- Get a National Parks Pass (now called the "National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Pass" or "Interagency Pass"). One pass covers everyone in your car. If you go to three major parks in a year, you've more than paid for it. What it really does, though, is make it easy to peel off the road and visit a Park without thinking about the cost. Even if you don't use it regularly, you're still contributing to a great cause. To give you an example, we had a busy year touring National Parks in 2003, but we paid $50 and were able to get into $212 worth of National Parks and Monuments. Click here for more info about the pass.

- Always have a good atlas with National Parks and Monuments in your car. Find a good map or an atlas with National Parks prominently indicated. If your family's vacations are generally spent driving to see family, check out a National Parks map to see what's on the way. Squeezing a National Park into the drive will really break up the monotony and give you some great memories. You can't go visit a park if you don't know it's there.

- Buy or check out a good book to help you plan. If you're going to vacation to National Parks, do your homework! There are a lot of books available at your local library to give you tips on places to stay and visit. We've done this for most parks we visit, and it really helps to prioritize your time and ensure you don't miss the hidden treasures.

- Take much more film (or memory sticks) than you think you'll need. Film is cheap, and you don't want to be caught without it when you most need it!

- Take two cameras and extra batteries. We always take our nice camera and a compact or disposable camera as a backup. That way, even if Murphy's Law takes effect on the first camera, you won't miss everything.

- Get your friends and family in your pictures. When taking pictures, try to get your family and friends in at least half the pictures. They'll mean a lot more to you in the long run.

- Wear bright clothes. Besides making it easier to keep eachother in sight on long hikes, wearing bright clothes will really add color to the photos you're in.

- Make a log of the pictures you take. Nothing's more frustrating than the family discussion two weeks after the trip when no one can agree where in the Park the pictures were taken! An extra park map is a good place to keep your log.

- Keep your photo expectations realistic. We can't all be Ansel Adams, and photos will never do justice to the real thing. But that's why you VISIT a National Park instead of just looking at pictures in a book.

- Take water and snacks. Most parks have limited access to food, and trails are long, so a little food and water will help you enjoy yourself longer.

- Don't forget your sunscreen. If your skin has a tendency to burn, nothing will ruin your Park experience quicker than a sunburn.

- Take a light jacket. Even if you're going to Utah in the middle of July, you never know when there's going to be a rainstorm on the trail, and many parks have high elevations where the tempertures can drop significantly from lower elevations.

- Take a small pack. If you take food, water, a camera, film, a jacket and sunscreen, it's nice to have something to put it in when you go hiking. If you don't take a pack, you'll leave your essentials in the car and miss them when you need them.

- Put a small trash bag in your pack. Not only will this help you avoid littering, but it gives you someplace to put other people's litter when you find it on the trail. It doesn't matter how beautiful a National Park is, someone always thinks it's a fine place to litter.

First, let me say that I am by no means a professional photographer! I am an amateur who's picked up a few tricks along the way which have made National Park photography very enjoyable. I have used three different cameras to take the photos you see on this site. Most photos were taken with my film Canon Rebel SLR. A lot of photos from 2004-2008 were taken with a small Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot digital. More recently, I've begun to take photos with a Canon 6.3 megapixel Digital Rebel SLR. The only "fancy equipment" I own is a polarizing filter and a 300 mm zoom lens (which I don't use that often) for the Digital Rebel. All of these cameras and accessories are well within the price range for most National Park tourists. Bottom line: if I can do it, you can do it!

These photos of a hawk in Rocky Mountain NP and a dogwood tree in Shenandoah NP illustrate how using a short depth-of-field mutes the background to accentuate the subject

1) Wildflowers and wildlife. I'll be the first to admit that I'm more of a landscape photographer than a wildlife photographer, but I have learned a few tricks (mainly by reading the tips of professional photographers) that make photos of wildlife and wildflowers more appealing. The key is to make your subject stand out from the background. The easiest way to do this is to lower the depth-of-field to make the background (and sometimes foreground) blurred while the subject is in crisp focus (depth-of-field is the range of distance in a picture where all objects are crisp and not blurry). The depth-of-field is determined by the aperture of the lens--the size of the hole the light is going through before hitting the film or sensor. This is indicated by the "f-stop" on an SLR camera (smaller cameras use different f-stops as well, but they may not be as obvious). A small aperture, indicated by a larger f-stop number (e.g. f22), allows a greater depth of field while a small f-stop number (e.g. f4) limits the depth-of-field. To bring a wildlife or wildflower subject into focus while blurring the rest of the photo, we want to use a larger aperture (small f-stop). A side benefit of a larger aperture is a shorter exposure, so this is ideal for photographing moving wildlife.

Most SLR cameras have an "Av" setting that allows you to set the aperture and have the camera determine the exposure. This is ideal for novices like me who don't want to be fumbling around with light meters. I set the aperture to the lowest f-stop possible (e.g. f4) to limit the depth-of-field. Many compact digital cameras have a "portrait" setting that basically does the same thing. Because you're forcing a quicker exposure, a tripod is usually unnecessary. Just remember, because you won't have much depth-of-field to play with, you'll need to make sure your camera is focused on the right subject before squeezing the trigger, otherwise, you might get a sharp background and blurry subject--no fun. The photos to the right show the results of this technique. The photo of the hawk was taken with a 300 mm zoom lens which tends to shallow the apparent depth by itself. The photo of the dogwood flowers was taken from close-up with an f-stop of 4. Like any technique, play around until you find the results you're looking for.

