For the Love of the Road: James Cowlin and Route 89
May 8th, 2008 | Published in Photography
I have known Jim Cowlin for, well, way too many years to count. Jim is a staunch defender of our public lands and environs, so it is not unexpected that he is also a fantastic landscape shooter with a love of panoramic images. (There is a great article on shooting and creating a panoramic image after the canyon article… you should check it out.)
Jim’s project is now the road that goes from Canada to Mexico, vertically through the amazing southwestern America. He is founder of the US 89 Appreciation Society, and has been photographing along this route for many years. He lives in Ajo now, and spends a lot of time traveling the ol’ 89.
This post is a glimpse into one of the more interesting places in the Southwest, Paria Canyon.
A Wilderness Adventure
Reprinted with permission of James Cowlin and the US 89 Appreciation Society
I had been thinking about this hike for months. A friend had invited me to join him and a few others on a 5-day backpacking trip down the Paria River. Actually, I have wanted to do this hike for years. The Paria River is a tributary of the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry and I had been told that it ran through one of the most spectacular canyons on the Colorado Plateau. It is also a remote wilderness area. Once you enter the canyon at the Whitehouse Trailhead off US Route 89 in southern Utah, you have little choice but to complete the 38-mile hike. Five days seemed manageable although carrying 50 pounds on my back was a rather daunting prospect.
Twenty years ago when I did my last long backpacking trip I carried my medium format camera and four lens to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. But at 30 pounds, I knew that I wasn’t going to carry it this time. I opted for my digital camera with one extra lens. I also brought a light-weight tripod and the newest addition to my equipment, a panoramic tripod head. I have been experimenting with the technique of making panoramic photographs from multiple digital files stitched together. It was time to see how practical it would be under not exactly ideal conditions.
Hiking the Paria River Wilderness
| For the first 21 miles below the White House trail head, the Paria River has cut down through Navajo Sandstone, a huge layer of sedimentary rock formed from ancient sand dunes. The canyon walls tower above as the river flows through a channel only a dozen feet wide in places. Fortunately, the water level is at its lowest in the spring so wading along the sandy bottom is not difficult.
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| The petrified shapes of the dunes are clearly visible in the sheer cliffs and the color varies from a rusty red to creamy white. Each twist and turn revealed new wonders of rock and light.
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| Seven miles from the trailhead Buckskin Gulch intersects with Paria Canyon. This extremely narrow gorge extends for 12 miles to the northwest until it emerges onto the Paria Plateau. I hiked up Buckskin until I came to a hairpin turn where I could make a panoramic photograph of the gulch in both directions.
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| For most of the second day the sky was cloudy with occasional gentle rain. This made the light in the canyon soft and diffused. It also made it hard to judge the size of the place until one of my fellow hikers would appear on the trail ahead.
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| Rivers seldom flow in a straight line and the Paria is no exception. Look at a map of the canyon and its serpentine nature is clearly visible. What this meant for me was that at each bend, the rock on the inside of the curve would be highlighted against the rock wall on the outside of the curve. Light reflected from behind me would illuminate the scene and make the rock seem to glow from within.
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| We spent as much time walking in the river as we did walking beside it. As you can see, it was mostly shallow, seldom deeper that the top of our boots. However, it was wise to use a walking stick to probe ahead for deeper water or the occasional pocket of quicksand. Here Doug and Rhonda Forsha, organizers of our hike, keep one eye on the river and another on the scenery.
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| Two or three times a day a location would strike me as ideal for setting up to make a panoramic photograph. Here at a wide spot on a bend in the river, a line of cottonwoods adorned by new leaves caught my eye. This shot is composed of 8 vertical frames stitched together to form a single image. (See article below for more details on shooting digital panoramas.)
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| Hidden in a side canyon is the remarkable Wrather Arch. It is reportedly the sixth longest natural stone arch in the world with a span of 246 feet. It is also the most remote since it is only accessible by hiking 20 miles down the Paria River. We arrived late in the afternoon when the arch was outlined by light reflected from the opposite rock wall.
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| I couldn’t resist photographing the mud next to the river reflecting the early morning light. This is a perfect example of the wilderness ethic: take only pictures, leave only foot prints.
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| On the morning of the fourth day, we began to see two new rock formations revealed in the walls of the canyon, the Kayenta and Moenave. These ledgy formations are a mixture of sandstone, shale and siltstone which erodes into slopes causing the canyon to widen out.
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| In this panoramic image, ledges of different types of sedimentary rock line the river while the Navajo Sandstone towers above. This type of formation suggests that preceding millions of years of being covered in sand dunes, this area was at the edge of a sea. In fact the bones of dinosaurs can be found in this formation.
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| The last ten miles of the Paria River before it flows into the Colorado cuts down through the Chinle Formation. The Chinle is very soft shale that erodes into gentle slopes. It is widely known as the multicolored rock of the Pained Desert. In Paria Canyon it undercuts the formation above allowing large chucks of rock to tumble down the slope. Because of this, hiking along the river became a scramble over and around boulders. The alternative was the high water trail on the slope above, which was not a whole lot better. The ten miles we covered on the fourth day was definitely the hardest.
