2011 Canyoneering Calendar

This is the preliminary calendar on this page. But... why? Putting together a calendar is tougher than people might think - in other words I'm trying to generate sympathy for the decisions I made, or at least for the sturm und strang involved in making those decisions - or maybe it is another in my series on "understanding human nature".

Anyway, here is the last round of images I sent out to a dozen people for comments and criticism. I tried a calendar a couple years ago, and got bogged down in the decision making process. This year, I decided to do a calendar at the last moment, and thus had no time to get bogged down in the process. Also, this calendar is somewhere between a personal project to share with a few friends and trying to make a "product" that will sell and make moola. So my concerns about getting it "perfect" were considerably deflated by these considerations or lack thereof.

For your amusement, the round 2 candidates. Commentators were asked to vote on each image on a scale of 1 to 5; or to indicate which four images they would cut to get down to 12. On the next page will be the feedback I got back from this process.

00-Front Cover

01-Black Hole

02 – Jane and Roger in the PNW

03 – Nick Wilkes rapping in Arizona

04 – Jump in Matacanes

05 – fly on flowers

06 – Rye Brye Subway Gatorade

07 – Ms. Martens in Gravel

08 – big toss

09 – Weather event in West Canyon

10 – Ram in Spearhead

11 – Ram raps off sand

12 – Oregon

13 – Alicia in Neon

14 – Oak Creek Hueco Wall

15 – Amy Hansen rappelling in oak creek

16 – Kate Straney in Zion

Here's the voting. I asked a variety of people (names blocked out) with a variety of viewpoints, and you can see a wide range of opinions expressed. Helpful? Certainly. Definitive? Not at all! (2011 Canyoneering Calendar)

Nick Wilkes was helpful in providing technical analysis of many images, which I chose to ignore when I wanted to (one of the benes of being Emperor)! Tom Wetherell was helpful in analysis, and in helping to clean up a few images.

With little time available, I drew images from my on-computer library. Many of these images came from standard digital point-and-shoot cameras. While many point-n-shoot digital cameras take very good pics for the web, when trying to go to print, more pixels are required. The calendar printing company wants 300 dpi (dots per inch) for printing, thus for the 8-1/2 x 11 page, we 'need' 2500 x 3250 pixels. Kinda. It is questionable whether the printing process can produce 300 dpi, but it is generally understood that the human eye, when young, can only see 180 - 200 dpi. My best digital photo printing shop scans slides and prints at 180 dpi to produce gorgeous fine art prints. Why does this calendar place need 300 dpi? Well, they don't, but I am not in a position to argue with them, so I will send them 300dpi stuff, but the images I draw from only need to be about 1980 x 1530 - which gets them into the range of standard digital cameras.

Quite a few candidate images were P-N-S type - and their quality varies widely. We'll see how they print up when the actual calendars appear.

00 - Front Cover Draft - Jane Arhart rapping in the Pacific NW

While I like this photo a lot, many people did not. It breaks many rules of photography, including having the subject dead-center and being very symmetric. I decided it was not strong enough to be the cover image.

Many people commented they like the image, but that it was repeated as image #3. Maybe I am making it up, but I thought there was a convention that calendars repeat the cover image somewhere in the interior. Thus for the front and back cover, I chose two of the strongest images from inside (that I thought would appeal to canyoneers (front) and non-canyoneers (back).

This shot of Jane taken by Roger, in bright sunlight, is very sharp for a point-n-shoot camera.

01 - Black Hole

We have an-almost-nine-year tradition of swimming the Black Hole on New Year's Day, and more than 100 canyoneers have participated in this event on some level, so I thought this shot of Denise and Bucky swimming the first swim (by Malia) would be a good start.

Low light, point and shoot camera - likely the print quality on this image won't be so hot (oh well). Several people thought the insets were intrusive, so I made them smaller on the final image.

02 - Jane and Roger in the PNW

A salute to Jane and Roger, for all they contribute to the canyoneering community.

