Rainbow Canyon is part of the R2508 Special Use Airspace Complex, in Panamint Valley. The Canyon is a part of the much larger Sidewinder Low Level route, and is officially called “Jedi Transition”. Rainbow Canyon itself is also known as Star Wars Canyon. It is said that some movie scenes of the Star Wars movies were shot here.
The Jedi Transition starts just west of Owens Lake at 36.403047,-118.01239. From here aircraft hug the desert floor and pull up just before the canyon to clear higher levels. From there they enter the Canyon at Father Crowley Point, and continue through the Valley and exit the valley 3 miles from Father Crowley point. Most aircraft call up at 315.9 Mhz before entering (only pilot to pilot communication). The direction of flight is published as east-west but we have seen aircraft going the other way. Thanks to Ron for the information.
I put most of the information that I could find in the area on a Google Map – image shared below.
The circled point in the center of the map is Father Crowley Point and car park. On the far left of the map , above the triangle and Owens Lake, is Lone Pine and the Comfort Inn where we stayed. Really nice accommodation, close to the turn you need to take in order to travel to the lookout and parking and about 1.5 miles outside of town. Breakfast was included and free wifi, parking and the usual other pieces. We headed into town each night and went to the local supermarket, Josephs, and got supplies for the following day. The supermarket was usually open till 20:00 each night so we were back from the hills by then.
A typical day ran something like this : get up at 07:00 and get some breakfast, then pack the bag and be in the car and moving by 08:00. The drive across was approx 49 miles from when you turn onto the road. There are mile markers on the side of the road as you are driving and Father Crowley Point is at mile marker 47 – give or take. You keep driving past this to mile marker 49.5 and on the right hand side – just after it – there is as pull out area where we parked the car. The walk to to hilltop takes about 10-15 minutes and then you are in place for the day. It takes about an hour to get from the hotel to the hilltop as traffic is usually light. We had an F/A-18 Hornet pass us the first evening as we were coming home around 18:00 hours and again another morning as we were heading out around 08:40 so traffic is definitely not restricted to 9-5 in the Canyon.
On Monday, we were caught napping with a pass from an F-15E Strike Eagle westbound at around 10:00. It being our first day, and not having a scanner, we just waited. The Eagle flew through and I did not get any shots of the first pass but he saw us and exited the Canyon beyond Father Crowley Point and came back through for us – East bound. This time we were ready …
Early morning and later in the afternoon are probably the best times of the day to shoot but one cant be picky when you travel from Ireland to this great location. All in all we had 7 passes on Monday, 8 on Tuesday, 9 on Wednesday and 6 on Thursday. It was spring break and Easter Week so that might have cut back on the amount of flying in and around the area – I don’t know – but I was grateful for all the passes that went through.
Early afternoon and this camo F-15C came through and I had the shutter speed down a tad too low for the capture. The image is here for show more than anything else …
We had several F/A-18 Super Hornets and I think some Hornets or Legacy Hornets also when we were there …
We had a special visit from an X53 NASA modified F/A-18 on the last morning also – the pass was high but I included the images here for show more than anything else. A C17 came over the hill to the right of Father Crowley Point also and dropped down into the Valley – impressive and huge…
They can be seen in the Photo Gallery for the trip along with some other nice shots from the excursion.
Below is a collection of the most recent articles , galleries and blogs on the site – feel free to look through them and let us know what you think!
Photo Hides CUCKOO – LAOIS Cuckoo morning session Early one morning at the start of June I decided to go and try to get some photos of the Cuckoo. I reached out to the Irish Photo hides and made a booking for myself to go and try and get some shots of the cuckoo. The…
A short trip report fro m a recent trip to Finland where I went looking for Eagle owls and Goshawks near Oulu. The trip was a great sucess !
This image was taken on a nice cool morning when the temperature was -18.5 degrees Celsius according to the van out to the lekking grounds. We got up around 5am and were collected by our guide Eero around 5:20. We drove 15-20 minutes outside of Vaala in Finland to where the lekking ground were. It was late March, early April when we were there. It was about 1km from the road into the lekking site so some of us took the snow machine with Eero and the rest of us walked. By the time we were all together again, the three hides were prepared and we entered and got ready for the birds to arrive. We took off our boots after we entered and had a sleeping bag to keep our feet warm. The birds arrived with 30 minutes - they just appear out of nowhere. Generally they are pretty far away at the start and they come closer to the hide then and start lekking - a mating ritual of sorts between the different males vying for the attention of the females in the group.
