Mark Brown Photography: Featured Galleries and Collections

Garin Park: August

markcbrown2003@yahoo.com (Mark Brown Photography) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:00:22 GMT

Santa Cruz June 2009

markcbrown2003@yahoo.com (Mark Brown Photography) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:53:12 GMT

Santa Cruz, CA. "Woodies on the Wharf" event down at the pier. Lots of great old cars.

Day 4, Zion National Park

markcbrown2003@yahoo.com (Mark Brown Photography) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:30:08 GMT

Day 3, Zion National Park

markcbrown2003@yahoo.com (Mark Brown Photography) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 06:13:02 GMT

DAY 3,

I broke camp in the morning in Valley of Fire, NV and got on the road around 9ish. After stopping in at a gas station to fill up, I also got a gallon of coolant for the car, just in case I had any issues (turns out this was a good idea). I came through on route 15 and took route 99 through Springdale on into Zion National Park. I only remember Zion a little bit as a kid, so coming into the valley for the first time was a bit like coming into Yosemite. Awestruck.

I arrived at Watchman Campground around noon and setup the tent and ate lunch. After lunch I walked the Pay'rus trail that runs along-side the Virgin River for about 2.5 miles. Its a very nice flat hike, that is a perfect intro to the Zion Valley. From the Pay'rus trail, I joined the Watchman Trail, which goes up one of the sides of the valley to an overlook where you can see the "the Watchman" formation. Its a good, but steep hike with some great views. Late afternoon light is the best for this trail, although in a lot of cases your looking at the sun.

Trail Linky using google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&t=p&msid=105498728435741349694.00045ebbdce5579c76dd5&ll=37.207568,-112.983398&spn=0.045323,0.062313&z=14

Some of these photos during this day were a little strange because I wasn't that familiar with how to use my polarizer. This resulted in a lot of odd-looking sky's when it didn't need to be. I can probably fix a bit of that in post-processing at some point.

Day 1 & 2, Valley of Fire, NV

markcbrown2003@yahoo.com (Mark Brown Photography) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:39:00 GMT

DAY 1: The first day was fairly uneventful as it consisted mostly of driving from the Sunnyvale, CA to 30 miles east of Las Vegas. I was going to stop in Barstow, CA for the night, but I arrived there at 2:30pm so I decided to go all the way to Valley of Fire, which is located just outside of Las Vegas. I would have made decent time, but I took a wrong turn and ended up going the wrong way around Lake Mead, which resulted in me ending up at Hoover Dam. After consulting a map (and a fairly grumpy Las Vegas Highway Patrolman) I was put right. Once, I got to Valley of Fire State Park, I went to the campground only to find it full. So I had to drive all the way back out to Interstate 15 and find the nearest hotel, which happened to be a rather dumpy motel in Glendale, NV. In any case, it was a bed, a roof over my head, and NOT in the car.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Sunnyvale,+CA&daddr=Lake+Mead,+NV+to:Glendale,+NV&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=36.646385,-114.45694&sspn=0.439633,0.673599&ie=UTF8&ll=36.615528,-117.092285&spn=7.034972,10.777588&z=7

DAY 2: I woke up around dawn and was eager to get over to Valley of Fire and start hiking around. For starters I did the scenic loop on some gravel roads close to the campound, that go by some very interesting rock formations. This was really my first experience photographing sandstone, and it can be rather challenging at times. I learned over the course of my travels in the southwest, that reflected light is your friend with photographing formations. Some of my initial shots are under harsh lighting and at this point I was still trying to figure out optimal camera settings.

Around 10ish, I stopped by the campground and got a spot in the "underdeveloped" campground (meaning they have pit-toilets). Its an excellent campground, very isolated, and located in among the rock formations. After setting up the tent and getting some supplies out from the car, I figured out what I wanted to see. Here is a copy of the park brochure, although I bought a more detail trail map: http://parks.nv.gov/pdf/VOFBrochure.pdf

I started by finishing up the scenic loop around the camp site with the car, stopping at Arch Rock and Atlatl Rock, and then headed over to the visitor center. I headed up the road behind the visitor center stopping at Mouse's Tank, Rainbow Vista, Fire Canyon, and White Dome. It was great, but very tiring for the first day of hiking around. I tried to see most everything in the park in one day, when really you need a couple of days to fully explore and enjoy Valley of Fire. When I got back to my camp site, I figured out my camping stove (first time using my new one) and after almost burning down the table, I got it lit and cooked some dinner.