my travels in pixels

The next few posts are from our trip last year that I never got around to finishing. We have come back to North America to do one last trip in our 5th wheel. Lindsay really wanted to get some more bear pictures so the whole trip has been planned around going to Bella Coola and Likely in BC, Canada. Antelope Canyon, AZ I photographed Antelope Canyon in 2012 but wasn’t completely happy with my photos, so seeing as we would be in Page Arizona again to go to Horseshoe Bend Lindsay asked me if I wanted to try again. The only way into the canyons is to do a tour, but I didn't want to just do the normal tourist tour as there are too many people in the way and you can't use a tripod, so the only option is to do a photographic tour. Taking good photos inside the canyon without a tripod is difficult, I did that last time as I had trouble with my tripod and cast it aside. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again. When I first started looking for a vacancy three months ago,...

Monument Valley, Arizona When you see the Mittens at Monument Valley, you think of Western Movies. Actors like John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Tom Hanks worked here. Movies such as Stage Coach, the Lone Ranger, Forrest Gump, Easy Rider, How the West was Won were made here. Monument Valley was under the Gulf of Mexico 570 million years ago. It started it’s life 65 million years ago as the Pacific and North American tetonic plates off the coast of California collided sending shockwaves to the east. Erosion by water, wind and ice has chiseled the rock formations over thousands of years into what they are today. Showing the road around the buttes There is a 17-mile valley drive which can be undertaken between 8am and 5pm October to April in winter when sunrise is between and 6am-8.30pm May to September in summer. Sunrise and sunset never occur within these times anytime throughout the year, which makes it very difficult to get a good photograph. We went back to the ...

Monument Valley, UT It was a fair drive from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley and the campground in the park was closed for an upgrade for the whole season, so we were forced to stay at the RV park. Definitely not value for money, it really affects how you view a place. $25 for a patch of dirt and sub standard rest rooms. It was really windy so we had to keep the doors closed or we would have had red sand over everything. Lindsay was tired, so we didn’t get down to the Monument for sunset and as it was six miles away, I couldn’t walk. We set the alarm to be there at 6:30 the next morning to get some sunrise pictures. There is a drive around the park to take you passed all the buttes which we did in record time as Lindsay didn’t take any notice of the 10 mph sign! Unfortunately the main picture that everyone recognizes as Monument Valley is best shot at sunset, not sunrise. Sunrise Due to the fact we hated our campground, neither of us wanted to stay another night. Th...