Taken just after shooting the Coopers Hawk on the Angel’s Landing hike. My brother-in-law caught this view and I immediately saw that he was onto something and followed him to a better vantage point.
This trip to Zion allowed me to capture images I’ve always wanted, but never had the time or acumen to shoot. When I was a senior in high school we did a family trip over Easter and I had my dad’s Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm that I shot a couple of rolls of black and white (Kodak Tri-X) that I hand developed in the school lab. I hated the stress of standing in the dark, threading the film on the spiral spool. There was always a chance that somebody ganked the spool or the chemical mix was jacked up. Hated the stress of that. None of the shots I took were that good. I made some prints and got okay grades, but it wasn’t until this trip, this year, that I captured images I’m proud of.
Moral? It’s nice to stick with it and see progress. I didn’t have to take that much time apart from my traveling companions to get the shots, but I did have to separate myself mentally to clear my head. But it wasn’t that difficult and I’m happy with the results. More to come…