The first in a series of eFotoGuides by Bret Edge and Aaron Bates.
I visited Zion National Park for a day trip about 20+ years ago. I took my Canon film camera with me, but because I knew so little about settings at that time, I kept the camera on Auto and had absolutely no polarizer or ND filter with me. I didn't even bring a tripod! On my way back to the hotel that evening, I realized that a single day was just not enough to capture the amazing scenes I viewed within the park. So, I was definitely interested when Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek asked if I might like to review the referenced eFotoGuide.
What Is An eFotoGuide?
For those of you unfamiliar with eFotoGuides (like me), they are a series of ebooks for photographers created by Bret Edge and Aaron Bates for providing photo locations, best times for shooting, gear to bring and tips for great shots within and around the national parks. This particular eFotoGuide about Zion National Park is the first one to be made available, with five other eFotoGuides due to be released this year.
The layout of this 49-page ebook is clean and simple. The writing style is friendly and easy to follow. Locations listed range from just off the side of the road to hikes of 9+ miles roundtrip, with varying levels of physical difficulty. That means this ebook contains a little something for everybody, including photographers who don't want to stray too far from their car / bus, as well as shooters who want to navigate a greater distance up or down the trail.
What's In This eFotoGuide?
The beginning pages of this ebook detail the park's history, hiking/camping awareness issues, safety precautions, and a park map. The photo op locations are grouped into three sections for different times of the day (morning/sunrise, mid-day, and evening/sunset). There's also a section each for wildlife, additional resources, recommended photo aps to help you with getting great smartphone images and bios for each author.
The authors provide the best time of year for certain shots, lens/filter/shooting suggestions for each location and a 'Need To Know' box for each photo location providing useful tips from the type of terrain at that spot, whether or not flash flooding occurs, how popular the place is with tourists and other photographers, and suggestions for nearby hikes taking the photographer to a spot with a closer/different perspective of the scene.
Bret and Aaron also stress respect for the environment, respect for others (photographers and non-photographers) so they too may enjoy the park, and cautions the photographer to know his or her limits (i.e. stay alert of the weather conditions and don't consider hiking a particular route unless totally able to physically manage it and be comfortable with heights or other technical issues such as maneuvering along slickrock and steep slopes along the trail).
This eFotoGuide is geared for both the point & shoot enthusiast as well as for the photographer with more advanced skills. For instance, while the authors place stress on using filters to remove reflections from leaves and water as well as to even out the dynamic range in light between horizons, they also recommend the image-blending concept of capturing several images using different exposure settings then blending them together into a single image. This technique requires a little more editing expertise.
It's not all just about wide-angle landscapes, either, in this eFotoGuide. The authors give due weight to creating more intimate imagery as well, particularly during mid-day, when the light tends to be flat and ' unless there are clouds in the sky ' a bit undramatic. This is when macro shots, natural patterning, and other suggestions for non-landscape scenes come into play.
I really like this eFotoGuide and look forward to the other eguides due out this year. This ebook doesn't cover every single hike/spot within the vastness of Zion National Park, but it does provide a nice sampling of the most popular spots with opportunities for every possible kind of imagery. That's great for someone like me who hasn't visited Zion in a very long time and wants to ''¦ hit the ground running as soon as I (you) pull into the park '¦'
The Ultimate Guide to Photographing Zion National Park eFotoGuide sells for $14.95 and downloads as a PDF suitable for any device. Click on the link provided at the beginning of this article to get to Bret's and Aaron's site to learn more about the authors and their ebooks.
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