the last ½ mile of this hike. Angel’s Landing is one of two premier hikes in this park and the whole National Park System. This four-hour, five mile round-trip hike starts at the Grotto Trailhead and ends 1,500 feet above the canyon valley.

The trail starts out as soft sand, but quickly turns into a paved trail. As you start your ascent, the trail takes you up a series of switchbacks and through Refrigerator Canyon. With Angel’s Landing on the right and Cathedral Mountain on left, hikers get a reprieve from the otherwise constant upgrade as the path levels out and the temperature drops 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

After leaving Refrigerator Canyon, hikers start up the twenty-one short switchbacks known as Walter’s Wiggles exiting onto a flat sandy area called Scout’s Lookout. For those with a fear of heights or having small children with them, this is their final destination. Scout’s Lookout provides a great view of the Lower Zion Canyon. For those pressing on the additional ½ mile up to the summit of Angel’s Landing, the view is worth the effort involved getting to the top.

Take this last part seriously as it involves hiking along a trail that, in places, is as narrow as thirty-six inches and drops off 1200 feet on one side and 800 feet on the other. There are chains to hold onto along the way in places, but not all the way up to the top.

The Narrows – The Narrows is the other premier hike at Zion. Take the shuttle to The Temple of Sinewava and walk the paved one-mile Riverside Walk. At the end of the Riverside Walk is where the Narrows begin.

From here, hikers enter the Virgin River and wade in water ranging in depth from ankle to waist-deep. Hikers can hike upstream to Big Springs (about four hours one-way) without needing a backcountry permit. Keep in mind once in the water, you'll make about one mile per hour progress. Many hike upriver for a couple of hours (through Wall Street), turn around and hike back. Just before you get to the start of Wall Street, turn right and go up into Orderville Canyon for a ways. Then turn around, hike back out and continiue to Wall Street. This hike will give you a good experience of The Narrows.

At the very least, wear a good closed-toe hiking boot and carry a hiking stick. Many hikers will rent water shoes, neoprene socks (to keep their feet warm in the 57-degree water) and a pair of hiking sticks from one of the outfitters in Springdale, Utah. As the hike involves climbing over rocks, those with bad ankles or knees should not attempt this hike.

Emerald Pools Trail – Emerald Pools Trail begins across the street from the Zion Lodge. After crossing the footbridge over the Virgin River, turn right at the "T" in the trail. If you hike just the Lower Emerald Pool, the 1.2 mile roundtrip hike on a paved trail takes one hour. Once at the Lower Pool, hikers have the option of returning back the same path or continuing on.

For those continuing on, the trail becomes uneven and rocky working its way up to the Middle and finally the Upper Pool. Hikers can return via the same trail or take the trail on the right at the Middle Pool bringing them back to the other side of the "T" at the trailhead. Roundtrip to the Upper Pool and back takes about 2 ½ hours.

Hidden Canyon – The trailhead for this hike is the Weeping Rock Shuttle Stop. Hiking this two-mile, three-hour roundtrip trail gains 850 feet in elevation and ends at the end of a narrow canyon. This trail is not for those fearful of heights as some portions require hanging onto chains to negotiate narrow ledges of the trail. Once the maintained trail ends, the fun begins. You actually walk on the canyon floor with some of the walls only an arms-width apart and thirty feet apart in other areas. After about ten minutes on the unmaintained trail, you will see a free-standing arch on the right side. This is a great hike that has Angel’s Landing similarities, but is less demanding.

Canyon Overlook – Canyon Overlook is a fun one-hour, one-mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain of 163 feet. If you are coming up from the South Entrance, the trailhead for this hike starts at the end of the 1.1 mile long Zion – Mt Carmel tunnel. Park in either the small parking lot on the right or the one on down the road on the left. Hikers using this rocky uneven trail are rewarded by spectacular views of both Zion and Pine Creek Canyons at the far end of the end of trail.

Weeping Rock – This trail has similarities to the lower Emerald Pools Trail. Water seeps out of the rock and falls into a stream created by the falling water. Various types of plants have taken hold in the moist rock and have created the ”Hanging Gardens”.

The paved walk has a few steep places, but they are short. If you want a short trail with scenery, this one is for you.

Pa’rus Trail – This is a fun trail. Running along the Virgin River with the great canyon walls on both sides of the trail; this trail is good both in the morning or evening.

This is the only trail where walking pets and biking are allowed on trails. Pick the trail up at the Canyon Junction shuttle stop. The trail ends at the Visitor’s Center.

Summary – Don’t attempt to do both The Narrows and Angel’s Landing in the same day. I recommend doing one or the other and then mixing in any of the other suggested hikes as time allows. Zion National Park is a true gem among the National Parks and these hikes will maximize your Zion National Park experience.

If you enjoyed this article on Zion National Park and you are a photographer, you'll enjoy my ebook titled How To Improve Your Travel Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my digital photography website, Sunlight Media.

Explorers of Light

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:50:00 +0000

Are we talking about physicists experimenting with a new medium for transmitting light waves? No.

Are we talking about astronomers discovering new galaxies beyond the ones we have already found? No.

We’re talking about photographers. The great painters of Greece knew what extraordinary light meant to their paintings. Today, it also means the same to photographers. Without light, there isn’t a photograph. Even the word photography comes from the Greek words photos meaning light and graphos meaning writing. So photography means writing with light.

What elements make light extraordinary? Basically three elements: color, quality and direction. These elements are all intertwined but each have their own merit and all are necessary to have great light.

Color

We express light color in degrees Kelvin. If you are out shooting in the morning, before the sun comes up, you will notice a bluish cast to the light. The bluish color comes from a high color temperature, about 12,000 degrees Kelvin.

