The Rokinon lens works very well.
To focus on infinity this is the easiest lens to use. Turn the focus ring to the stop and your done. Most other lenses you cannot do that, you have to fiddle with the focus ring to get the stars sharp then use tape to make sure it stays there. Even with the canon 7D crop sensor camera I have, the rokinon 14mm works fine for most astrophotography and is a very affordable lens to buy.

Call Jake at State Farm. We have State Farm and in addition to our regular policy we also have a separate policy for camera equipment. I did some shopping around a few years ago and State Farm’s premiums were very competitive.

Luminar 4 combined with Jim Nix free tutorial series! Easy learning curve, not a subscription service, you can try it for free to see if you like it (that’s true for most photo editing software).

Yes, the exposure compensation adjustment in other posts should work especially with close up face shots. For whole body photos where there may be more background use spot metering on the dog instead of whole scene metering, then see if it requires any exposure compensation. We have an all black grand dog and these techniques seem to work well on him.

Your cell phone will take great photos. You will more than likely have it with you anyway for use with trail and navigating apps and for communication when able. I did the John Muir Trail over a period of 25 days and got wonderful results with my iPhone. I brought along a small solar charger attached to the top of pack. Otherwise I would go for the Olympus TG4 or newer TG5, great point and shoot, dust and waterproof. That many days on the trail, ounces really count in extra weight that you won’t want to carry.

We were there a couple of weeks ago. This was the highlight of our 2 week trip. I would highly recommend Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours. We choose tour number 8 which is a 3 Canyon 3 hour photography tour. Check out their website at navajoantelopecanyon.com
I would highly recommend MacArthur for your guide. Tour number 3 leaves in the morning which would be better, however the one we took in the afternoon was good. We saw upper antelope, rattlesnake and owl canyons. This was the best $150 I have spent in many years. Tripod is required and remote trigger for your camera is very helpful, you cannot bring your camera bag with you, so wear something with lots of pockets and shoot in RAW. The guide was a real expert on camera settings to use, keeps humans out of your photographs and a great overall guide. I shot with a canon 7D using a 10-18 wide angle zoom. ISO was usually set to either 100 or 200 f11 to f16. Exposure times using the above settings in aperture priority mode ranged from 1 second to as high as 30 seconds which was good to pick up more detail in the rock. White balance was set to cloudy which resulted in warmer orange and red color. The Sunshine setting giving you more on the cooler side of light purple in the rocks, both were nice results. A small air spray can would be nice for clearing dust off the lens. I wished I had my telephoto for owl Canyon since we did see a nesting owl higher up on the Canyon wall. The other 2 canyons you will need only the wide angle. Maybe keep the telephoto in the suburban to use later in owl Canyon. They recommend not changing lenses in the canyons due to dust. The guide showed me how to bracket some shots that you could combine later using post processing HDR software.
Have a great trip!!!

The Olympus TG4 is a great camera. We bought one recently for a trip to the Galápagos Islands. This camera has features that rival a lot DSLR cameras. The macro capabilities were very good and we used it underwater snorkeling, and also took a lot of video. The TG4 will shoot in RAW format. I just finished hiking the John Muir trail and the TG4 would have worked well on that hike. My only concern about the TG4 is the battery life, would like to see that better but this was a minor issue overall, but you definitely need an extra battery or 2. If hiking light is a concern and your already taking a smart phone with you, the cameras in the phones work great. That is all I took on the John Muir Trail and it worked out great. I would have loved to have taken my Canon 7D if not for the weight, as you know every ounce counts on through hikes.

Just returned from the Galapagos and other areas of Ecuador. You will not be disappointed. The lens you mentioned will work just fine. I brought my Canon 7D and 2 lenses. A 70-200 F4 which is the equivalent of 112-320 since my camera is not a full frame sensor and a 1.4 extender. Using the extender was great for photos of the smaller birds and on the rare occasion when we we not quite close enough for the larger animals. You will be amazed at how close you will be to most of your subjects. The other lens I used was a 10-18 (16-28 equivalent) for some wide angle shots with close up foreground subjects. 90% of the photos were taken with the telephoto lens.
We also bought an Olympus "Tough TG4" waterproof camera which was fantastic for underwater photos. This also makes for a great backup camera should you have issues with your DSLR. So much of what you will see is underwater. Underwater photos are best taken using wide angle and not using the zoom, the turtles will come close enough most of the time to just stay on wide angle. Videos are best for underwater, happier with those than the still photos. Buy a floating wristband to attach to the Olympus.
An extra battery for each camera is a must, and more memory cards than you think you will use. Hard to find these once you are there. We went through 100 GB of memory cards on the Canon (shooting in RAW) and a full 16 GB on the Olympus.
Have a fun Trip!