Without time to ask for submissions, I drew from photos I had in my collection, these from a trip to the Pacific Northwest a couple years ago with Roger and Jane, which they sent me a disk of. Dan Ransom has better shots, but he was off in Nepal and so I had to go with what I had, which I think will print fine.

03 - Nick Wilkes rapping in Arizona

I was dissappointed to cut this shot, but cut it I did.

Nick helped a lot in putting this calendar together, and this is from a trip we did a couple years ago. I took this shot leaning over the edge, while a few people really liked the shot, it has technical problems that might not show on the web version. There was not all that much light, and the shot has a lot of depth (from 4 feet, the edge of the rock, to 350 feet where the rappel lands), and it is not as sharp as it looks. Additionally, Nick moved a little bit, so his face is fuzzy. While these problems do not negate it for web use, it might not look so hot in print.

I wanted to get a 'big rappel' shot, but did not find one that was suitable. Big rappels are difficult to shoot. I wanted an Arizona shot, but failed to find one that I thought was good enough, in the time available.

04 - Jump in Matacanes, Mexico

Other than in Utah, canyoneering usually involves jumping. Chuy (Jesus) mi amigo from Monterrey sent me a few shots. OK, no Imlay gear visible, some technical problems... but a fun jumping shot nonetheless. Matacanes is SUCH a great canyon!

05 - fly on flowers

Cut!

I've been shooting a lot of flowers this year, so I threw this one into the mix. General opinion was that it is a good shot, just not appropriate for a canyoneering calendar.

And I LOVE the name of the flower - Chrysothamus nauseosus - aka the immensely common Rabbitbrush, to which I am massively allergic. I might do a Zion flowers calendar next year.

06 - Rye Brye Subway Gatorade

Ryan Gardner (RyeBrye on the interwebs) sent me this shot to hold in my library, from a spring Subway trip, and with this whacko water color. Some people objected to the aggro "Rock-Band Stance" as inappropriate to an Eco-Porn calendar. I 'preciate that he found an interesting way to re-think a Subway classic shot.

07 - Ms. Martens in Gravel

From a trip a few years back with Dave and Penny, to Cowboy Canyon and Gravel; and one of the few images that survived "Tom's hard drive meltdown of Dec 2009". I have used this image a lot, but I think it holds up.

One reviewer suggested that I should "pump up" the colors, which I guess has become the new normal. Call me a stick in the mud, but I like images that look pretty much like they looked in real life. I am not against a bit of judicious Photoshop image improvement - but I am not fond of the post-modern pumped-up "look".

One reason I like the Gravel Cyn image is that it did not require pumping up - that is the real thing! Yes, we hit it at a magic moment, for sure!

08 - big toss

A couple years ago I got a call from a Sports Illustrated editor - they wanted to start covering Canyoneering - what was the latest news?

Yeah, "news" in canyoneering - not likely. People descend canyons. Once in a while someone has to cut their arm off, but other than that?

This photo from what might pass for news in the canyoneering world. From our first attempt to descend this remote, very-difficult canyon using ghosting techniques (ie, using no anchor that leaves anything in the canyon). Steve Jackson aka Spiderman making the big potshot tosses (it takes 3) across the rather-large "pit" keeper pothole. On this descent, we almost made it, but ended up using fixed anchors for two rappels near the end.

with the addition of the Sandtrap/Maxi Pad to the anchor arsenal, we completed a ghosting descent of this canyon a month later. Good fun. Full article in the Feb 2010 edition of Sports Illustrated. Well, I guess not.

Oh yeah, the image: without the newsworthiness, not so strong. This was in November, so the light was lame. The canyon itself is pretty awesome, but not awesomely pretty. I could have "punched it up", but without any color to start with, it is hard to punch up what is not there. And the colorful, saturated colors of the helmets tend to keep me honest on that front.

09 - Weather event in West Canyon

caption says: Leprechaun Weather Incident ph: Jennymae West

I harvested this off the Downloads section on my hard drive, thinking it was from Jenny, and it kinda looked like Leprechaun. Jenny was perplexed. Turns out it is West Canyon (part of Glen Canyon) and taken by Guy Smith, and we really have no idea how it got on my machine.

