Wild ‘Bill’ Hairball

Corona Arch
©Joe Bridwell

Utah has a number of truly spectacular arches.  Just west of Moab, Corona is a popular Colorado River site.  The ancient artifact in front of Corona is Wild 'Bill' Hairball... camper, arch hunter, HDR shooter, and sand-covered country bumpkin.

No, this is not an HDR image.  But, I did spend the onset of a long hot summer way off the highway down horrible washboard roads shooting HDR sunrises and sunsets, many in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Since you just don't snap and show HDR panoramas, forgive me if there hasn't been time to do little more than document my return.
Thankfully, a primary order of business _ a deep, encompassing bath_ was joyous!

With time, some of these images will emerge.  As will memories of:
Seeing 4 sunlit crow's watching solemnly from a dawn-lit, nearby hill.
Finding 3 Japanese on a country road 14 miles beyond their goal, lacking English.
Carefully negotiating a small slot canyon, unable to believe my eyes 'Liam the Lizard running along, slightly ahead of me, body and tail parallel to the ground'!  I simply did not know lizards could do that...
On a back country road watching a pickup pull a hang glider by wire.
A windy Navajo rodeo with running horse's hooves creating dusty cloud puffs.
When occasionally around people, frequently hearing German...
Nightly set up a 30-year-old tent, recently renovated by REI (no charge)...
Taking pictures of the most incredible Southwestern natural landscapes.
Living out under great Western skies which softly welcome sunrise and warmly embrace opulent evening.

I would be quite remiss if I did not thank Sonny (Tracback) Lane and Larry (Magic Breath) Stroup for their emotional and intellectual support on this venture and safe return to technical nirvana!  In each unique way, these guys were the Wind beneath My Wings – teaching, arguing, testing my theories, and praying for great images…
And, my beautiful daughter Donna aka Chris, who patiently listened to disjointed and rather intermittent cell phone calls from where ever, contributing care and love on this lonely vigil.  Perhaps the most unusual was from Hole in the Rock Road, some 45 miles down, way in the outback, as Crocodile Dundee might say.  I can only guess that a flashing red light on Navajo Mountain farther south of Lake Powell let me make that jewel… mostly it was ‘Can’t Find  Service…’
Enjoy...

Outback and Google Earth...

Google Earth view of Ridge (A), Canyon (B), and Arch (C)

I've always liked the word Outback; legendary Crocodile Dundee certainly had that old outback spirit. 
When I studied geology in archaic days, it was boots on the ground and a metal Brunton compass - before the day of satellites.  Now, it's still boots on the ground if you want a provocative HDR image of the second largest arch on our planet.  But, it's also using a GPS receiver and Google Earth satellite data.
A GPS receiver works from multiple satellites circling overhead.  With receiver turned on in your pocket, you can know within a 20 foot radius where you are on the planet - and more loosely, your elevation. 
You can also tell the receiver you want to remember every little trail you took to get to that arch.  But, there's a hiccup; if you're down in a canyon with 200 to 400 foot sub vertical walls, the only satellites that receiver can see are along the course of the canyon in the particular direction it points just then (if that)!  Bingo - isn't that a great way to get very lost?
But, there is a satisfying workaround...

GPS Applications

With a Garmin GPS, you have access to topography using Mapsource.  This software lets you manage waypoints, routes, tracks, as well as Sun and Moon positions... a waypoint is a latitude/longitude expression (decimal degrees) of precisely where you want to be.  A route is a series of waypoints - getting from point A to point B. 
Within Mapsource, when you've laid out a route, you can ask to see that precise route on a satellite map using Google Earth.  This step provides an interesting way to update your actual waypoints.
You can also decide where the sun is with respect to shot point location.  For simplicity, I show sun position for when I wrote this blog.  For accuracy, I'll want to know the exact position on the day I plan to be in this mystical canyon.

Sun and Moon orientation near 5 p.m. 26 March.

GPS Receivers

Most GPS receivers come with map sets like Mapsource.  What's a map set?  A track is the actual series of waypoints where you are on the ground.  A TrackBack is returning precisely along the path from which you came.  The Garmin will even light the screen (backlight) to show where you’re coming out after dark.
It's the ability to use topography to create a visual image of the shape of the land (a geologist would say geomorphology).  If you know how to read a topo map, you place a waypoint as precisely as you can to determine where you are on that exciting photography trip.  I have access to a 165 foot contour interval topo map; that's a rather coarse contour for very detailed canyoneering navigation.
So what do you do to enhance precision?
Enter Google Earth...

Google Earth
More precisely, good satellite data will let you see every significant detail water cut in that ancient twisting, turning canyon bottom. 
If you know the arch orientation, orientation of enclosing canyon walls, and position of the sun, you can plan several things:

1.    What's the most effective shadow orientation from the Sun and best timing from nearby topography?
2.    Best shot location to enhance HDR image capture?
3.    What's the return route so you safely get out of that canyon before dark?
4.    What's the vertical climb out of the canyon near the trek's end?
5.    How do you negotiate sand above the canyons edge back to the car near dark?
6.    Unfortunately, it's not going to tell you how really wasted you're going to be...

Evocative Digital Photography

OK!  You've done all the pre-planning.  You know route, descent, trail, objective location, weather, and shot location.  What can you learn about the best time to set up your tripod for that exclusive and difficult to attain HDR image?
In a way, Google's even thought of that...
In Google Earth’s menu bar, there's a button that shows the Sun with rays radiating away.  It's called, "Show sunlight across the landscape.  Use Time slider to set time of day."  If you click on that button, you get a daily 24-hour schedule.  If you want to know when the shadows are going to be quite near the arch, you just run the slider forward into the afternoon.  Now, I've got to admit ~ while those are not the best shadow projections I've ever seen, they do give me a coarse spatial estimate of what's going to be in shadow and what's not.  I'll just need to be there to refine details.
Man... isn't that way cool!
I can guess where to set up my tripod, guess when shadows are going to give me the best scene illumination based, all from the armchair Internet, then shoot my HDR real time ground images rather carefully.

Google Earth shadows at 5:16 p.m. 26 March.

YOWZZAH...

But... that's not all!
Looks like shadows are optimal about 1715 (5:15 p.m. for you landlubbers). 

Here, I've been worrying about going back up canyon and climbing that last 150 feet under full pack after dark.  I am used to thinking from a flatlander's view about sunset from a long distance away. 
Now, I should be out before dark.
Google Earth even provides me with a seemingly never-ending, continuing education from space...
Boy, does that make me happy!  As Al Pacino said in Scent of a Woman,  "HOWAH...!"

Last three canyon climb waypoints on return, coming out of the canyon.

My thanks to Sonny Lane, Geocacher, and Larry Stroup, Admiral of the Bounding Seas, my GPS gurus and brothers in Christ...

Enjoy...