This shot was taken near the end of the time in the hide - the sun had come up behind the hides and cleared the trees and started to throw some nice light on the birds in front of us. I shot this with the 500mm again but I did not need that range for the final display and fights between the birds - 200-300mm would have been plenty - even on a full frame camera. There was no needs for tripods as we were down on our bellies at eye level with the birds and using the supports that were in the hide - namely bean bags or portable discs with 1/4 in screws in them for the bodies of the cameras to go in. I compensated for the snow and light by adding +1.33ev to the camera's metering adjustments.
Another image from one of the other lads on the trip can be seen here
Equipment used:
Camera:Canon 1D Mark IV
Lens: Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS + 1.4x Extender (Effective focal length 700mm)
Wimberly head attached to mounting plate in the hide
EXIF: ISO 1000 f/5.6 1/1000 +1.33ev 700mm
So in early December 2013, myself and my brother headed to Antarctica to reach the 7th continent – and discover what it had to offer. Packing was a bit of a chore for this trip but I finally decided to take the following gear. Once we get into Buenos Aires, we spent a day here looking around and sight seeing before flying on to Ushuaia. We had already visited Buenos Aires in 2008 with the lads so we were kinda familiar with the place and area. We stayed at NH9 de Julio in the City Center. Nice hotel, clean, centrally located and within walking distance of several of the main attractions. We did a sight seeing tour with the hop-on hop-off local bus tour company and walked around the city to get some air and see it for ourselves. The following morning, we had an early flight from the national airport to Ushuaia. People were coming out of the nightclub at 05:00 when we were en-route to the airport – it only took us about 20 minutes to get from the city center to the airport. We checked in, dropped off the bags without any problems even though we were over the weight limit and settled in to wait for the onward flight. Three and a half hours later and we were touching down in Ushuaia and getting transferred to our hotel – Del Bosque Apartment Hotel. Once we had checked in we went out for a walk to get our bearings and look around the city – small enough but tidy. We had our first trip later on that evening to go looking for Beavers.
We were collected at 18:00 to head out to the park where the Beavers are located. The tour company – Comapa Tourism – had the driver and guide collect us at the hotel and we drove for around 30-40 minutes to the site entrance. Details on the website are as follows:
BEAVER WATCHING
Total duration: 4 hours.Hiking: 1 Hour.
Includes: transportation / hiking / meal.
Equipment: rubber boots and raincoat.
Minimum: 2 pax.
Departure from the hotel towards the valley. Arrival at the refuge located in a privileged place with a panoramic view. After putting on our rubber boots we start hiking. The area is the ideal habitat for those lovable creatures and by crossing several dams we will have the opportunity to watch some of these wild beavers. Hot drinks will be provided.
Later we will return to the shelter where we have the option of either having a meal. Return to Ushuaia.
We got back to the hotel at 22:00 that night and were happy as we had some beaver images as well as upland geese and a meal – a good start to the trip.
The following day we headed into Tierra Del Fuego for a 1/2 day train journey to “Fin del Mundo” or the end of the world. We hired a local company to bus us out to the train – purchase the train tickets for us and then collect us on the other side. I think that the train ride is approx 40-45 minutes long and it is only ok – you do not really see a lot of cool stuff and you are just on the edge of the National Park – you have to go a lot deeper into it to see the really good stuff. But if you have 1/2 day to spare it is worth doing I think. More details can be found here.
The following morning we did what we probably the best trip of the journey to date – 4 hour horse riding tour in and along the boundary of the National Park. We were collected at the hotel and taken to the ranch – 20-30 minutes drive away. We got saddled up and headed out for the excursion. Definitely bring wet pants with you as even if it is not raining you will be going through scrub and trees and brush for the journey and you are going to get wet. We had some rain but for the most part it was really enjoyable and really really peaceful. We stopped after two hours and had some tea and sandwiches and just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery, vistas and the peace. We headed back to Ushuaia and relaxed for the afternoon.
The following morning we headed for Harberton ranch via the road network where we got our first introduction to the different penguin colonies in the area. Only a set number of people can visit the ranch per day, and in doing so, take a boat out to the penguins on the island and walk amongst them. This is truly rare and something that I would recommend. A lot of tours out of Ushuaia will operate down to the area but cannot land on the islands. Harberton ranch itself is the only one that will allow you to walk amongst them – for a price!
We arrived back into Ushuaia and headed back to the hotel as we were checking out tonight and heading to the Los Nires hotel where we were going to stay before embarkation tomorrow at 16:00. The following morning, we relaxed and did some sight seeing near our new locations before heading into town to get on with our journey to the White Magnet.
Be sure to check out our recent reports from the other trips that we have done around the world.
Morocco, Casablance and the Sahara photo gallery Duration: 10 days, 9 nights Location: Morocco, Africa Budget: $1750 Miles Travelled: 1970KM Days: 10Dates: 22nd March 2018 to 31 March 2018Tour Company: Morocco Round Trips Currency: Dirham (10.7:1 exchange rate)Time…
So this trip came about because the Tokyo marathon and Japan excursion was cancelled due to the Covid-19 or Corona Virus pandemic. We got notice approximately two weeks before we were due to travel that the marathon was cancelled so we set about looking planning an alternative destination – and that destination was Tunisia.
