Photographing Flowing Washes | Zion Fall Photography 2022 - Episode 1

A rainy night leads to awesome morning conditions -
I arrive in Zion with a storm on the way and quickly scout for compositions to try to take advantage of the incoming conditions. I awake in the morning to conditions even better than I expected..
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:10 Arriving in Zion
02:01 A storm brewing
02:38 Beautiful morning conditions
04:35 Flowing washes
05:33 Setting up a composition
08:33 Light table review
10:00 Finished image
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[@austerepotato3159]

I love the slight blur in some of the leaves, it’s obviously motion blur, and brings the image to life. Well done

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks so much!

[@bruceharvey6428]

Really nicely done, Chris, yet again. I quite enjoy your discussions about the composition. So much of our work is a series of small, rapid-fire decisions, and it is nice to hear you lay them out.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Bruce! So true, it's amazing how many decisions have to me made and committed to in the field, it's incredible that I capture anything I like at all!

[@MattWeddis]

Great video Chris. I’m glad you’ve identified the leaky holder.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Got-em! Thanks Matt!

[@andreimalashenko9132]

Just subscribed to your channel. Really enjoying all of your videos, which have a sense of honesty and humility I very much appreciate. Last but not least , your photos are stunningly beautiful !

[@russdavisphoto]

Nice composition and interesting to see the east canyons with flowing water.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Russ!

[@haimtoeg]

thanks Chris, always enjoy your video.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks for watching!

[@brianbeattyphotography]

I've yet to be at Zion when the washes are flowing. Looks like such perfect conditions! Glad to see you were able to take advantage. I could've spent the whole day composing that swirling water you found! Nice one

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Brian! One of these visits I hope you'll get the chance, it really is an incredible thing to witness!

[@brianbeattyphotography]

@@ChrisDarnell definitely. I was supposed to be there this year.... ugh. Hopefully next year it's similar! Right now though it's fun living through your vids

[@tim31415]

You had a much better experience in Zion than I did. I was there one day and couldn't get out fast enough. I've seen fewer people in Manhattan. That little patch of blue really rounded out the image. You should leave it in.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Tim! Haha, yeah Zion has certainly undergone a rush in popularity in the last handful of years. I can't even imagine what it might have been like a decade or two ago; must have felt like a totally different place 😕

[@kevins8575]

Beautiful image! Thanks!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks for watching Kevin!

[@DavidSafanda]

Thanks for sharing another fun video. It was great to see Zion in unsettled conditions. No matter what you come away with, those unique days are always more memorable.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks for watching David! Agreed, photos or not the last couple years with rainy days have been some of my most favorite days in the park!

[@tedphillips2951]

I'm working on catching up on your videos which I always enjoy. Your dialogue is so descriptive & really interesting. Love the honesty also. There are problems with photography particularly analogue.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks so much Ted! Agreed - often I find those problems and technical challenges most interesting, and at times it seems others do as well!

[@RYANPARKPHOTOGRAPHY]

love it man!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Ryan!

[@carbonejack]

Super.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Jack!

[@andrewfindlayphoto]

Great video. It's good to see a Zion shot not relying on 'Reflected Light' and a photographer being excited about getting a rainy day. Concentrating on the rare or unique conditions was the right call. It might be a long time until you see those conditions again. Try running a strip of paper up and down on the darkslide light trap to get the velvet nap back up.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Andrew! I've always been a fan of the rain, maybe because we don't see so much of it around Utah. Thanks for the tip on the holder, I considered sacrificing it and ripping it apart to do exploratory surgery.. maybe I'll hold off for just a bit.. haha

[@philipculbertson55]

Hey Chris. Great to see you back in Zion! It was wonderful to get some flow in the washes. The photo was great. I always look for circling bubbles when around water as I like that effect as well. I was curious, since you and Ben Horne seem to be there around the same times, do you two ever bump into each other there? As always Chris, I enjoyed the video and love getting to see Zion again!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Philip! Always good to be back in the park. Indeed I have ran into Ben a handful of times, super nice guy and I've been fortunate to enjoy a couple great conversations with him!

[@jimioutback]

So nice to be back in East Zion, even if only from the no-access comfort of my distant livingroom. Those reds are so lush in the wash, what time of year was this Chris, looks like it should be very late October or even November, yet there is so much green. Ta!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Jim! This was the last week of October. Most of the maples seemed to be in color that week this year, although many of the box elders and oaks were pretty green still until the tail end of the week. Seems every year is a bit different, some years I've seen more yellows and oranges and hardly any reds, but I suppose that keeps it interesting!