As the sun starts to come up, the bluish color evolves to a golden yellow. The golden light is caused by the light waves having to travel great distances through the atmosphere. While traveling, the light is refracted off of water, dust, smoke and other particles in the air. All of these particles help break up the light waves to create that beautiful golden color. The color temperature now is about 3,500 degrees Kelvin. The same effect happens at sunset.

However, the light can be more of a golden orange at sunset because late in the day there are more particles in the air caused by the day’s activities on the ground. Light records a golden color if you have your white balance setting set to Daylight this setting is balanced for daylight color temperature, which is about 5,000 degrees Kelvin. Because the light is lower in degrees Kelvin than daylight, it is recorded with a yellow cast to it. The same thing happens if you shoot the Daylight setting with household lights. The Daylight setting is balanced against light occurring between about 9:00 A.M. to around 3:00 P.M., however the light during this time if day is not of the highest quality. To eliminate the yellow cast, match your white balance to the light temperature; use the incandescent setting.

Quality

The hard, harsh mid-day light is probably the worst for photographers. During this light, look for tight compositions of flowers, animals and graphic details of buildings. Try to pick subjects in the shade. Spot meter off of your subject for a correct exposure.

Now is also a good time to use your fill flash. Stay away from people and landscape shots during mid-day light. This time of day can be productive by scouting out places to shoot for the upcoming evening light or the morning light of the next day. Thin clouds act as a diffuser and will improve the quality of overhead light. The harshness will be gone and it will be a more even, shadowless light. Early misty morning light can be good light to work with if the mist isn’t too heavy. Mist softens shadows, reduces contrast and brings subtle colors to life.

Of course the light from sunrise to about 1 ½ hours after and again from 1 ½ hours before sunset to sunset are by far, the best quality of light. This low-angled directional light will accent texture and impart a warm glow to your subject.

Direction

The direction of light is the last element. It comes in three different types: sidelighting, frontlighting and backlighting. Each has their application.

Sidelighting, such as the light at sunrise and again at sunset is the best for bringing out the texture in a subject. The light skipping over the high spots and forming shadows in the low spots create texture. People relate to a subject better if they can imagine how it would feel. Texture does that for you. It visually shows them what the surface of the subject felt like when you pressed the shutter button.

With directional light a subject can be backlit, frontlit or sidelit depending on where you are in relation to your subject and the light. The effect you want on your photograph will determine which type of lighting to use.

Backlighting is great for making silhouettes from graphic shapes. Close-up shots of translucent subjects, such as leaves, come out best when backlit. The veining will be very evident.

The last type is frontlighting. This light tends to minimize texture, reduces form and flattens out a scene. If used in early morning, this light is good when shooting landscape shots.

Let’s take a scene, the Grand Tetons, and visually photograph it three times. Each scenic shot will be from the same location, the Snake River Overlook. Each time we will use a different type of directional lighting. The first photograph will be frontlit. As the sun is first coming up, it will start to bath the mountaintops in that soft golden light.

As the sun gets higher in the sky, the light works its way down the mountain. We will end up with a brightly illuminated shot having minimal texture, but nevertheless a great shot. As the sun moves across the sky, the light will become high sidelighting. Gradually, we will start to pick up some texture and the mountains will start to take on some feeling. The light skips across the high points and creates shadows in the recesses.

In the late afternoon, the sun has moved behind the Grand Tetons and they start to become graphic silhouettes. The light in the sky gradually changes from a golden yellow to a golden orange and is finally gone.

As explorers of light, we constantly look for the three intertwined elements making up extraordinary light. Look for the color. Look for the quality. Look for the direction. Join the other explorers in their quest for the perfect light.

If you enjoyed this article on perspective and scale, you'll enjoy my ebook titled The No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website, Sunlight Media.

Perspective and Scale

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:30:00 +0000

The difficult task of a photographer is to record a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional medium. To show the 3d effect, it is important to use perspective and scale.

PERSPECTIVE

The human eye automatically relates the size of something in relation to its distance from the camera. For example, if we look at a row of trees, we know they are all basically the same size. However, the ones farthest away look smaller than the ones closest to us. A photographer can use this spatial relationship to enhance the 3d effect.

The tools in a photographer’s toolbox, used to create the 3d effect, are lenses. Wide-angle lenses appear to stretch a scene by showing near objects larger than distant objects. Telephoto lenses compress objects so they appear stacked or closer together than they really are. According to the diminishing scale concept, you imply depth in a photo by showing objects of similar size getting smaller as they get farther away from the camera.

To emphasize this effect, use a wide-angle lens and move up close to the first object of a line of repeated objects. With a wide-angle lens aperture set to wide-open, such as f16 or f22, the depth of field will be great and the whole scene will be in focus. The objects farthest away will appear to be touching due to diminishing scale.

With a telephoto lens, the effect is much different. The first object will have to be further away from the camera because a telephoto lens doesn’t have the close depth-of-field like the wide-angle lens. The diminishing scale look is somewhat different due to the compression of the elements in the scene caused by the telephoto lens.

The last object in the photo won’t be much smaller than the first, but the objects will appear closer together. If you don’t have a foreground object, but do have middle and background objects, consider using the telephoto lens.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

If you are photographing parallel lines, such as a road, railroad tracks, or a windrow of grain, then linear perspective will work for you. This is the effect when parallel lines appear to come together in the distance. For a wild effect, try shooting straight up the side of a tall building or stand between two tall buildings and shoot straight up. You can maximize this effect by having the camera closer to the ground than eye level. Lying on your back works great!

SCALE (Size Recognition)

We'll discuss scale in terms of fore-ground, middle-ground and back-ground. The challenge is to identify something, which will reveal or show the expanse that lies before the lens.