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| The difficulty of hiking was offset by the wider views and spectacular terrain. Here the Chinle Formation can clearly be seen at river level. In the distance the Echo Cliffs above the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry can be glimpsed.
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Hiking the Paria River is one of the premier wilderness experiences to be found along US Route 89. Details about obtaining permits and what to expect are available at the Bureau of Land Management Paria Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness website.
I want to thank US Route 89 Appreciation Society member Pete Sevin for inviting me and Doug and Rhonda Forsha for making all of the logistical arrangements. I also want to thank Holmes Dumez, Jeremiah Polynone, Cliff Pohlman, Paul Chadwick, and Jan, Bernie and Kelsey Becker for their companionship and encouragement along the way.
Digital Panoramic Photography
In theory making a digital panoramic photograph is straight forward-take a series of shots of a scene and stitch them together in a photo editing program to form a single image. In practice, there is a bit more to it than that. Let me briefly describe how I made the panoramas on the Paria.
Equipment:
I used a Canon 20D digital single lens reflex and a 17 to 105 mm Canon zoom. The zoom was set at 17 mm most of the time, but occasionally, I would set it at around 24 mm. I use a Gitzo tripod that I have had for years specifically for backpacking. Although it is light weight, it is very sturdy and makes a stable platform. (If you are serious about landscape photography, I recommend buying the best tripod you can afford. There is nothing more frustrating than a wobbly, hard to adjust tripod. Next to lenses, it is the most important investment you can make to improve your photography.)
I use a special tripod head designed for making panoramic photographs, the Nodal Ninja. The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it allows me to adjust the camera lens’s “entrance pupil” (also called the “nodal point”) on the correct rotational axis which eliminates parallax error when shooting images side by side. Without parallax error the digital files can be seamlessly stitched together to form the single image. Second, the Nodal Ninja is fitted with detent rings that offer click stops at various degrees of rotation depending on the lens in use. This allows the camera to be quickly and precisely rotated without having to line up each shot manually.
This is the first time I had put the Nodal Ninja through its paces in the field. I was very pleased at how quickly and precisely I was able to set it up. It worked flawlessly and only added marginally to the weight of my pack. I am pleased to have Nodal Ninja as a business member of the US Route 89 Appreciation Society. They are offering a $20 discount to anyone who mentions US Route 89 when ordering.
Capturing the Image:
Once the camera is set up on the tripod, it is important to make sure it is level both horizontally and vertically. The Nodal Ninja’s built-in bubble level made that easy.
I always set my exposure manually. Each frame should be exposed the same. I use Program mode to take a light reading from the most important part of the scene. I note the f-stop and shutter speed, then switch to Manual and enter the values.
The same is true of focus. I turn off auto focus and focus the lens manually. Focus is usually not a problem since I am shooting wide angle where the depth of field is greatest. Image stabilization is also turned off. This should always be done whenever the camera is on a tripod. I also set the while balance that is appropriate for the scene, not on auto.
I prefer to shoot in RAW format rather than JPEG. That way I can use Camera Raw in Photoshop to make any necessary adjustments before stitching the files.
Composition is the tricky part. I am learning the strengths and limitations of this technique and did several compositions on the Paria that didn’t work very well. The wonderful thing about digital is that I am only limited by the amount of storage capacity available. Every time I set up for a panorama, I would try two or three variations, setting the lens at different focal lengths, changing exposure, including more or less in the scene.
Finally, I captured a series of frames each overlapping the next by 20% to 30% to make it easy for the software to blend them together.
Processing the Image:
I do all of my image processing in Photoshop CS3. PhotoMerge in CS3 is vastly improved over its predecessor in CS2. I download the files to the computer and review them in Bridge to select the ones I want to use. I open all of the files to be used for a panoramic in Camera Raw at the same time. Just as it is important to use the same exposure and focus for each image, it is important to make exactly the same adjustments on all of the files.
I select the center photograph and make adjustments to exposure, color, contrast, etc. Then I click on the “select all” button and synchronize the files. At this point you can select the files to be used in Bridge or switch to Photoshop. From either program, open the files with the PhotoMerge command. Click on the OK and let Photoshop do its magic.
The major consideration throughout the process of shooting and processing photographs for a digital panorama is to make sure that all of the files are exposed and processed the same. That ensures that whatever software you use to merge the files will be able to make a seamless blend. For the sake of brevity, I have left out some of the details in this process. If you want to give it a try and have specific questions, feel free to send me an email and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction.
Support the “Slow Road” Movement:
Join the US Route 89 Appreciation Society
US Route 89 Appreciation Society
You love driving the two-lane highways that keep you close to the edge of the road so you can see the land at a leisurely pace. You think nothing of stopping along the way to admire the view and smell the fresh air. You seek out unique places to eat where the special of the day depends on what’s in season at the nearby farm. You already appreciate the opportunities offered by a journey on US Route 89.
You are not alone in your passion for a trip on a “slow road.” There are many others like you. Together we can spread the word of the joys of leisurely travel. Join the US Route 89 Appreciation Society and you’ll receive an official membership certificate and button to attest to your belief in the “slow road” movement.
General Membership: $5
Benefits:
· Membership Certificate
· Membership Badge
· Email Newsletter
· Invitations to all project events
See the US 89 Appreciation Society for more information.
