Not too impressed....

[Ed Kelsey]

No leaves on the trees and maybe no weather would make Zion look not too spectacular.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

You can't really judge any large national park or other landscape photography site after just one visit. Things like the weather, season of year, other people visiting at the same time, and your general mood/mindset, which all contribute to success or failure in a photography trip, just vary too much. I've been to Yosemite 10 or 11 times over the past few years, and have had different experiences photography-wise every time. A few times the weather was pretty ordinary, and all I got were the usual cliche pictures. Some of the trips have been more for recreation with the family rather than photography, and I only got out the LF camera once or twice, just wasting a few sheets of film in the process. However, a few times I managed to be in the valley when really special weather and atmospherics were going on, was able to get into the photography groove, and managed to take away a few of my best images.

[Heroique]

Whenever I feel unimpressed w/ a landscape in any season, I blame my state of mind.

I think this is the principal moral lesson of the landscape photographer.

It’s okay to be unimpressed (I often am) – but this is not the landscape’s fault, nor the season’s.

[eddie]

i am (well was) a rockclimber. i got to yosemite to climb the big walls. but never went as a photographer. i always wanted to climb at zion.

i got to zion with my photographer "head" no climbing. i walked the narrows and checked the place out (i should have done the angels landing walk though). it just did not really do it for me. no big deal. some places get you , others do not.

i loved bryce. i went back. plenty of stuff left to go see in the world.

[Frank Petronio]

There's Eddie, climbing the Left Cheek of Monumantle, 5.13d.

When I was a dumb kid the first time I went to the Gunks some guy like Eddie took me to Shockley's Ceiling for the first climb, what an a-hole.

[Mark Barendt]

Did you have the right film?

Yosemite = TriX
Zion = Ektar
Bryce = ???
Portraits and Weddings = Portra and Delta

Seriously though, I think when we grab our film for a trip we set a mental stage. If we go looking for TriX subjects in an Ektar or Portra setting we might easily be unimpressed.

For me Yosemite is expansive in mood and basically a B&W world, color film doesn't even add much color. In fact color can be a real distraction in Yosemite.

Zion by contrast is full of color and intimate. It is hard for me to imagine portraying the feeling of Zion without color, without getting closer.

Bryce is a bit different; lot's of texture for TriX, lots of color for Ektar. I can see it being portrayed as expansive or intimate within a few steps.

Throw a portrait/family snap in the mix anywhere though or head down the road to the town of Escalante and it might be nice to have some Portra handy.

[Drew Wiley]

Like Mark, Zion and environs I find more friendly to color film, Yosemite more toward black-and-white. I might poke around Yos more when I get my Golden Geezer lifetime pass next year, but basically prefer the backcountry anyway. Not
knocking the things to see and shoot in the Valley - just prefer solitude when photographing. Same at Zion - go off season, go into the backcountry or side canyons.

[eddie]

There's Eddie, climbing the Left Cheek of Monumantle, 5.13d.

When I was a dumb kid the first time I went to the Gunks some guy like Eddie took me to Shockley's Ceiling for the first climb, what an a-hole.

hjarharhar!

shockley's ceiling is easy....with or with out clothes. vulgaian style.

[Frank Petronio]

How'd you do with it today, Eddie?

[Preston]

Pretty funny shot, Frank!

I can (maybe) see climbing naked, but barefoot...ouch!

In the case above, one could say, "The thrill of victory. The agony of de-feet."

I remember reading about the Vulgarians when I was a climbing bum--they did some strange stuff!

--P