Eastern Pinal Regional Coalition Against Domestic Violence (EPRCADV)

Update:

We wrote on August 12th about the raffle being held in support of the EPRCADV and our efforts in donating an artist proof 30x60 of Desert View Panorama.

Tickets went on sale September 1st and while we haven't gotten a count of how many have been sold we have been told by the organizers that they feel they'll have no problems selling all 250.

We're getting ready for another trip however we wanted to share with you that the tickets have gone on sale and that the EPRCADV has been receiving great feedback regarding the raffle. The drawing for Desert View will be held Saturday December 17, 2011. Please note that EPRCADV is a non-profit organization with 100% of the proceeds going to help the Coalition.


The points of contact for the EPRCADV and raffle are:

Linda Kadlecek  520-487-2355

Edie Crall         520-825-3738

Ken Conrad      520-818-0336


Please remember the winner has the sole responsibility of and transport.

We'll continue updating as we get more information.


Sandy & Don

Marble Canyon & North Rim

Colorado River

 Canon 1DsIII f/11 1/100 ISO 50 EF24-70 (48mm)

Marble Canyon is the section of the Colorado River canyon from Lee's Ferry to the confluence with the Little Colorado River and marks the beginning of the Grand Canyon.

New Navajo Bridge

Canon 1DsIII f/11 1/100 ISO 50 EF17-40 (17mm)

We've stayed at the Marble Canyon Lodge many times and have written about the lodge and restaurant there. The Navajo Bridge is located within walking distance of the lodge and has a long history as being the only roadway crossing the Colorado River and Grand Canyon for nearly 600 miles (970 km).

View from the Navajo Bridge

The Colorado River

Leica M9 f/16 1/250 ISO 500 Summarit 90mm

The intent of this trip was to stay at the North Rim spending several days capturing the beauty of this side of the Grand Canyon. We normally don't visit the Grand Canyon in the summer and rarely the North Rim and were looking forward to a stay at on the rim view cabins. The plan was to arrive on Monday and depart on Friday thus allowing us numerous occasions to capture sunsets and sunrises. We ended up leaving after only one-night. We fully expected rustic accommodations and weren't disappointed. What disappointed us was the total lack of any view of the rim other than through the thick foliage. We also weren't expecting to share our cabin infested with mice and a bathroom toilet that wouldn't stop running. In short, we can not recommend staying at the North Rim Lodge. While our trip was cut short we haven't given up on the North Rim and expect to return; this time staying outside the park as we've done before.

North Rim Sunset

Canon 1DsIII f/4  1/160 ISO50 EF24-70 (70mm)

North Rim Sunset

Canon 1DsIII f/4 1/200 ISO 200 EF24-70 (64mm)

North Rim Sunset

Canon 1DsIII f/4 1/200 ISO 200 EF24-70 (51mm)

 

Driving along Route 89 we saw beautiful clouds to the west and decided to stop at Marble Canyon to photograph the Navajo Bridge as well as have an early lunch at the lodge.  We can truthfully say we've never had a bad meal at the lodge and recommend both the lodge and restaurant.

 

North Rim Sunset

Leica M9 f/4.8 1/750 ISO 160 Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 

North Rim Sunset

Leica M9 f/1 1/500 ISO160 Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 

 North Rim Sunset

 Leica M9 f/11 1/500 ISO1000 Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 

Don kept testing the limits of the new Voigtlander 50mm f/1.1 this time with a Hoya Pro1Digital FND x16 (4 stop) filter. Sandy used her Canon 1DsIII using primarily the 24-70mm lens.

Sandy

Leica M9 f/16 1/500 ISO 1000 Voigtlander Nokton 50mm

Don

Canon 1DsIII f/11 1/100 ISO 50 EF24-70 (52mm)

Leica M9 f/16 1/500 ISO1000 Voigtlander Nokton 50mm

Note: Don's found the metadata to be extremely erratic even when having the lens selected to the recommended lens.  Also, all Voigtlander Nokton 50mm images were shot using the Hoya filter.

Thank you as always for visiting and stay tuned for more.

Sandy & Don

Metadata regarding the lens used has been added to the entry concerning "Is the M9 a serious Landscape Camera"

And one last fun image taken on the road in front of the Marble Canon Lodge.

A bugs view

Droid X2 & photography

I recently replaced my old Blackberry with a Droid X2; anyone following us on Face Book has seen the mobile uploads. The camera is advertised as being 8-megapixels and that got me wondering. Just how good is it.

We recently took a trip to the North Rim stopping in Sedona before crossing the Navajo Bridge. The original trip was to last several days at the North Rim while staying at the North Rim Lodge. The trip was cut short by several days since we didn't like the idea of spending close to $200 a night only to have to sleep in a cabin that was infested with mice. But I digress. I want to show a sampling of images that were taken with the Droid X2 along the trip.

Sedona

This is the original image taken with the camera

Same image after processing in CS5 & Nik Software and cropped.

Navajo Bridge

Image processed in CS5 and cropped.

North Rim

Original non-processed image other than a crop

After image; processed in CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro and cropped.

While the images appear to be clear and sharp I doubt that they would hold up to printing the size we normally display images. They are however good examples of just how advanced we've become in phone-camera technology.

I'm working on images we took with our regular gear and should have something to share shortly. I'm also working on identifying the lenses used on the last entry "Is the M9 a serious Landscape Camera?"

Don