The photo of Lower Doyles River Falls in Shenandoah NP on the left was taken using the "P" (fully automatic, no flash) setting of a digital SLR camera. The photo on the right was "softened" by using the "Av" (aperture priority) setting at f29.

2) Waterfalls and rushing streams. A great technique to capture moving water in a picture is to use a longer exposure to "soften" the water. If you take a photo of running water using the point-and-shoot settings of your camera, you'll probably end up with a very crisp photo like the first one shown to the right. A softer, more interesting and often more visually pleasing effect can be gained by increasing the exposure time to allow the moving water to blur across the film or sensor. A half second exposure is generally sufficient to achieve this effect, and a longer exposure just softens the water even more. Two ingredients are necessary to pull this off: low light and a still camera. The still camera can easily be gained by using a tripod, or in a pinch, any solid surface. For low light, you'll normally only get this kind of shot on an overcast day or near sunrise/sunset, though I have managed to use shadows on a sunny day to decent effect.

A digital SLR camera makes it easy to adjust the exposure, but most small point-and-shoots will also allow you to adjust the exposure time or aperture (f-stop) if you dig down deep enough into the menus, though the range of options will be somewhat limited. First, turn the flash off. Second, decide whether you want to lengthen the exposure by actually changing the exposure time (usually the "Tv" setting) or by changing the aperture (the "Av" setting). The two are related because the exposure time must go up to compensate for the lower light being let in through a smaller aperture and vice-versa (see more on aperture in the "wildflowers and wildlife" section above). I prefer to set the aperture and let the camera choose the exposure time for many reasons. First, most cameras have a wide range of exposure time options, so the limited number of "f-stops" on the aperture is usually the limiting factor. To get the longest exposure time possible for a normally exposed photo, I'll use the "Av" setting and step the f-stop down to f22, 29 or 32 and let the camera choose the optimal exposure time. To get the best effect, you want the water blurred but everything else to be crisp. This means you'll want to eliminate other moving objects from your photo (e.g. blowing branches). Another way to ensure limited blurring of other objects is to use the timer setting on your camera--this will avoid the camera shake and resulting blur as you click the button. This is a fun technique to play around with, and experimentation is the key!

This photo of the moon over Rocky Mountain NP was done using a 300 mm zoom lens

3) Exaggerated Perspective. You've probably seen dramatic photos where the moon looks like it's 10 times larger than it should be compared to objects on the ground. This is an easy effect to achieve if you've got a zoom lens. The more of a zoom you've got, the more exaggerated you can make your photo, but a normal 200-300 mm lens is sufficient. The trick (and often the most difficult thing to do) is to find a good vantage point that allows you to line up your subjects. From there, its a simple matter of maximizing the zoom and taking the shot.

This technique works well when both subjects are distant because the focus can be set distant, and both subjects can easily be in focus at the same time. If you want to try this technique on one relatively close object and one distant object, you'll probably need to use the aperture priority on your camera (easy with an SLR) to set the aperture to its smallest setting/largest f-stop (e.g. f29) to get a deeper depth of field. Because this will lengthen the exposure, you should consider using a tripod as well to stabilize the photo.

This pano was stiched from five photos using a software program. The camera's built-in panorama assist feature ensured good alignment and consistent exposures

4) Panoramas. Most handheld digital cameras have a "panorama assist" mode. If you want to take a panoramic shot, use it! The panorama assist will help you in two important ways. First, it will lock in the settings so the brightness and color in each of your shots will be compatible with the rest. This will help tremendously when you go to stich them together using one of many panorama programs available. Secondly, it will help you line up your shots. Most cameras assume you will shoot from left to right and will give you a partial "ghost image" of the right half of your last shot to help you line up the next perfectly. Even with this feature, develop a good "line" in your mind for your shots--you don't want to start too high or low and end up cutting off important elements in later photos.

If you're using a camera without panorama assist, you can still take good panoramic photos. First, if you have a wide angle lens that will accomodate the entire scene, consider taking one photo and cropping the excess out later--this is easier and cleaner than photo stitching. If you need to take multiple shots, try the following technique:
1) Determine your line. Visualize your entire panorama, set its left and right bounds and pick a good centerline that will work from start to finish. It is helpful if your centerline matches up with a distintive feature like the horizon that will be visible in all shots. If there's a lot of variance in lighting from left to right in your panorama, you may get better results using manual settings to keep the speed and aperture constant throughout the shots.
2) Start on the left. Line the center of your shot up with the imaginary centerline from step 1 and set the end of the panorama on the left side of your frame.
3) Pick a reference object. As you take the first shot, pick a reference object in your frame about 3/4 of the way across from the left side and somewhere mid-field to background in your image--this can be a rock, a tree, a mountain peak, anything distinctive. After taking the first shot and without taking the camera away from your eye, slide right along the imaginary centerline until your reference object is about 1/4 of the way from the left side of the field-of-view, level your camera with the centerline, and take the shot picking a new reference object on the right side of the frame.
4) Repeat. Repeat step 3 until you've captured your entire panorama. If you've followed your line and used your reference objects well, you should be able to piece together a nice pano. Also, the more overlap you've got between frames, the more options you'll have if one or two frames don't match up well with the rest.

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