Grand Canyon Silhoutte - Grand Canyon, Near Desert View, South Rim: Taken late afternoon and shooting in the general direction of the afternoon sun. Across from Desert View on the South Rim you can look West across the Canyon and down the length of the North Rim. With small adjustments of position along the South Rim, the buttes and temples across the way line up in a great march into the distance. Haze and long lens foreshortening add to the vast depth and distance seen here. Format: 35mm, Lens: 100-300mm, Aperture: f8, Filters: none, Film: Velvia. - Mark Borneman
The Wave - Paria Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness - Mid-Winter: Access is tightly controlled by the BLM in this spectacular example of folded sandstone near the Utah/Arizona border. Instead of the conventional horizontal layer cake banding seen elsewhere around the Southwest, this layering slides along the ground and folds up, over and around the surrounding rolling topography. Hence the appropriate name "The Wave". First and only visit so far was overwhelming. There was too much information to process and the photos reflect this. Pictures from the trip were disappointing but pointed out areas for improvement. Spring or fall when the sun's position would be more favorable and the likelihood of occasional clouds filtering the light and accenting the sky would be helpful. Not using a color intensifier would also be advisable as it added too much red and obliterated some of the subtle warm coloring of the sandstone. I had to digitally correct the image seen here to undo the intensifier's effect. Format: 6x7, Lens: 127mm, Aperture: f18, Filter: Polarizer, 81B, Singh-Ray Color Intensifier, Film: Velvia. - Mark Borneman.
Bryce Amphitheater - Bryce National Park. Overlooking the largest east-facing amphitheater of monoliths in Bryce, this photo was taken on an early winter morning. The high thin clouds muted the overall exposure extremes allowing the film to capture the full breadth of details in the scene. A similar picture taken the morning before without the high clouds yielded a photo lacking depth and detail due to the limited exposure range and high contrast of transparency film. Format: 35mm, Lens: 28mm, Filter: Polaroid, Aperture: f11, Film: Fuji Velvia. - Mark Borneman
Bryce Ship - Bryce National Park. Photographed during the winter at mid-morning, a telephoto was used to isolate this sandstone fin from the forest of surrounding sandstone monoliths. This is shown full frame. For the display print, I cropped out about 2/3 of the lower hill and some of the monoliths behind to further isolate the prime subject of the photo. Format: 35mm, Lens: 100-300mm zoom set to 200mm, Filter: 81A Warming, Film: Fuji Velvia. - Mark Borneman