Humans are all basically the same size, so we instantly recognize that if someone appears small in a photo, they must be far away from the camera. This effect can be used to show depth, distance and scale.

Animals, cars, buildings, rocks, crops, flowers, trees, huts, and houses can all be used to show scale. To balance out a scene, try to place your foreground object one-third of the way into the scene. In bad weather, concentrate on showing the foreground. Little else besides the foreground and middle ground will be visible.

Including a human, or another object used to show scale, can show the size of the main subject in a scene. If you see a person in the distance hiking on a mountain trail, the person will appear small. The viewer of that image instantly knows two things:

one, the person was a great distance from the camera and;
two, the mountains were enormous.

If you have that same person closer to the camera, in the foreground, the effect will be the mountains are a long distance from the camera.

Without the person in the foreground to show scale, it would be harder to ascertain both the distance the mountains are from the camera and the size of the mountains.

Lastly, place yourself in the middle of the scene. It gives the viewers the effect that they were really there with you. This effect works really well if your scene happens to include a stream, creek or small river flowing toward your camera. The water flows towards you and the camera and just keeps on flowing through the scene. Use a shutter speed of at least 1/8 of a second or less to get that “cottony” effect.

By using perspective, scale and the proper lens for a scene, your will take the three-dimensional scene and accurately capture an image of it with your two-dimensional camera.

If you enjoyed this article on perspective and scale, you'll enjoy my ebook titled The No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website.

The Art of Photographing People

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:58:00 +0000

If you write bios or profile-type articles, you will want to include a portrait photo of your article's subject. What is a portrait photo? Well, there are three kinds of portrait photos - posed, environmental and candid.

Posed -
In the posed portrait, you, the photographer, control the pose, background and direction of light. When shooting these portraits, you will most likely use either a full face, three-quarter face or profile view:

A full face pose is usually not the best pose to use unless the subject has a perfect face, which few do. However, this is the pose to use, if you happen to be shooting young women with silky-smooth complexions.

The three-quarter face pose will be one you will use the most. In this pose, the subject's face is 45 degrees to the camera and both eyes are visible. This pose minimizes blemishes on the far side of the face, so have the blemished side facing away from the camera.

The other pose you will use is the profile. With this pose, the subject's face is 90 degrees to the camera and turned away from the camera until only one eye is visible. This is also a very good pose if one side of the face is less desirable than the other.

If the side of the face toward the camera is less than perfect, reduce the imperfection by using a diffuser filter. This filter gives a photo a slightly out-of-focus look and reduces the visibility of the imperfection.

The profile pose is also good to use if the subject has "chiseled" features. Natural sidelighting from a window will bring out the texture of the subject's face and accent those features. Lighting can be either natural light filtering in through a window or off-camera electronic flash. To tone down natural light filter it through a sheer curtain if one is available or bounce the light off of a reflector.

Environmental -
Another type of posed portrait is the environmental portrait. With this portrait, you are still controlling the pose, background and direction of lighting, however, you include more of the subject's surroundings in the photo. The surroundings may be in the subject's workplace or at home while engaged in a hobby. This type of portrait eliminates the problem of what to do with the hands.

Backgrounds can add to or distract from a photo. In shooting portraits, the background should be very subtle and unobtrusive. Some simple backgrounds to use are plain wallpaper, a plain painted wall, or in a pinch, a blanket. Position your subject about four feet in front of the background and use about a f8 or f5.6 aperture. Focus on the eyes of the subject. These apertures will throw the background slightly out-of-focus, so it won't overpower the photo and distract from the subject.

If the foreground adds to the portrait, then by all means show it. For example, if you are shooting an environmental if a person tying a fishing fly, then you would want to include some of the fly-tying bench with fly-tying materials in the foreground.

For light colored skin, use a darker background. Conversely, for a darker colored skin, use a lighter background. Maroon is a great all-around background color. Use brightly colored clothes or props with subtle backgrounds.

When deciding the placement of the subject's face in the photo, place it about in the center of the photo. Not exactly in the center, but close. Shoot both close in and farther out. Get headshots, three-quarter face, profiles and full figure shots.

When metering for the shot, use a gray card or meter off the subject's face. If you do meter off the face, come in close, push your camera's shutter button halfway down, note the reading in your camera's TTL (Through-The-Lens) meter, drop back, adjust your camera to the readings you have just taken, recompose and shoot. For light skinned subjects open up one stop. For dark skinned subjects, close down one stop. Be sure and shoot both vertical and horizontal shots. Use a tripod and a cable release. This will allow you to concentrate on the composition and not have to worry about camera movement.

Always get a signed model, location or property release, if anything is unique and recognizable in the photo. It will make your photos more marketable.

Candid -
The last type of portrait is the candid. You can take some of the best people-photos when they don't know you are photographing them. Shoot candids by photographing people doing something and not paying any attention to you. With natural lighting, you can shoot many photos without being discovered. If you are using a flash, you are limited to probably just one. Once the flash fires, the subjects know you are photographing them and they are more weary and not as spontaneous.

The next time you write a profile article, experiment with some of these portrait tips while interviewing the subject of your article. You'll be surprised how much a portrait photo adds to a profile article.

If you enjoyed this article on how to shoot portraits, you'll enjoy my ebook titled The No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website.

Photographing Rivers, Cascades and Waterfalls

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:54:00 +0000

Rivers, cascades and waterfalls. The very trio of words paint a distinct mental picture. In some pictures, we see the movement of the water frozen in time. In other photos, the water takes on a white cottony effect as it flows through and over these geologic wonders. How is this effect created?

The creative tool used to control this white flowing appearance is shutter speed. How fast the water flows decides which shutter speed setting to use.

