Dachs Thoughts

For the last shoot of the tour, we totally abandoned the agenda and outdoor theme. Dasha and Dima felt that it was too cold for shooting at the Great Saltair (where I’ve shot before), and they had arranged to do an indoor shoot at a strikingly beautiful house in Ogden. It provided for some interesting backdrops, but even though it was a big house, we were kind of stepping over each other trying to find unique shots. I would have probably preferred shooting at the lake, but I can appreciate the models didn’t want to spend a couple of hours getting chilled — and for me, at least, it was a unique opportunity to shoot in such a fancy house with interesting photogenic features.

After the shoot, we had the traditional farewell lunch at the Hub & Spoke Diner. As I’d given myself an extra day to travel home and was in no rush, we stopped by Dima an Dasha’s place for a little while then headed back to the hotel and on our separate ways. Overall I enjoyed the trip. I’m sure the weather frustrated their planning, but I give them credit for having decent contingencies that enabled us to take some good images in interesting locations every day. I’m sure I would have been even more satisfied if this wasn’t the fourth major trip I’d been on the the last couple of months … but it was fun nonetheless.

By this point in the tour the weather, either rain, wind, or low temperatures, had totally disrupted our planned agenda. Instead of two shoot locations on Sunday, one of which I’d shot at before and one of which I hadn’t, we went with an alternate plan. After checking out of the motel, we started the day with a quick breakfast in Moab then ended up going to Hauer Ranch for the entire shoot. This is a large private ranch in the vicinity of Moab again with some classic western vistas as well as horse riding. Dima had become friends with the owners whose family had owned this land for generations. We did some interesting shoots around the monolithic Locomotive Rock and the surrounding area. Climbing up on top the wind became so strong it almost blew you off. In addition to the beautiful outdoor locations we had access to the ranch house that was beautifully decorated in rustic true western cowboy style. We eventually all moved down there as the windy weather outside became a bit much. The shooting day turned out to be a bit shorter than we had probably originally expected, but it was a beautiful location and I was able to get some interesting shots. After the shoot, we got an early dinner at the traditional quesadilla truck in Moab, then made our way back to Salt Lake City for the last night of the tour.

On Saturday we went for a “full-day” shoot at Crack Canyon. The original plan was to shoot in the morning for a couple of hours, break for lunch, then shoot in the afternoon. However, due to the predicted low temperatures we delayed the start to give it a chance to warm up. So we had a late morning and had lunch in Green River, then we headed to Crack Canyon in the afternoon with a plan to just have a long shoot there. On the way offroading to the canyon entrance, we encountered a truck that had sunk itself into mud and water, and some of the guys spent some time getting them out.

We eventually got to the canyon and had a nice 3 1/2 hour shoot. Our longer stay here allowed me to go deeper into the canyon than last year. The light was also different as we were here later in the day. I tried to go after some different shots and I think I got some interesting images. The cooler temperatures kind of wore on the models, but overall it was a good shoot. Driving back out from the canyon, there was a beautiful full moon over the Utah landscape. I wish we had had time to stop and do some setup shots, but it was getting late. It was so late when we got back to the motel that I just skipped dinner.

The bad weather projections started playing havoc with our agenda, and we started switching days/locations around to try and counter it. On Friday, instead of a full day at Crack Canyon, we substituted a modified version of Saturday’s shoot and spent most of the afternoon at Onion Creek, which is in the vicinity of Moab. Onion Creek offered classic western vistas, and you could see the Fisher Towers in one direction, and Professor Valley (where we shot last year) in another. While we shot for about three hours, hiking up the rocks, we could probably have shot there all day there was so much variety and interesting elements to shoot against. It really encompassed the beauty of Utah with plains, rocks, mountains, rock monoliths, and awe inspiring skies.

After we finished shooting, we drove up to the Fisher Valley overlook, but ended up getting into a snow storm (a little contrast from last year). Weird to go from fairly warm desert plains to a mountain storm. Due to the storm, we didn’t have too much of a view, but we saw some of the fossilized dinosaur footprints. After we came down we had a nice Pho dinner in Moab, then headed back to the motel for the night.

On the morning of the second day of the tour, we moved our base camp south to Green River to the motel where we would stay for the duration of our time in southern Oregon. We had two scheduled shoots in the afternoon, and we stuck with the original agenda.

The first shoot was at Leprechaun Canyon, where I had also shot last year. It is a beautiful, relatively narrow, red rock slot canyon with interesting water patterns in the rock. I went deeper into the canyon than I did last year and worked on different kinds of shots than I had previously. I also broke away from the ISO 100 point I had fixated on last year as the light is somewhat lower in the canyon. I think I managed to get some interesting shots.

The second location in the later afternoon was at Burr Point, where I had also shot before. This is a beautiful overlook off of a cliff, but it really needs the right light near sunset to capture it the best. The weather started changing on us, and the wind picked up significantly, so we did some shooting, but didn’t stay too long. We backed away from the canyon edge and got some additional shots at a corral that was on the road to the canyon edge. It was a bit of an abbreviated event compared with last year, but I was still able to get some interesting shots.

The tour started on Wednesday at midday, as is typical with UTadventure, with a kickoff lunch. We met the group and got the itinerary. The crew had a bit of a switch-up as one of the photographers couldn’t make it at the last minute (which reduced the number to 5), and Kate wasn’t able to get in the country at the last minute, but they were able to replace her with Anoush Anou with whom I’ve shot before. The planned itinerary suffered much rearrangement during the week due to weather issues, and this started with the first day. We were originally scheduled to start at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes, but due to reported high winds, we went the the alternate location of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Ironically, last year we were scheduled to start at Bonneville but due to water conditions we switched to having the first shoot at Little Sahara. I was glad to get a chance to see Bonneville and shoot there.

We got there in the late afternoon, and it was a fairly overcast sky, so it was like having a giant softbox in a studio. The backgrounds were soft pastel colors, and the ground and sky were fairly neutral. The salt flat basically looks like crusty snow, but only goes down a few inches and there is moist mud beneath it. Towards sunset, we got some nice colors as the sun dropped below the clouds on the horizon. We shot around there until the sun went down. One of the photographers had brought some fabrics so that provided some additional interesting looks.

After shooting we returned to the gas station at the turnoff from the highway, which it turns out also has one of the best Indian restaurants around. We got some good food to-go, and headed back towards Salt Lake City for the night.

I was barely home 3 days after traveling for 2 weeks half way around the world when it was time to leave for another adventure. I hadn’t really planned to jam so much travel together this spring, but that’s just kind of how it worked out … and despite being a little hectic, it’s been fun.

I had planned to do a second UTadventure tour in Utah, and about the same time a friend of mine was planning a celebration of a major birthday in Las Vegas, so I though I’d pop in over the weekend on the way to Utah. While the party situation didn’t really come together, I did get to spend a little time with my friend on her birthday and spend a few days in Vegas (which isn’t my favorite place, but it is interesting in small doses). I did some walking around and sightseeing as the weather was pretty nice (warm, but not too hot yet).

After two days in Las Vegas, I made my way to Salt Lake City for the inaugural UTadventure Extreme Tour. Since last year, they had split their Utah photography tours into “Extreme” and “Relaxed” versions. I was a little anxious as I though last year’s adventure was challenging enough (and when I think of Dima and extreme I could imagine very extreme), but I was assured not to worry. Besides, all my activities have definitely improved my stamina. I arrived a day before the tour started to allow settling in a bit. Last year’s tour was fantastic, getting to see some amazing natural landscapes in Utah and working with some amazing models. This was the same group that organized my trip in Yucatán, Mexico earlier this spring, so I was really looking forward to it.