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Exploring The Grand Canyon of Arizona

The Grand Canyon of Arizona, one of the natural wonder on planet earth, offers an unique challenge to hikers. While visitors can get a glimpse of it's beauty from the rims, many wish to go down the trail and negotiate the steep canyon edges to see how The Colorado flows through the heart of the Canyon.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I teamed up with some of my hiking buddies to stay 2 nights at Bright Angel Camp and another 2 nights at Indian Garden. The weather is extreme during Winter & Summer, so we decided to go down there in March to avoid both cold and heat.
While all of my hiking buddies were experienced hikers. Their mission was to hike, camp and enjoy the nature. I had one additional in my mind, i.e. the photographing the canyon from deep inside. So when I showed up with my heavy DSLR, tripod and other photography gadgets in my backpack, they were concerned if I would be able to carry that much of extra load. Some even offered help to carry few of my items.  I felt lucky to have such friend, but I assured them that I was ready for it.

Day One: Bright Angel Lodge, South RIM

I visited South Rim several times before but I always missed sunset view due to storm. However, this time the west sky was clear and the opportunity to photograph the sunset over the canyon popped up.

Golden Evening Lights over the Canyon Edges

The sunset view can be mesmerizing, especially when combined with cloud. You can purchase a print of this photo here. This was shot from Rim Trail, just outside Bright Angel Lodge. The Camera was mounted on a tripod and exposure metering was set to matrix with auto exposure bracketing for 5 shots at 0.7 EV each. The photos was latter processed & merged in Lightroom to balance the exposure in foreground & the sky.

Wild Horses near South Rim Entrance

Grand Canyon is not known for many wildlife. I've heard about Mountain Goat, Mule Deer and Squirrel. I did not have any opportunity to photograph Mountain Goats before, so was carrying my 70-200 f2.8 lens, the lightest one that can be used for wildlife photography.  We spotted these two magnificent animals just  few miles inside after the south rim entrance. I had to change lens to get an appropriate shot. While I was busy in getting out the 70-200mm from my bag, my hiking buddies were already photographing them with their cellphone camera. By the time I was ready, the horses already  veered off deep inside the forest. After several shots showing their back, I finally got this one when they decided to change direction. You can buy a print of this here: Wild Horses at Grand Canyon.

Day Two: To Phantom Ranch via South Kaibab Trail


We stayed in Bright Angel Lodge and wanted to catch the sunrise from South Kaibab next morning. So the wake up call was at 4:30am to be ready for the first Hiker Express leaving at 6:00am. We reached the pickup area by 5:45am but the authorities were running the buses only at half capacity due to COVID-19 restriction. Unfortunately, we couldn't board the first ride and we thought we would miss the sunrise. The buses came back after dropping the first batch of hikers.

Soft light over the Canyon from Sunrise

When we reached the South Kaibab trailhead, the morning sun just broke from the cloud and hit the Canyon Edges. You can order a print Here

A mile down the trail a day hiker was coming up the trail. He took special interest in my camera gear and asked if I've photographed the goat. "I've not seen one yet" was my response. There, he pointed out the goat chewing the cud. 
A Mountain Goat of The Grand Canyon

About the halfway mark, the Mule Train came. You have to step aside towards the rocky side of the trail to let the Mules pass. So I took this shot from distance before giving them the right of way.

The Grand Canyon Mule Train


After 3 hours of hiking down on the trail the Black Bridge finally came into  view. It was magnificent especially with the rafting boats docked on the beach.

The Black Bridge over the Colorado River 

We setup our camp in Bright Angel Campground, it looks amazing at night.

Bright Angel Campground at Night


Day Three: Phantom Ranch


I woke up around 4am and saw the starry sky. I realized that it was my best chance to shoot a star trail shot. It took me a short walk to find a spot from where I could see the Polaris aka the North Star. About 10 minutes into the shot, a group of early morning hikers came from the north and walked across my frame. I was sure the star trail were ruined but here is the 30 secs frame showing the hikers trail.

Night Hikers from Cottonwood Campground returning to South Rim

You can order an art print from this shot from Here

I had to restart my shot. I eventually had around 45 minutes of start trails before it was dawn.

Star Trail shot near Phantom Ranch


Once I was done with star trail shot, I returned to my tent and decided to take the day easy.  We started late after breakfast and hiked few miles on North Kaibab before returning to take the Clear Creek Trail to see the river from the top and the sprawling South Kaibab descending to the river.

South Kaibab Trail Descending to the River

You can order a print of this Here. I did plan to attempt another star trail shot in the night but the cloud queen was laughing at me. The night was colder and the storm was waiting for us for the next night.