Shutter speeds as fast as 1/15 second can create the cottony effect. Another variable, besides the speed of flowing water, is the amount of cottony effect you want. A shutter speed of 1/15 second gives you a minimum effect. A 2-second shutter speed greatly increases this effect.

The only way to learn how to create the effect is to experiment by shooting scenes at each of the shutter speeds range between and including 1/15 second and 2 seconds. Note the shutter speed setting for each image so you can compare the differences between the images.

Relate the shutter speed setting of the photo you like to the speed of the flowing water. The faster the water, the faster the shutter speed. Conversely, the slower the water, the slower the shutter speed.

For average flowing water, shoot at 1/4 second and then bracket one stop over and one stop under from the 1/4 second shot. Bracketing your shots is a method of assuring at least one of your shots has the amount of effect you want. For faster water, start at 1/8 second; for slower water start at 1/2 second. As you gain experience shooting flowing water, you can estimate what shutter speed you need.

Because we are using such slow shutter speeds, a sturdy support is needed to shoot clear, crisp photos. The best support is a tripod. If one is not available, substitute by steading your camera against a wall, rock or other sturdy support. Even a monopod will work, if you are really steady.

Another accessory used to prevent camera movement is a cable release. If you don't have a cable release or if your camera doesn't have a cable release socket, you can use your camera's self-timer feature to trip your camera's shutter.

Sensor speed (ISO) is another consideration when shooting moving water. It is very difficult to get the slow shutter speeds required if you use a high ISO, such as 400 or higher. Use a slow ISO so you to get down to the slower shutter speeds.

Sometimes, even the slowest ISO, it might not be enough to get to the shutter speed you need for a certain shot. When faced with this situation, use a neutral density filter. These filters reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor and come in several different intensities. The manufacture marks the intensity of the filter by a density number such as ND 0.3 or a filter factor such as 2X. Common densities range from 0.1 to 0.9 Filter factors range from 2X to 8X. The amount of light reduced range from 1/3 stop for the 0.1 density to 3 stops for the 0.9 density.

You can decide which filter you need by determining the slowest ISO your DSLR will allow you to shoot and comparing that speed to the shutter speed you want to shoot. That difference is in stops. Then choose the neutral density filter for that number of stops. Usually, a 0.3 or 2X and a 0.6 or 4X will cover most of your needs. This gives you a 1-stop or 2-stop reduction in light if used singularly or a 3-stop reduction if stacked.

By using neutral density filters, and shooting on a cloudy day or in shaded conditions, you can use a large depth-of-field setting such as f11 or f16. Using these f-stop settings will hold more of the foreground and background in focus than if you used a smaller f-stop.

Another great accessory lending itself to exploring your creativity is the polarizing filter. Experiment by shooting frames with and without this filter. The polarization removes the reflections from the wet rocks and quiet pools of water, plus it perks up the colors of the scenes.

If you have had problems getting the cottony effect in the past, using these techniques and tools will allow you to create beautiful cottony flowing water photos.

If you enjoyed this digital photography article, contact us through our website at: http://businesswritingresources.books.officelive.com/default.aspx and let us write one for you.

Northwest Company Fur Post – A Step Back In Time

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:50:00 +0000

Located along the Snake River, one and a half miles west of present-day Pine City in northern Minnesota, sits a recreated 1804 wintering fur post of the Northwest Company. During the early 1800s, the Northwest Company was expanding its number of fur posts to keep ahead of its competition, the XY Company. Both were in fierce competition to acquire trapped furs from the local Native American Ojibwe tribes.

The man selected by the company to operate the fur post was John Sayer – a wintering partner of the Company. Sayer left Fort St. Louis (near modern day Superior, WI) in the fall of 1804 with eight voyageurs. Paddling down the Brule River, portaging over land to the St. Croix River then down river and finally up the Snake River, the eight èngages and Sayer reached Cross Lake.

Cross Lake was Sayer’s original choice for the post, but after conferring with local Ojibwe leaders, he decided to move it two miles up river. By the time they arrived at the new location, it was late in the fall and their focus was building a post in earnest before winter set in.

Six weeks later the post was completed. While the voyageurs were building the post, Sayer was busily trading with the Ojibwe for surplus wild rice and selling items to trappers on credit – credits to be paid back to the company in the spring with furs.

Today, the post is re-created down to the minute detail looking like the original 1804 post, but to go back in time, we must first go forward through the new Visitor Center.

The Visitor Center, gift shop and exhibits opened in 2003. Inside, a 30-foot tall stone fireplace and a 24-foot birch canoe are centerpieces of the 10,400-square-foot building.

Once inside the exhibit room, we explore the exhibits showing the global economy of the fur trade back then, the work lives of those involved and the cross-cultural communication between the Ojibwe and fur traders required to establish and carryon the business of acquiring furs. Now having a better understanding of the fur trade business, we move outside and start down the trail toward the post. After a short walk, a large fence made from wooden poles comes into view. We enter through the two open large wooden gates.

Once inside the post, the prominent building is the reconstructed six-room rowhouse, measuring 77 feet long by 18 feet wide. We learn from one of the period-costumed re-enactors that the wooden fence surrounding the rowhouse is a palisade - a wall created from upright poles stuck in the ground, measuring 100 feet by 61 feet, with defensive bastions in the north and south corners.

The rowhouse is divided into five sections. Starting at the far end, we enter the doorway to the company store. It is open and we browse through the items in the store and soon start to experience what it was like living at a fur post in the early 1800s. The storekeeper tells us the Ojibwe would trade furs in return for goods such as axes, beads, iron tools, kettles, wool blankets and other supplies they needed.

