Wild West Panoramics

Capt Doufos

Capt Doufos

Capt Doufos

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,719
Location
Nr Colchester, Essex
Hi Everybody,

I don't post here very often, but I am a long time lurker and the frequency of top quality work posted here is amazing some of you guys have a lot of talent. :)

Last month I did a tour of the old Wild West regions of the USA. Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce, Salt Lake City, Bonneville Speedway, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and on to Chicago. 3200 Miles driving in total!

Along the way I took some Panoramic shots which I thought might be of interest, they are mostly taken snapshot style without a huge amount of time avalible for taking the shot (too long and the Mrs gets bored! ;)

If the Yellowstone stuff intrests you there is a load more in my gallery:

http://www.doufos.co.uk/lightroom/midwest

All the Images are clickable for larger versions :)



Bellagio and Caesars palace early morning, it's all quiet.



Scenic Route 12 in Utah, an amazing stretch of road everything from desert to pine trees.



Boulder Mountain summit, elevation 9300ft. It's visable in the distance of the last photo.



The edge of Zion National park, on the Zion - Mt Carmel highway. Checkerboard mountain on the left.



Bryce Canyon, Utah



Salt Lake City, Utah. It's population is 60% Morman, This is their crown jewel.



Snowbird Ski resort (Hidden Peak Summit 11,000ft) about 30mins from downtown Salt Lake City.



West Entrance road to Yellowstone National Park, Madison River.



Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.



Yellowstone Canyon



Lower Falls, Yellowstone Canyon/River. Image take at Uncle Toms trail. The trail down is easy getting back up when you are not used to the altitude (8000ft) is anouther matter!



The Grand Prismatic Spring, the colours come from the bacteria living on the rock, you can tell the water temp by the type/colour of bacteria.



Norris Geyser basin, this one is actually outside the Caldera of the volcano.



Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstones main tourist magnet, erupts approx every 90mins.



Another shot of Norris.



Jenny Lake and the Rocky Mountains, Grand Teton National Park



Teton Range from Oxbow bend on Snake River.



Monument Valley, Utah.
 
Very nice shots, I can imagine that was a great trip :)

I think the images lose presence in small format on here but I can imagine you will get some impressive prints from these. Only thing I may say is that they don't have much foreground interest in some, which would have helped a bit and the lens flare in no 2 is a bit distracting.

Monument Valley is wonderful and personally I like The Grand Prismatic Spring as the colours are so vivid, it also helps you have the leading lines in the water.

I reckon that the Bryce Canyon shot would be impressive printed large, don't suppose you have a larger shot to post here as the one here is a bit small to see all the nice details :)
 
Hi, Thanks for the comments. :)

I enjoy taking the stiches as it gives me somthing a bit different. Unfortunatley being limited time wise, and having to take what you are given lighting wise can result in less than ideal shots. I know I could have done better with some of them if I had the time.

They were mostly taken on my 400D with a Canon 24mm f2.8 Prime, which does unfortunatley suffer from flare when shooting perpendicular to the sun. It's a case of there being no option other than shooting across it.

I have a larger version, just uploading now. It's a large one that 2 rows of about 6-8 photos.

The plan is to get some of my many stiches from this and previous trips printed out to display in the hallway.
 
happy to see someone saw what Bryce was supposed to look like! I was there last week and it was wet and misty the whole time (see Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas topic here) Looks like you had a good trip though. :)

I'd crop the guys lens hood out of the Route 12 shot though ;)
 
lol, that will be one of my travelling companions. Not sure how I missed that!

I did see your Bryce shot the other day. It's a real shame it was like that. We were there less than 4 weeks ago, Weather is a real issue when you only have a few hours somewhere. We were really lucky in 18 days we only had 2 spells of rain which were very breif, and visability was good the whole trip.

Full Size Bryce: http://www.doufos.co.uk/lightroom/wildwestpano/brycelarge.jpg
 
Last edited:
Capt Doufos said:
Full Size Bryce: http://www.doufos.co.uk/lightroom/wildwestpano/brycelarge.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, that is very impressive, slightly overexposed on my monitor but it's not calibrated so don't take my word on that :) You got a lot of nice bits of detail in that though, I spent a while looking around all the different areas of the image :)

I think you got a great load of shots altogether and I think you would be very pleased with them if you get any printed out large and they will look great in your hallway :)
 
When I go through a thread like this, i normally provide pretty useless comments like "number # is my favourite"

However, I can't do that in this thread, as its too dam hard to choose!
 
BruceLee said:
Thanks for that, that is very impressive, slightly overexposed on my monitor but it's not calibrated so don't take my word on that :) You got a lot of nice bits of detail in that though, I spent a while looking around all the different areas of the image :)
Click to expand...

I did up the exposure slightly, it did seem ok on my screen which is calibrated but I know it was close. It's hard to get a good balance when the amount of light changes quite a bit across the shot. I think that was taken about 1-2hr before sunset.

Thank you everyone for the comments, nice to know people like them. :)
 
very impressive images Capt, looks like you had a fantastic time. I also have the 24mm 2.8 and find it an ideal lens for travelling as is very light and compact, it is also sharp with very little distortion.
 
I am pretty impressed with it, had it on most of the time. Thinking about getting a lens hood but most of what I read suggests they only really work in limited situations.
 
They are in the gallery (page 11). Link is at the top of the opening post. Unfortunatley it was late in the day so the Colours are a bit muted but we were the only people in there which was nice.
 
Well taken - you don't realise the size of Monument Valley, Utah until you see the cars in the foreground
 
Fine shots mate, really enjoyed vewiewing them, hope you dont mind, Jennylake is now my desktop :D
 
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