Day Four:  Bright Angel Campground to Bright Angel Trail

It was a lazy start in the morning to break the tent and pack out toward Indian Garden. I spent some time to find the perfect spot to photograph the bridge. Eventually, I stopped when I was able to put both the bridges in the frame. As I fixed my tripod and got ready for the shot, a group of rafting boats drifted into the frame. I couldn't have asked for more and immediately captured this shot.

The Twin Bridges over Colorado - Connects N. Kaibab to S. Kaibab & Bright Angel Trail

The Bright Angel Trail is much easier than the South Kaibab until you hit the Devils Corkscrew which keeps climbing in multiple switchbacks. There is a waterfall on the Garden Creek but it's not easily seen by the hikers.
Devils Corkscrew and Garden Creek Waterslide
You can order a print for this shot Here

When we reached Indian Garden campsite, we already knew that a snowstorm was coming at night over the south rim, but down there at campsite, it was safe to stay. Any photographer would consider storm an impending storm is an opportunity to photograph something spectacular. I did not wanted to miss sunset view from Plateau Point.

Storm Cloud and Canyon Edges illuminated by Sunset Light

You can order a print for this Here

The rain started probably around 8pm. We could hear high wind flowing over the trees but our tents were safe. The Indian Garden campsite is almost inside a fortress due to canyon walls covering 3 sides and the trees.  You could hear the storm but you won't feel it.

Day Five: Around Indian Garden Campground


We did not see the sun on the next day. The spent the morning mostly in tent or in the picnic table under the shed. The storm started clearing in the afternoon.  It was time to photograph some clearing storm over the canyon.

A Raptor Flying Over The Canyon

When I spotted the bird going into the storm cloud, I was hoping it is the famous California Condor but once I looked through my lens for a clear view, it turn out to be a Kite.

Snow over south rim - shot from Indian Garden Campsite

As I turned toward South Rim, we could see the snow deposited by the storm. That gave us the clue that the next morning it would not a a normal hike to return to the top. I was beginning to debate with myself, if I should pack my camera in the backpack to negotiate the icy trail.

 Before returning to the tent I had a sort interaction with these two permanent residence of  The Grand Canyon's Indian Garden.
Grand Canyon Mule Deer

The Rock Squirrel of Grand Canyon

Day Six: The Hiking Out

The next morning was bright and sunny. We started hiking out around 9am. The late start was in the hope some icy spot on the trail would be cleared by the time we would reach there. But that was unrealistic as the top portion of the trail does not get sunlight until late afternoon. This was one the last shot I took at 3 miles Resthouse before I decided it was for my safety to put away the DSLR inside the backpack. 

The Three Miles Resthouse on Bright Angel Trail

Then it was all about negotiating an icy trail with hiking sticks. We reached the top around 1pm. My shoulders were thanking me as soon as I put the backpack down.

How to remove dirty sensor spot from your photo - Nikon Only


Imagine you just returned from a vacation of a lifetime and your camera's memory card is full of memories :) I mean wonderful photographs you had taken during the entire vacation. You just can't wait to see how those photos would look on the big screen. So the first thing you would do after reaching home would be transferring those photos to your computer and opened them in the viewer. And your excitement just disappeared, something was not looking right! There were dark spots in few places in those photos. You checked the next photo, and the next one after that, and the last one of the lot. They all have the same problem. Those spots came from your image sensor. It was dirty before you went for vacation and somehow you forgot to clean it. Maybe you did not know it was dirty. But what could you do now? Removing those spot using photo editing software would be a daunting task. You may not even have those software license or the skills!! 

Fortunately, Nikon has a feature in their camera called 'Dust off Reference Photo'.  Along with their free Capture NX-D software, you can batch process all of your photos at once and all of those spots would magically disappear from your photos. I'm going to walk you through step by step on how to achieve this.


Before you read further, I must tell you that this process works only with RAW photos i.e. files names with .NEF extension.

Taking the Image Dust Off ref photo:

  1. First press the 'Menu' button in your Nikon DSLR
  2. Scroll down to 'Setting'
  3. Enter the setting menu and scroll down to 'Image Dust Off ref photo

  4.  You need to choose the first option, i.e. 'Start'  if you are going to need to clean up images taken before you perform this activity. Here is what Nikon says. "Dust off reference data recorded before image sensor cleaning is performed cannot be used with photographs taken after image sensor cleaning is performed. Select Clean sensor and then start only if the dust off reference data will not be used with existing photographs."
  5. Once you press 'Ok' for any of those option, the camera will pop you the following message. 