The next section is the office. It is here where Sayer worked and kept the post’s books for the company. Lying on the desk are the simple tools of his trade from that era – a quill pen, ink-well and a bound book used to record the transactions.

The remaining three areas are divided into two sleeping quarters and one living area. Each sleeping quarter has multiple beds stacked bunk-bed style and a small fireplace. Clothes are hung on the wall. The living/eating area is a room containing a hewn table with benches around it and a larger fireplace used for cooking. Re-enactors go about carrying out the daily duties of that era by keeping the post operating, preparing hides for use and shipment, preparing meals and blacksmithing.

Outside the palisade, a small group of Ojibwe has an tepee encampment set up where they go about the daily work of scraping, stretching and drying furs in preparation for trade with the post.

As I walk back toward the Visitor Center, smelling the wood smoke, hearing the crackling of the fire and listening to sound of the activity happening, both in the Ojibwe camp and the post, it is easy for my mind to step back in time and suddenly, for an instant, I’m there – in 1804.

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Don't Be In The Dark About Light

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:39:00 +0000

Part of creating a digital photograph is being aware of how a scene is lit. Creating the same photograph under different lighting conditions evokes different emotional responses from the viewer. So, emotional responses are determined in part by the lighting.

Light has three basic characteristics - color, direction and quality. Photographers use these characteristics to set the mood, control the viewer's emotional response, reveal the subject's shape, texture, form, detail, and reveal the colors of the scene as either vibrant or subdued.

Color of light. The temperature of the light, measured in Kelvin degrees, determines the color of light. It can range from 10,000 degrees K before sunrise to as low as 3,200 degrees K at sunset. So, the time of day determines the color of the light. Starting with the time before sunrise, the color of the light will give your images a blue, cold feeling. Depending on what you are trying to convey, this can be desirable or undesirable.

As soon as the sun comes over the horizon and up to about 1-½ hours after sunrise, the scene will take on a yellow cast. This is a great time to take photos of landscapes and some types of portraits as the soft light bathes the scene in warmth.

With the sun low, the lighting is very directional thereby skin texture will be very defined - desirable if your subject is a rancher, fisherman or in another profession where the skin is weathered. Not desirable if you are shooting a young woman where you want to minimize the skin imperfections and show her soft silky skin.

As the sun continues to rise during the morning, the sunlight decreases in color temperature and becomes what we consider daylight color, usually around 5,000 degrees K. This is where the daylight white balance setting on digital cameras works the best. However, this is not the prime time to take photos because of the harsh shadows. Look for subjects in the shade or small subjects you can shade using a scrim - a small piece of thin white material stretched over a wood frame.

The next best time of day to shoot, after early morning, is about 1-½ hours before sunset to sunset. The color temperature goes down to about 3,200 degrees and your image takes on warm, yellow-orange cast, which is again good directional light.

Direction of light. Light has three basic directions - front, side and back.

Front lighting, light coming from behind the photographer, brings out the colors in a subject, but this type of lighting can create shadows behind the subject, thereby photographs take on a flat look.

Sidelighting, or crosslighting, is light coming from either side of a subject. Sidelighting is good for bringing out the detail in a subject as the light hits the high points and create shadows in the low points thereby creating texture. This is the type of lighting you see at sunrise and sunset and it is a great light for landscapes, weathered buildings and other subjects where you want to accent the texture and depth.

Backlighting is the sun is shining into the eyes of the photographer. This is good lighting to create silhouettes or a halo light around your subject. If you are shooting a portrait with backlighting, be sure to use fill-flash or bounce some light back into the subject's face using a reflector, otherwise it will be devoid of detail. If you are shooting a translucent subject, this is great light as it reveals the detail by shining through the subject.

Quality of light. Quality of light is defined as the hardness or softness of light. If you are shooting outdoors, it is generally controlled by the weather. Hard light is a bright, direct source of illumination, such as sidelighting, and is good for shooting landscapes or any situation where you want to emphasize texture. This lighting will create bright highlights and deeply defined shadows.

On the other hand, soft light or diffused light as it is sometimes called, is a very even non-directional light. This light results from an overcast day, under open shade or by using a piece of diffusing material between the light source and subject. This light is good for photographing portraits where you want to minimize facial flaws. Because light is a key element in photography, photographers must make conscious decisions when choosing where, when and in what light to shoot a subject.

If you liked this article and you would like more tips and techniques (or if you would like us to ghost-write an article or ebook on digital photography), please visit our website at http://businesswritingresources.books.officelive.com/default.aspx for more tips and techniques.

“Only An Angel Could Land On It”

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Upon seeing the imposing giant of a rock while exploring Zion Canyon in 1916, Frederick Fisher exclaimed, "Only an angel could land on it." After seeing the summit from Scout’s Lookout, I agree, but I decided to press on and make it to the summit.

For those not afraid of heights or not having small children, Angel’s Landing is both the premier hike of Zion National Park and of the whole National Park System. This four-hour round-trip hike starts at the Grotto shuttle stop. From the shuttle stop, cross the road and the footbridge over the Virgin River. Midway across the footbridge, look to your right at the formidable rock rising 1500 feet into the air. You can’t miss it. The top of this rock is your destination. From the footbridge viewpoint, reaching the top looks like an impossible task and only one an angel would attempt. At the tee in the trail turn right.

The trail starts out as soft sand, but quickly turns into a paved trail. As you start your ascent, the trail takes you up a series of switchbacks. At about the one-mile mark you cross a footbridge into Refrigerator Canyon. With Angel’s Landing on the right and Cathederal Mountain on left, hikers get a reprieve from the otherwise constant upgrade as the path levels out and the temperature drops 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

After leaving Refrigerator Canyon, hikers start up the twenty-one short switchbacks known as Walter’s Wiggles and at the two-mile mark, exit onto a flat sandy area called Scout’s Lookout. For those unable to overcome their fear of height or those with small children, this is their final destination. On the right, the view of Zion Canyon is spectacular. Straight ahead is another equally spectacular, but daunting view – the summit of Angel’s Landing.