Technically, a mess but... We (canyoneers) rarely get caught by flash floods, and when caught, rarely think about taking photos. I have seen other photos that are OK, but this one really catches the moment! Blurry - yup! Lacking all sorts of technical attributes? Yup!

10 - Ram in Spearhead

Cut!!

Ram is my best friend and primary canyoneering partner, and is featured in a LOT of my photos. He is a regular on the Latest Rave. With his handsome good looks, expressive face and (obviously) tendency to Ham it up for the camera, he is a good model.

This October, we did the second descent of Spearhead Canyon in Zion, which features some really big rappels. I was hoping to get one of these pictures into the calendar, but the light was not so good on that day. This one from Jenny is one of the best, but technically, with the subject centered in both directions, it lacks pizzazz. If I had more pixels, I could finesse the layout - but I don't.

11 - Ram raps off sand

Then again, I think this picture featuring Ram is more interesting. It also has some newsiness - featuring the new SandTrap / Maxi Pad (invented last year by Steve Woodford of Springdale), and used to ghost side canyons of Glen Canyon for the last two years. The light was kind of flat, so I punched the contrast up quite a bit.

I thought it was strong enough to become the new cover shot.

12 - Oregon

Everyone liked this one (well, one exception), and Tom W did an excellent job of getting rid of the flare and tuning it up a bit. This is the only shot on the calendar from the scan of a slide, one I took a couple years ago on a PNW canyoneering trip. What a great canyon!

13 - Alicia in Neon

Tom W sent this to me a while ago, and I think it was a wonderful shot. Some thought it was too cliche, or too similar to Penny in Gravel Cyn. Huh?

This from a Memorial Day trip, 2004.

14 - Oak Creek Hueco Wall

Oak Creek is an amazing canyon adjacent to Zion National Park. A friend of mine jumped through the hoops required to obtain legal access, and invited me along on a trip this last September. I took a lot of pictures, but (and this is my usual excuse ("round up the usual suspects")) the light was not very exciting.

I have to admit, my composition skills in the field are not so well developed. Once I get them to the screen, not so bad. This was a Vertical, cropped into a horizontal, up-contrasted and tinkered with to get the wall texture to jump out.

When uploading the calendar, I suddenly realized (duh!) that I needed a back cover also. I thought this would complement the first shot (Ram off sand) with Ram off sand appealling to canyoneers, and this one being a cool-rock/scenery shot that would appeal to the general outdoorsperson. In other words, eye candy or eco-porn.

15 - Amy Hansen rappelling in oak creek

Cut!!

Ya can't see it here, but Amy's face is a tad bit blurry.

Again, this was a poorly-composed vertical reworked into a mediocrely composed horizontal. I would get her off-center more if I could. I would concentrate a bit more on the composition, next round. Cute gals in canyons IS one of my on-going photo themes.

It does bring up one of the difficulties of canyon photography - vastly improved with digital equipment, but a problem nonetheless. With a wide angle lens, canyons usually present a wide range of of exposure values. Of which the equipment/method can only present a limited range. The eye self-adjusts (remarkable, really)! We see here only the bottom half of the image as captured. The top half is remarkable, but also blown out - too bright. And the bottom half, seen here, was too dark, but recoverable from the digital image.

16 - Kate Straney in Zion

This was perhaps my most controversial choice. Nick helped on this one by bringing up Kate's face which was murky in the original. My psycho-analysis is that some people are put off by the intimacy of this shot - just a little too close...

Interesting in the context of the dialogue between Nick and I. This is a "Nick shot" - these up-close-personal-intimate people shots are what Nick does, and is a style/type of shot that I have been working on after admiring his work from some canyons we did together last fall. So I am very happy to have gotten a good "Nick shot", though I had to crop it down from a more-expansive vertical to get there.

Calendars are available for purchase at the Canyoneering USA store and at selected dealers.

Click Here to Purchase