  6. Read carefully, it says "BRIGHT featureless WHITE Object". This is where most people get it wrong.  I use a A4 / Letter size printer paper for this. Now for the 'Bright' part, make sure the light is good enough. It is better if done in outdoor, however you can use a well lit room as well. If the light is not enough, the camera will display the following error.
    If you get such error, it simply means the light is not bright enough. Though Nikon says all setting is automatic, here are few things you also need to consider.
    1. The focal length of the lens should be 50mm or more
    2. Put it in aperture priority and use the highest f number available in your lens e.g. f22 or f32
    3. Distance from the lens to the white object should be 10cm or less
    4. If the lens is manual  focus, set the focus to infinity
  7. Once the camera is successful in taking the ref photo it would look something like this. 

  8. Now take another photo of any object in regular exposure. Nikon would not tell you about this but trust me, you will need this extra photo. I prefer taking a shot of blue sky. All sensor darts are easy to identify in blue sky shot without cloud.
  9. Now transfer these two photos ( dust off ref photo and the regular photo you just shot) into the same directory where you have all those images with dirty spots.
  10. Open the folder in Nikon Capture NX-D software and click on any of the photo you want to fix.
  11. Go to Camera and Lens Corrections on the left panel and click on the 'Change' button you see just below 'Dust off ref photo was taken at:' 

  12. You would get an error messages like this below. 

  13. You know that you just copied the dust off ref photos in that directory. So why Capture NX-D can't find it? This is where everyone gets it wrong. Your dust off ref photo must have a timestamp close to the photo you want to fix. It can't apply to a photo taken few days before the dust off ref photo was taken. This is also logical as actual dust on ref photo must match with the one we are fixing. So what can you do if the Capture NX-D can't find the ref photo. I would suggest a workaround that is super easy to use.
  14. We will use the photo you have taken just after you took the dust off ref photo. Click on that photo and repeat step 11 above. Now Capture NX-D will happily apply the ref photo and remove it's dust. If that was a blue sky shot, you can enlarge and verify all darts are gone.
  15. Now go to Adjust tab and click on 'Copy All Adjustment. Once done, select one of  the actual image you want to fix and come back to Adjust(A) tab and click 'Paste Adjustment'.  That's it, your image would now be spot free.


Now you can do a batch processing by selecting all the remaining images at once and then click on 'Paste Adjustment' as you just did for one of the image.  You now got your holiday images spot free, time to share them with family and friends. 

Few points to note:

1. If you want to use this feature, do not perform a 'Clean Image Sensor' operation before you take the dust off reference photo. The ref photo must be taken in the same condition of your camera image sensor when you shot those photos that are showing dark spot on sensor. Obviously, cleaning would remove some dart from the sensor.
2. If your camera has setting 'Clean image sensor during shutdown / startup', you may want to disable that setting. Any DOF taken after sensor cleaning operation will not be able to clean the photo properly. I have it disabled and perform that operation only once in a week or month depending on the frequency of my photo shoot. This in-built image sensor cleaning function can't remove stubborn darts, it is only useful for removing loose darts mainly accumulated due to static electricity. 

3. Always shoot RAW and latter convert them into jpeg. If you really need immediate jpeg then shoot RAW + jpeg. Most of the edit features only work on NEF files.
 
All the best with your future images. If this blog was useful to you, please subscribe for future tips or leave me a comment.

Related Blog Post: How To Clean DSLR Image Sensor




Jigsaw Puzzle for Holiday Gift

 This holiday season print a Jigsaw Puzzle using your favorite photo from Amazing ActionShots  Collections and gift to your loved one who enjoy fixing jigsaws. The printing and shipping is offered by Fine Art America.

The link from this picture will take you to 'Fine Art America' website where you can choose your favorite photo before ordering.


Also available Art Print, Canvas Print, Face Mask and many other merchandise print. Visit my entire portfolio in Fine Art America / Pixels.

Wear a Designer Face Mask

 Now you can wear a face mask and not worry about your look. These are some of  my best selling face mask in Fine Art America Store.

A Face Mask made with cloths with your favorite photo printed on it.  You can choose from a wide range of collections like Amazing Roses, or Landscapes of National Park USA, or Night Sky or a Wild Bird in Action or many Other Action Photos

Face  Mask -  Roses Face Mask - Beautiful Landscapes Face Mask - Night Sky Face Mask - Birds
Face Mask - Amazing Roses Face Mask - Amazing Landscapes Face Mask - The Night Sky Face Mask - Wild Birds            

Wear a Face Mask and prevent the deadly spread of COVID-19. This has become the new normal. Face mask minimizes the risk of being infected or infecting others while you are in the crowd and unable to maintain the required distances from others. Imagine a place where everyone is wearing face mask, nobody is infecting anybody, so everyone is safe. Be a sensible citizen and wear a mask over your face.