After leaving Scout’s Lookout, the trail becomes more demanding. In places, the trail is a mere thirty inches wide with drop-offs on one side of 1200 feet and 800 feet on the other. While most of the dangerous places have chains to hold on to on one side of the trail, there are other equally dangerous places that do not. This trail is not for the faint-hearted as tripping or losing one’s balance could result (and has) in serious injury or death. This last half-mile is physically demanding as it involves pulling oneself up and over boulders, angled rocks and narrow ledges, but it is also mentally demanding working on one’s mind.

After negotiating the l/2 mile hike from Scout’s Lookout, you finally exit on top of the landing with the final portion hiking along the top of a slanted spine ending at the flat point of the landing. From the top at 5,275 feet, you see the Lower Zion Canyon, the Organ and the Virgin River winding around its base and you are eye-level with the Great White Throne, Observation Point and Cable Mountain.

While going up to Angel’s Landing gets your heart pumping from the constant and relentless upgrade, coming down for me was more physically demanding as I had to constantly hold myself back while hiking down which worked my knees, hips and thighs almost to the point of exhaustion.

If you are a hiker, this is a must-do hike. Once back down on the canyon valley floor, stop in at the Zion Lodge’s Gift Shop and reward yourself with a “I hiked Angel’s Landing” t-shirt. You earned it!

Goldfield Arizona – The Ghost Town That Refuses To Die

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:52:00 +0000

For a family-friendly adventure into how the West was in the late 1800s, visit Goldfield, Arizona. Located a short distance from Apache Junction, Goldfield is the only authentic 1890s ghost town in the Valley of the Sun.

The first gold-strike occurred in 1892 when J.R. Morse, Orrin Merrill and C.R. Hakes discovered a large body of ore. At that time, their find was dubbed the richest find in the world and ended up yielding more than $3 million dollars of gold.

About a year after their find, the town of Goldfield sprang to life. As miners found more and more gold, the town grew eventually reaching a population of 4,000 people. At its height, the town boasted 3 saloons, a boarding house, general store, blacksmith shop, brewery, meat market, post office and even a school house. Five years later when the veins ran out of gold, the town started to die.

Then in 1910, it had a small resurgence. A mill and a cyanide plant were installed and gold was again extracted from the ore.

The town was renamed to Youngsberg after George U. Young, who was the acting governor at the time. But by the end of 1926, the gold had run out again and the town again faded into history, however, the town refused to stay dead.

Today, Goldfield is a thriving tourist attraction not only entertaining, but teaching both children and adults alike what it was like in an old west town in the late 1800s. Perched on a knoll between the Superstition Mountains to the east and Goldfield Mountains to the west, Goldfield has several attractions for the whole family.

To see why Goldfield became a bustling town in the first place, take the 25- minute tour of the underground gold mine located underneath the town itself. The guides are well-versed on gold mining equipment from that era, how it was used and some of the history behind both the mine and town.

To see another way that miners used to find gold, stop in at the Prospectors Palace and learn how to pan for gold. They guarantee you will find some and even provide a little bottle to keep your gold in.

For more information on the history of the area, visit the Goldfield Superstition Museum and Lost Dutchman Hall of Fame. See the collection of maps, pottery and artifacts from the area. A featured exhibit in the museum is the Lost Dutchman Hall of Fame complete with maps and clues to the location of the legendary “Lost Dutchman Gold Mine”.

Tour the perimeter of the town and into the surrounding Sonoran desert on the Superstition Scenic Narrow Gauge Railroad – Arizona’s only narrow-gauge railroad (36”) in operation today. During the 20 minute, 1-1/2 mile narrated route, the locomotive engineer keeps you entertained with both the facts and lore of Goldfield.

For something at a slower pace, stop by the Goldfield Livery for horse-back riding or a carriage ride in the desert. If horses are not your preferred mode of transportation, jeep tours are also available from Apache Trail Tours located in the Peterson Mercantile building.

See some of the native desert reptiles at The Southwest Live Rattlesnake Exhibit. This is one of the largest collections of spiders, snakes, Gila monsters, scorpions and a host of other native creatures.

Walk up and down Main Street and explore the many shops located on both sides of the street. Be careful not to get caught in the middle of a gunfight. The Goldfield Gunfighters re-enact their gunfights Saturdays and Sundays on the hour from high noon to 4p.m. during the months of November to April. Witness what the West really was really like in the late 1800s.

Witnessing all that gunfighting builds up an appetite, so stop in at the Mammoth Saloon and Dining Hall for some of their western grub. Their deck, located just off of the dining hall, boasts some of the best views of the Superstition Mountains around. For dessert, walk down the street and enjoy an ice-cream cone from Miner's Grill & Ice cream Parlor.

After lunch, stop by for a visit at LuLu’s Bordello. If children are present, LuLu’s girls tailor the tour to the children explaining and showing them what it was like to be a child in the 1800s.

If children are not present, the tour is tailored to adults explaining what is was like for women out here in the West – both the good and bad. The girls always keep the vocabulary in mind so as to not offend anyone.

If you prefer to camp at Goldfield for a day, weekend or longer, give the Goldfield campground a call for their rates and availability. The campground is located at the edge of the town so you are within walking distance of everything.

Goldfield is a treasure in and of itself. So relax, bring your whole family and spend a rich, historical, fun-filled day at Goldfield. It is a trip the whole family will treasure for a long time.

