I have been to the Zion national park many times(6 times approximately) and still believe is one the best weekend getaway for Utahns. It takes me less than 5 hours to drive to Zion national park and great drive. A few details on the national park :

“A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile (590 km2) park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. The lowest elevation is 3,666 ft (1,117 m) at Coalpits Wash and the highest elevation is 8,726 ft (2,660 m) at Horse Ranch Mountain. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park’s unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park’s four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches.”

Please find some pictures of Zion national park taken in Summer 2011. Enjoy. (Please click on them to view the larger version of the shot)

In my opinion the best time to visit Zion is May, June, and July. Here are a few tips when travelling to Zion :

Sharp changes in weather occur within the Zion National park due to the rugged topography and range of elevations. Seasonal snowfall averages 13 feet but much heavier snows accumulate in high mountain areas above Zion. Summer days are hot, but mountain breezes keep evenings cool especially in lower elevation areas. Visitors should be prepared for a wide range of weather conditions at Zion National Park. Temperatures vary with changes in elevation, and day/night temperatures may differ by over 30° F. Fall days are usually clear and mild; nights are often cool. Autumn color displays begin in September in the high country (Cedar Breaks, Lava Point). Colors in Utah’s Zion Canyon usually peak in late October. Winters in Zion Canyon are fairly mild. Winter storms often bring rain or light snow to Zion Canyon, but heavier snow to the higher elevations. Clear days may become quite warm reaching 60° F or higher; nights are often in the mid 20′s and 30′s. Winter storms often last several days and cause roads to be icy. Zion roads are plowed, except Kolob Terrace road (to Lava Point), which closes in winter. Travelers should be prepared for winter driving conditions from Nov through Mar.

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I am really glad today. I did my first photography workshop this weekend and I will call it as great success. Even though there was a good turn around when I published that I am planning for my workshop, four friends decided to keep their Sunday for the workshop. All the rest of the interested people have asked for another day this year, but I guess I won’t be doing another one in 2011.
The workshop started with discussing the basics of photography, the top required skills for photography, equipment etc. I selected a few of my best shots in various category (portrait, landscape, wildlife , lighting etc). Then we started taking a few pictures in the apartment gardens. They followed my words and decided to shoot only in Manual mode, making an end to the use of auto mode. We also drove to Red butte gardens and the sugar house park , the rest of the day taking tons of pictures. Here are some of the pictures that my STUDENTS (sigh ) shot that day. Check out how well they shot the pictures with a few hours of training. Great work guys.

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I love watching fireworks and shooting them is even fun. You can get some great pictures/images of the sky with fireworks. I was eagerly waiting for July 4th in 2011, so that I can try photographing fireworks. Every year Sandy city in Utah have a marvelous celebration for the independence day and I decided not to miss this opportunity. My wonderful wife Shiniga gave me the best support by lifting my heavy tripod and we headed towards the back side of sandy civic center to get a wider area in the shot. My friends Anoop and Keerthana also joined to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks started at 10 pm and lasted for 30 mins and gave me enough time to experiment with various settings. I tried to get as many shots I can in this limited time slot and I can say the first attempt was pretty much successful. Most of my shots were 10 seconds each. I am planning to write a in-detail blog post on the details on camera settings when photographing fireworks. Enjoy the pictures now and watch out for the tutorial on ‘How to photograph fireworks’.

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There are lots of media companies who think that they can do a search in Google Images and use any of the images from the results for their business or commercial purposes.
The Hyderabad based news agency ‘Sakshi ‘owned by Jagati Publications Pvt. Ltd is one among them. They have blatantly copied one of my images from my blog and used in their news papers (both paper edition and internet edition). The images in my blog have clear copyright symbol to my name and have more details at my copyright .

The copied image can be viewed at Sakshi Epaper copy. The original pictures were posted at kids photo blog post .
I have already communicated to their email address about this copyright imfringement and waiting for a reply from them.

My Hyderabad friends: If you know anybody who works at this non-professional news agency, please let me know. Their contact details are:
Jagati Publications Pvt. Ltd.
8-2-696, Carmel Point, Rd.No. 12,
Banjara Hills, Hyderabad-500 034.
Ph:040-2330 3829/49, Fax:040-2330 5113
email : epaperinfo@sakshi.com

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I always wanted to take pictures of flowers but there was always a misconception that you need a good macro lens to capture vibrant shots.It’s not that I don’t want to own a macro lens , but never thought of trying out capturing macro shots with my existing collection of lens.I decided to take my wife to the red butte gardens in salt lake city and try my luck in flower photography.I used mt canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens hooked to the tripod. Set the camera in macro mode (I don’t know why I never tried this mode before). To my surprise the new canon 60D comes with more settings when you set the camera in macro mode. I will be writing another blog post on ‘ How to shoot macro pictures in canon 60D’ soon and you can try experimenting with your camera.

So here are some of the pictures I shot with Canon 60D and the canon 70-200mm telephoto lens . Please add your valuable comments for the pictures posted here.

A little bit about the red butte gardens
“Red Butte Garden, a part of the University of Utah, is a non-profit organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah. With over 100 acres including display and natural gardens, walking paths and natural areas with hiking trails, Red Butte Garden is the largest botanical garden in the Intermountain West that tests, displays, and interprets regional horticulture.”

Get more information on Utah red butte gardens wiki page .

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