Worried about your look! here is an offer from Amazing Action Photography in association with 'Fine Art America'. You can now print your favorite photos from my portfolio on your mask. This designer mask will be printed on your order and shipped directly from 'Fine Art America'.

So order yours today. Full sanctification guaranteed. If you are not happy with the final product, the FAA has 30 days return policy for full refund. Order yours today.







How to Photograph the Elusive Milky way

You have seen many spectacular photos of night sky and milky way. Have you ever wonder how those photographs were shot? No, those are not  digital art made in image editing software. Those were shot in camera where some special techniques are involved. I'm going to give you all the tips you need to produce such image. But you would need to practice a lot before you can master them. I will first list the gadgets you would need, followed by the soft skills you need to master.

The Gadgets:
  • A Sturdy Tripod
  • A Camera with capabilities to shoot for 15-30 secs exposure at  ISO  1500-4000.
  • An Wide Angle Lens ( focal length 24 mm or lower) with wider aperture (f/2.8 or lower) 
  • Remote shutter release or cable release - recommended but not mandatory
  • A flash light - maybe a powerful one
The Time Table:

If you live in rural area where the light pollution is minimum, you may have noticed the milky way is not visible throughout the year. You can only see it at certain time in the sky. Besides the moon also interfere  a lot with milky way visibility.  So you need the visibility time table handy to photograph the milky way. If you can't see it in the sky, your camera can't see it either.

Here is the approximate time table for your reference:

 MonthBest Time Moon's Phase
 JanuaryNot visible N/A
 FebruaryNot Visible N/A
 MarchVisible just before sunrise but not good for photography N/A    
 AprilAbout 4 am to Sunrise New moon to 1 QTR
 MayFrom 3 am to 6 am New moon to 1 QTR
 JuneFrom 10 pm to 3 am New moon
 JulyRight after Dark to midnight 3 qtr to new moon
 AugustRight after Dark to 11 pm  3 qtr to new moon
 SeptemberRight after Dark to 10 pm  3 qtr to new moon
 October Visible just for a while after sunset for not good for photography 3 qtr to new moon
 November Not Visible N/A
 December Not visible N/A

Dark Site:
The cities and it's neighborhoods are too bright to see milky way, let alone photographing it. You would need to drive off to a less light polluted areas where you can see the night sky clearly. An examples of such place would be mountain tops, remote beaches, or national parks etc. Here is a link to Dark Site Finder that you can use to locate nearest dark area to you.

The Foreground:
A milky way shot need to be nicely composed with some interesting object in the foreground of the frame. Just the sky with full of stars would not be as interesting as one with some different object in the foreground of the frame. Be it something like a stone, a road, a tree, a house or some people. Use your creative mind to decide on your foreground object. As you practice with different types of foreground, you would find the right balance soon.

The STAR Trail Problem:
One of the main problem in night sky photography, especially for milky way is the star trail. If you keep your shutter opened for too long you would get star trail in your photo. This is because the Earth is rotating and it's relative position with respect to those stars changes in time. 
One way to get ride of the star trail is to use a computerized tripod that can be programmed to compensate Earth's rotation, thus keeping the stars in the same sport in your image sensor. However, such tripods are expensive and mostly used in astrophotography. It would be an overkill to go for such tripod just to shoot milky way. You just need a regular tripod that can hold your camera lens combination steady.
To avoid star trail, your need to choose the right shutter speed based to the focal length of your lens. There are complex rules that includes aperture too but I would keep it simple.  This is known as 500 rules where you divide 500 by the effective focal length of your lens. The number you would get would be the maximum shutter speed you could use. 
Please note, I said "Effective Focal Length"  and you need to pay attention here. The focal length you see in your lens is for the full frame cameras. The effective focal length for crop sensor cameras is 1.5 times of actual focal length. Here are 2 examples of maximum shutter speed calculation. However, below 15 secs is not recommended as the stars would not be bright enough in the frame.
  • Nikon D850 Full Frame Camera
    • Lens 20mm f/1.8
    • Maximum Shutter Speed: (500/20 ) = 25 secs
  • Nikon D500 Crop Sensor Camera
    • Lens 20mm f/1.8
    • Maximum Shutter Speed: (500/(20*1.5)) = 17 secs
There are many Night Sky photography gadgets that can compensate earth's rotation when properly calibrated with Polaris ( or Sigma Octantis in south pole). These gadgets e.g. 'Star Adventure pro or SkyGuider Pro' are not really required for milky way photography, rather useful for deep sky photography that would need much longer exposure beyond 30 secs. However, you can still use them to create HDR, panoramas etc.
ISO Number:
Every camera is unique in handling high ISO noise. This is something you need to experiment with your camera before you get to the right number. I would start with ISO 1600 and increase it if the stars are not bright enough. Increase the ISO or shutter speed or both till you get a right balance between star trail and noise.