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The Quest For Pure Water

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Like many RV owners, shortly after purchasing our fifth-wheel trailer, we installed a single-filter water purification kit as part of the quest to have pure drinking water. While it did a fair job at filtering out impurities, the taste varied depending on our location. When traveling, we experience many kinds of water. Many times, we ask ourselves if we even should be drinking it.

Then, while wintering in Arizona, we saw a small Reverse-Osmosis (RO) system in a hardware store. Since it looked better than what we were currently using, we decided that for less than $200.00, about 35 minutes of time, and by using a few common tools we had with us, we could install an RO unit that provides water far superior to that from our current single-filter kit. Since installing our RO system, our water has the same great taste regardless of our location.

RO systems typically remove 90% to 96% of total dissolved solids, organics and bacteria. An RO system not only provides you with safe drinking water while hooked up to city water, but also when using water out of your freshwater holding tank. It’s anyone’s guess what kind of things are lurking in there.

The four-stage RO system we installed uses three filters, along with the RO membrane in the storage tank. The storage tank holds 3.5 gallons of water. We mounted both the tank and filter assembly under the kitchen sink in the galley. The tank and filter assembly has a footprint of 15” by 10” and 16” high.

If you currently use a single-filter kit, the first step is to un-install it. Prior to installing the RO system, identify all parts packed in the box and thoroughly read the installation manual. Most instructions contain tips that if overlooked, can lead to water leaks.

Tools Required - Our installation required a drill with a ¼” drill bit, a #2 Phillips screwdriver, a ½” open-end wrench, a 10” crescent wrench along with either a 6” or 8” crescent wrench. If you need to remove part of a shelf to get the necessary height, you may also need a small handsaw or saber saw. If you did not have a filtered-water faucet before, you also will need a hole-saw capable of drilling a ½” hole. We are now ready to start the installation.

Installing The Filter Assembly - If you need to remove part of a shelf, remove it now. Locate where you want the RO filter assembly positioned. It can either set upright on the bottom shelf of the cabinet or mounted on the side of the wall. If you decide to mount it on the wall, locate the mounting holes on the filter bracket, place the filter assembly against the wall and mark the location for the screws. Install the screws and hang the filter assembly. Otherwise, set it upright on the bottom shelf.

Installing The Cold-Water Feed Line - Next, turn off the main water supply coming into your RV. From under the sink, unscrew the cold-water faucet shank where it screws onto the cold-water feed line.

Locate the brass slip-joint adapter and RO water shutoff valve. Wrap two wraps of Teflon tape around the shutoff valve threads and screw it onto the brass adapter. Tighten the shut-off valve to the brass adapter using two crescent wrenches.

Wrap the cold-water faucet shank threads with two wraps of Teflon tape. Make sure to put the small rubber washer inside the brass adapter before screwing it onto the shank - otherwise you will have a water drip. This step was not in our installation instructions and I had to ours apart again and install the washer. Try to position the RO shut-off valve so you can easily attach the line coming from the filter assembly. Screw the brass adapter onto the faucet shank. Tighten with the two crescent wrenches.

Screw the cold-water feed line plastic nut onto the end of the brass adapter opposite the shank and tighten by hand. Locate the water feed line coming from the filter assembly – ours is red in color and the only one not labeled. Slide the metal compression nut and plastic sleeve over the line, screw the nut onto the RO shut-off valve threads and gently tighten with the ½” open end wrench.

Installing The Drain Line - Next, drill a ¼” hole through one side of the vertical section or in the top of the horizontal section of PVC drain pipe coming down from the sink. Install the pre-cut cushioning material onto the inside of the saddle clamp half with the hole in it.

Locate the drain hose coming from the filter assembly and push it through the hole in the saddle clamp half just far enough so the line will be inside the PVC pipe when installed. Our hose is black and labeled “TO DRAIN”. Push the drain line into the ¼” hole in the PVC drain pipe.

Place the other half of the saddle clamp opposite the first half and install the screws and nuts. The second half of the saddle clamp has recesses to hold the nuts from turning.

Tighten the screws with the #2 Phillips screwdriver. Gently hand-tighten the plastic compression nut.

Installing The Drinking Water Faucet - Locate the faucet enclosed with the kit and the respective line coming from the filter assembly. Ours is blue and labeled “TO FAUCET”. If your old filter system had a drinking water faucet, use that same hole. If not, position the faucet on top of the kitchen sink rim and mark the center of where you want to drill the ½” hole. Drill the hole. Working from under the sink, slide the faucet mounting hardware onto the feed line and push the line up through the faucet hole from the bottom. If there is any mounting hardware required between the bottom of the faucet and top of the sink rim, slide that on the line now. Install the line in the bottom of the faucet. Mount the faucet on the sink and from under the sink, tighten the faucet mounting hardware.

Installing The Storage Tank - Locate the tank shut-off valve. Wrap two wraps of Teflon tape around the threads of the valve and screw onto the top of the tank. Gently tighten the valve with the small crescent. Place the storage tank stand where you want the tank located. Set the tank onto the stand.

Locate the only line left coming from the filter assembly not connected to anything. Ours is white and labeled “TO TANK”. Slide the line in the valve and gently hand-tighten the plastic compression nut.

Starting The System - Turn on the main water supply valve, RO shut-off valve and storage tank valve. The RO shut-off and storage tank valves are on when each valve handle is parallel with the line attached to it. Check connections for leaks. Open the drinking water faucet and let drip/run for two hours. Turn off the faucet and let the tank fill for four to five hours.

After the tank is full, open the drinking water faucet and let the tank drain until it stops. Shut off the faucet and let the tank fill for two hours. The water is now ready to drink.

