Desert flora

[Michael Lloyd]

Back in late April I was driving home from work and I came across a desert with flowers in it. I guess I should mention that work was in Rangely, CO, I live in Texas (kind of Houston-ish but not really), and the desert is in Utah... I hate driving in a straight line so I tend to "wobble" a bit as I make my way to my destination :D

This is from the Needles District of the Canyonlands NP system (gorgeous area). I literally saw the sign as I was driving by and I turned in. I drove to the "back" of the park to the trailhead that leads to the confluence of the Colorado and Green river (1,000 feet straight down and no ropes to keep you where you're supposed to be). The sign said that the hike was 10 miles round trip and that it would take 6.5 hours. I distinctly remember thinking "6 miles??? pffttt. I do 5 miles in an hour walking... 10 miles "ain't no six hour walk"... I was right. It wasn't 6 hours. It was 5.5 hours :) if not a little more than that. It was an awesome hike. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

If I remember correctly I struck out on the trail at around 2pm. I took one camera, one lens, and one bottle of water. Thankfully it was cool, about 85 degrees, as one bottle of water was just about not enough. I did not plan to do any backpacking so I left all of my gear at home. Note to self... don't be stupid. Pack your gear next time. Even if you don't get to use it...

The 24 - 70 is also a pretty decent macro lens but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss my MP65E and ringlight and/or my 180mm macro... In some cases (like this one) a little fill flash would have come in handy. On the upside I took a lot of killer landscape shots that you can't get from the side of the road :)

EOS 1DsMKIII (manual)
24-70mm f2.8L

ISO 400
1/400s@ f8.0

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Michael Worth the walk and more !!! Might suggest taking a diffuser and try avoiding shadows !! Would look good !! For this having he dof is nice for the flower but the bg comes into play Might have gone for minimal dof at the 70 setting !!! ... you sure walk fast :)

[Michael Lloyd]

... you sure walk fast :)

I agree on all counts. I would only add that carrying anything else would have been difficult to do. Back country is not usually a good place to carry a lot of gear.

I was traveling lite and I usually hike with a lot of "intent" :) You should see me climb :D The trail had a lot of vertical elements to it. At one point I had to crawl through a window in the rocks. If I ever slow down I'll put the sequence of shots that I took on my website. I tried to capture the feel of the hike with them.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good story to go along with the image. A beautiful flower indeed - very pretty purples. I was going to suggest opening up to minimize the BG too. It must be something else to see blooms in a desert!

[Michael Lloyd]

I think I shot 6 or 7 different flowers during my hike Daniel. Each was very pretty... and very small. The flowers in this shot were less than 1/4" across.

I'm trying to think why I would have shot them at f8. The only thing I can think of is that I had shot something "landscapey" and tweaked the shutter speed out of habit instead of actually thinking about the shot.