The Jedi Transition starts just west of Owens Lake at 36.403047,-118.01239. From here aircraft hug the desert floor and pull up just before the canyon to clear higher levels. From there they enter the Canyon at Father Crowley Point, and continue through the Valley and exit the valley 3 miles from Father Crowley point.
So if you are lucky enough to be going to Antarctica then all I can say is "Well done" as I know that it is a place that few people will get to travel to in their lifetime. It is an expensive excursion and one that few people will attempt to take on. In fairness, there are easier ways to spend 10-15K USD right.
But enough of that - you are here because you are thinking "How much camera gear do I take with me" or "What camera gear do I take with me" on this Epic Trip 😉
Well I was lucky enough to get out here in December 2013 with my brother and all I can say it that we were really blessed with weather, travel locations and ship routes etc. I will fill you in on what I took on the trip and will hopefully write another article on the actual trip itself in due course.
So I am going to make a few assumptions here before going any further - namely that you are a Semi-Pro or Professional photographer or a budding up and coming photographer with a lot of gear and cant decide on what to take.
I found another article online this morning that relates to the bag that I took - a Guru Gear 32L bag. There is more information here on the bag and what is included in it. Nice light reading.
I created a document that I spliced together from several different sources on the Internet and books on what gear to bring. I was also fortunate enough to have some friends that headed out there in January 2013 - a main reason that we headed out there in December actually.
So what did I bring and what did I leave behind and what did I regret taking/not taking on the trip.
Camera Bodies
Lenses:
Accessories:
The majority of this gear went into the Guru Gear bag - as seen above. It all packed away nice and neatly and there was no problem anytime getting the bag into any of the overhead storage units on any of the flights. Weight wise it was probably coming in around 14-15kg in weight but I took a chance and hoped that it was not going to be weighed. If I had to pay at the airport I was willing to do that - safer than checking it in.
I did have another small padded day bag that I used when in the cities and walking around the place for sightseeing in Buenos Aires and Ushuaia. I put some of the cables and battery chargers in here and checked those in as they were safe enough and I would be ok if they did not make it down for a few days.
So here are some questions that I think might be of interest to people that are traveling and hopefully the answers will help you decide on what to bring and what to leave behind. Again this is just my opinion and what worked for me at the end of the day - it is not necessarily the best or worst idea out there - it is just an opinion.
Q: Do you really need a tripod?
A: I think that a light one is useful. There was two of us and we shared the use of it between us. On the boat I got a bit more use out of it that I thought. I used it a lot with the GoPro to just shoot timelapse or footage from different angles and aspects of the boat. We also camped so we got to use it then and also in Ushuaia. Dont bring a big heavy tripod - take some travel worthy and light and it should come in handy.
Q: Did you use the rain covers ?
A: I did use them at the start a lot - just being cautious. We were really lucky with the weather. I took off the covers after a day or two as I did not need them any more. I also had a neoprene cover for the camera body but never used it. It is a good idea but the battery life is really good in the 1D models so I did not need it. It also makes adjusting settings a lot more awkward and if there is a humpback whale or leopard seal or penguin active near you - the last thing you want it try to change aperture or ISO setting through a cover and protective layer and then with gloves on. Pack them - have them there just in case but use sparingly. If the weather is nice then you are good. If there is snow out then take it with you.
Q: How many memory cards did you take with you?
A: Me personally I think I had nearly 200GB of memory cards, 4x32GB, 4x16GB and some 8GB SD cards and several 4GB cards. All worked fine for me for the trip and I probably shot close to 130GB of images or 5100 odd images in the space of the two weeks that we were away. We had a laptop with us, so we backed up the cards each evening to our external HD's and left the cards with the images also so we had a secondary backup just in case. Then on the last day we copied all the folders to the other persons HD so there was a third backup - just in case. All worked out nicely now thankfully.
Q:Do you really need a laptop?
A: I personally think it is a good idea. First you can use it to backup your images when you want. I know there are computers on the boat but they are in use a lot of time so access can be restricted. It is nice to be able to backup your data when you want. It is also a good idea to have some TV Shows or Movies with you to look at in case you need to pass the time on the Drake Passage or something - you might be under the weather and need something to take your mind off things.
Q:Did you use a CIR Polariser a lot ?
A: Once we got down to continental Antarctica itself I did put it on the 70-200 and the 24-70 and used it for shots of the ice, water reflection and landscape shots. I think that it is no real weight to carry and it does come in handy when you are down there so take it and use it .