Maintenance - Replace the filters yearly or sooner if the taste of the water changes. A filter kit costs about $35.00 and contains the three filters. We purchased a filter kit when we bought the system, so that we have one on-hand.

Due to the system using water to periodically back-flush the RO membrane, we found our RO system works best when hooked up to city water and leaving the galley gray water holding tank drain valve open.

If you live in a cold climate and store your RV for the winter, service your RO system by turning off the cold-water feed valve, opening the drinking water faucet and running the storage tank dry. Then, turn off the storage tank valve. Next, re-open the cold-water feed valve and remove the three filters. If you drain your water lines with air, proceed as normal. If you prepare your water system with RV antifreeze, then put on the filter housings without the filters and proceed normally.

In the spring, prepare your water system for use as normal. Then, install new filters in their housings and turn on the storage tank valve. When you first use your RO system, open the drinking water faucet and let it drip/run for two hours. Turn off the faucet and let the tank fill for four to five hours and you are ready for the summer.

Summary – The installation is simple, quick and easy with professional-looking results. Now, with our RO system, we enjoy good-tasting pure drinking water regardless of the condition of the water at our location.

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From Combat Boots to College

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Kness) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Many Americans enter the military with the hope that they will be able to earn G.I. Bill benefits to attend college. Over 350,000 veterans are already using their G.I. Bill benefits to attend school, and at least another 500,000 veterans are expected to start or continue their college education once the new Post 9/11 G.I. Bill goes into effect on August 1, 2009.

Skill isn't enough

Military training and deployment teach many useful skills, but as some veterans find out, skills are often not enough in today's job market. With a large number of people competing for a small number of jobs, veterans need both skills and a college education to remain competitive in the current job market.

The job of a military policeman (MP) illustrates the point. At military police school, MPs receive the law enforcement training necessary to do their jobs in the military. After leaving the military, if an MP wants to pursue a career as a police officer, he or she would need a law enforcement degree to learn the additional career training required to pass the certification tests. Most police departments will not hire a former MP without the proper certification and civilian training.

While there's no argument about the fact that the military teaches its service members great skills, if veterans want to use these skills to get a good job, they have a better chance of building on this foundation by attending college.

The new G.I. Bill

A 1988 congressional study revealed that for every dollar spent on G.I. Bill educational benefits, seven dollars were returned to the national economy via taxes and increased consumer spending. From congress on down, most people feel it is our duty to repay our veterans for the work they do preserving our freedom. And the rest of us benefit as well.

The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill exemplifies this effort. While not perfect for every veteran, it is the biggest change in educational assistance since the Post World War II G.I. Bill.

Highlights include:

• A housing allowance

• Up to $2,000 for tutorial services or certification exams

• $500 to individuals relocating from highly rural areas to attend college

• Tuition paid directly to the school

• Money for supplies and books

Classroom culture shock

Some veterans start college too soon after coming home only to find they have not fully recovered from their combat zone deployment. With nearly 20 percent of the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a typical college campus environment of large crowds and loud noises simply doesn't work for many of them. Some war veterans avoid the sometimes-stressful college environment by taking online courses. Others prefer online programs because attending class online fits their busy post-war lifestyle better.

Online classes help transition

Army Sgt. Lustman deployed to Iraq for sixteen months as a data analyst. Returning in the late summer of 2007, she waited until the spring quarter to start her online program in mass communications at St. Cloud State University. She explained, "I delayed going back to school until I had time to decompress and get back to a normal routine." She attended school in a traditional classroom setting before deployment, but after returning and waiting, she decided the flexibility of the online option worked better while working full-time at a National Guard facility. "The thing I miss the most about taking online classes is the lack of interaction with the professors and other students," Lustman said. If a veteran has a young family, online school may work better for them because they can do their coursework after the children are in bed and in smaller chunks of time throughout the day. For these veterans, the online option gives them an education option that until just a few years ago was not available.

Going the campus route

Other returning military members with PTSD decide to go the classroom route. Sgt. 1st Class Courneya also returned from Iraq in 2007 after a sixteen-month deployment with the Army as an operations sergeant. He waited several months after returning from deployment before he went back into the traditional classroom setting. He said, "I delayed returning back to college at the recommendation from other veteran students. I'm glad I waited." Courneya is pursuing a geology degree at the University of Minnesota. He also has degrees in medical technology and biology. "With the required on-campus labs, afternoon and evening classes made the most sense to me," he explains. Courneya also works full-time for the National Guard.

This group of new veterans is different from the traditional college student. Many veterans find they don't have anything in common with their non-veteran classmates. When classmates ask veterans to talk about their military experiences, many find it hard to explain in a way non-veterans understand. Courneya found a veteran's orientation class helpful. "That class gave me a good understanding of what to expect when going into a classroom with non-veterans," he said.

Help for college-bound veterans

Many veterans decide to attend on-campus classes and find themselves overwhelmed with the red tape of the admission and enrollment process. Fortunately, today many of the colleges recognize the unique veteran student and have set up different programs including veterans-only classes, seminars on adjusting to college life, and "one-stop shops" where veterans have a single point of contact to get into college and signed up for classes. "I used the services of the U of M's Veterans Center," Courneya said. "It's free and their staff of four really smoothed out the road for me as far as getting enrolled and signed-up for classes."

All these programs are intended to get veterans into college with the least amount of frustration; the programs are extremely successful for both the veteran and the schools. With programs in place allowing veterans to slowly adjust to college life instead of being thrown back into it, veterans do very well taking on-campus classes.

Veterans' educational benefits extend far beyond just the veteran. Their families, as well as their communities and employers, are all impacted by this special group of heroes as they finish their education and advance their careers.

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