[LargeFormat] For folks in the American southwest
Clive Warren
largeformat@f32.net
Sat Feb 1 06:06:29 2003
At 6:47 pm -0500 31/1/03, Jim Hemenway wrote:
>Hi Folks:
>
>Can anyone tell me when is the best time, photographically speaking, to
>visit Monument Valley.
Jim,
I was looking forward to reading some posts on this thread!! In the
absence of any replies yet......
It seems a little strange for someone based in the UK to give advice
on visiting a place in the US, but here goes anyway.
Avoid all holiday breaks - there will be too many people milling
around unless you have a serious ND filter strapped to the front of
your lenses. I can guarantee that the people will be exactly where
you don't want them to be in your shots and when they move, others
will appear to take their place.
Between the end of May and the beginning of September you'll find it
uncomfortably hot - you may find it uncomfortably hot anyway! It can
be a challenging environment.
If it is breezy (it does happen) then sand will get everywhere and
the blown sand is very fine indeed. On one occasion I simply found it
impossible to keep the uv filter clean enough to take a shot - but
there again you may like the diffused effect.....
You will be reliant on Navajo transport to take you to your shooting
positions in the Valley. As you may know, you will need to buy a
permit and then hire a "guide" who will take you into the area in a
4x4. A recent post from Bill Proud to the f32.net Discussion Forum at
http://www.f32.net/cgi-local/discus/show.cgi?16/874 showed a photo
taken in the area and pointed out that there is new building activity
for homes in the area that are visible from the monuments.
So, I would recommend April/May this year!
Cheers,
Clive