[@BobOgden1]

Zion is such a gorgeous location Sorry, I'll leave now

[@ChrisDarnell]

It really is; I've been wanting to branch out more and visit different locations during the fall but Zion is just too good to not go!

[@andrewsimpson5436]

"I don't mind the weather and not getting to shoot straight away" he said through gritted teeth 🤣 Nice colour and flow through that shot, a great start!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Haha, I have to say that or the photography gods will smite me 😆 Thanks Andrew!

[@fredzh]

Great video Chris! Just wondering what you metered on in determining your exposure... also, used your affiliate link in the last video to pick up a stopwatch and some batteries for my Pentax Digital Spot Meter. Thanks!

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks so much for that Fred! If I remember right I was metering the darker slick rock to the right as a sort of middle tone, then checking that against the peach colored sand as a highlight and the darker evergreen shrubs as my shadows.

[@larryjohnson1451]

I've been to Zion several times, different seasons, most recently the fall of 2020. I enjoyed this wash video and appreciate your attention to detail. My first two visits were with my 67 system and using Provia 100F. I would do 200mb drum scans of the selected shots and print and frame very large pieces for my gallery. How are you converting your slides for your digital editing? (scanning costs finally drove me to my digital camera.)

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Larry! I'd love to play around with one of those 67's myself! I have an Epson V850 flatbed scanner that I use to digitize everything in my videos and I've been really happy with the files I get off of that, although I have yet to print anything since I started using that workflow so we'll see how that translates to paper hopefully here in the near future. I may end up going the drum scanning route in the end, we'll see.. but I can certainly understand why the costs would be prohibitive!

[@johnbrown40639]

I wonder if you have tried to take a digital photo of the same composition before the film? If so, you would have noticed the water swirling earlier. From my personal taste, I think the swirling is definitely beautiful but a bit distracting on the bottom right corner. If noticed early, probably a better composition is to move it to the middle in the frame. Just my 2 cents. BTW, the light leak of film holder really sucks. Did you take notes of the holder number? I found it helpful to identify the holders with leaks -- but I continue to use those holders anyway. ;)

[@ChrisDarnell]

I do sometimes, yes! Frequently I'll try compositions with my camera I shoot video with, or even "dual shoot" where I'm taking the same image on both formats. Usually those digital frames are taken at a much wider aperture however, something like F8 or F11, but on the 4x5 that might be F32 or F45 so the shutter speeds are drastically different which is why the swirl was a surprise to me on the film sheet. Fortunately I did take good notes this time so I was able to identify the holder!

[@johnbrown40639]

@@ChrisDarnell Thanks for sharing! Look forward to more of your adventures.

[@johnbrown40639]

which day was it? Trying to figure whats the best time to catch fall colors in Zion… Thanks! 😊

[@ChrisDarnell]

This year I was there the whole last week of October. Depending on what you want to see you may want to adjust that; the higher elevations on the east side usually change earlier, but the lower elevations in the main canyon are often a week or two later than that. Also depending on the weather leading up to October the entire season may be early or late. Sorry to be ambiguous but it really does change from year to year. I mentioned in the beginning of the video I was pretty happy with my timing but in some past years I've been a little disappointed - so I don't always get it right!

[@johnbrown40639]

@@ChrisDarnell Thank you, Chris! That's great info! We went there during the Thanksgiving weekend and most of the trees have passed peak. I guess next time we need to go two to three weeks earlier.

[@alfredanheier4779]

If you have access to a wet darkroom, you could easily, and cheaply, troubleshoot your film holder problems using some photo paper. Just a thought. Nice picture.

[@ChrisDarnell]

Thanks Alfred! Currently I do not, but over time that may change...

[@JayFunningham]

Interesting, a wet darkroom sounds like somewhere you grow mushrooms.

[@alfredanheier4779]

@@JayFunningham Funny. As opposed to a digital darkroom workflow, naturally. Mine does not grow mushrooms that I know of.

[@alfredanheier4779]

@@ChrisDarnell Well, if your problems persist, and your travels take you towards Reno, NV, sometime, I'd offer my help.

[@BobOgden1]

@@ChrisDarnell I assume you have a dark bag or such to load your film holders - that is all you need to load a processing tank. Once you have the film in the tank all the chemicals can be handled in daylight.