OTHER Setting:
The first thing you should do in your camera is to turn off  'Long Exposure Noise Reduction'. If you don't, your camera will spend time in NR job between each exposure, equivalent to your exposure time. You don't need this in-camera noise reduction for long exposure shot. The rest of the settings like ISO, manual focus, and shutter speed have already been discussed.

The Shoot:
Ready to start shooting! You are almost there. Here are the list of things to check before you press the shutter release button.
  • While it is still daylight, focus your lens to infinity or to a far away object and then turn the focus selector button in manual focus mode. Turn the camera focusing and exposure also into manual mode. Most modern lens focus ring rotates beyond infinity. So you can't just rotate the focus ring all the way and assume your focus is right. You would end up getting blurred images. Also please check before you shoot that your manual focus position is not disturbed since you fixed it last time.
  • Choose your foreground object and mount your camera on the tripod. Keep the frame in balance between foreground and the night sky. Usually a rule of 3rd may be handy. However, photography is an art, no rules are written in stone.
  • Choose the shutter speed and then use the remote or cable release to open the shutter or just press the shutter release button.
  • Your foreground may not have enough light. So use the flash light to light paint your foreground. This is where a lot of practice could make it perfect.
  • At the end of each shot, check the image in your camera LCD. If you are not satisfied, adjust the exposure and try again.
  • Good Luck 
Here are few example shots I took. 

Milky Way Over Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, California  
Milky Way Over Bixby Bridge, CA-1, California
This shot was taken in Nikon D850, Nikon AFS 14-24 mm f/2.8 at 14mm f/2.8 and ISO 3200, exposure duration 25 secs. The foreground was illuminated by the headlights of few passing vehicles. I had several images that were washed out duo to the bright headlights of the approaching cars. This is the only one where no cars was approaching from the other side.

Milky Way - Davenport Beach, California
Milky Way - Davenport Beach, California
This shot was taken in Nikon D850, Nikon AFS 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24 mm f/2.8 and ISO 3200, exposure duration 20 secs.This was shot in Davenport Beach, California. Here I did the light painting on both the stones.

More Night Sky photos are available in my Fine Art America Portfolio.
If you find this tips useful, please leave some positive comments and share with others. You may subscribe to this blog for future tips on 'how to photograph'.

You can order prints for these shots from Fine Art America.
You can license a Digital Copy for your business or personal use from Alamy

Metal Prints

Amazing Actionshots Present 'Metal Prints' to decorate your living room wall.
There are terrific landscapes from our national parks or around the world to choose from. I also have amazing wildlife shots in the portfolio. Select your favorite image and order a metal print, the larger the size, more beautiful the wall would look like. Check the whole portfolio Here

Mourning Dove Mating

I've been watching birds in my backyard during the entire covid-19 lock down. Probably that's one of the best thing I could do when venturing out for pleasure is forbidden. We got two feeders in the backyard, one for the hummingbirds and the other for the regular backyard birds.
The regular visitors in the feeder are 'Dark Eyed Junco', 'House Finch', 'Oak Titmouse', 'Chestnut-backed chickadee', and few other backyard birds. My wife has been busy with the camera most of the time. She sets the camera early morning on the tripod and rush to take few shots whenever she hears the bird chirping in the backyard.
On Friday evening, June 12, I was wrapping up my remote work for the week when I heard these Dove pair cooing in the backyard. I went behind the camera to check. They were still enjoying the seeds from the feeder. The male finished first and went to the fence. The female followed and landed next to the male. She slowly went closer to the male and gave him a soft poke. I was already taking shots of their every move. The next few minutes, I was entertained with their amazing display of love making. Here are the photographs of the whole series for my readers to visualize. Prints and digital downloads of these photos are available through 'Fine Art America'.
 
They are thinking
 

She gave a tender poke

 

He responded passionately

The Beak is now locked

 

The time is now



And they got into the final act



I've taken more than 100 shots starting from their foreplay till the end of their mating. I've put about 30 of them on Fine Art America. You can view the remaining shots in the collection, all compiled together and arranged from foreplay to end in the order. Please visit the collection here: Mourning Dove Mating

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