arches national park

date of visit: 11/6-8/08

I had been looking forward to my trip to Utah for several reasons: 1) I would be on vacation! Woo-hoo! 2) I had never been to the desert before, & 3) I hoped to have fun getting in some good photography. And I wasn’t disappointed on any of those points. It was nice to be off work, of course. And being there in the desert was an incredible experience. In fact, I was on overwhelm the entire time, because the landscape & environment were so very different than anything I’d previously encountered. And I did enjoy myself immensely as I photographed at some really cool spots during my visit.

Before leaving for Utah, I’d done a bit of research by searching for photos that other folks had shot at Arches National Park. Most were ‘stock’ tourist shots (drive up to viewpoint/parking lot, get out of car & take picture, get back in car and drive on), so I tried to think of some ways I could make my shots stand out a bit from the crowd. Two things I decided to focus on were time of day & foreground interest.

Time of day really has to do with light. The angle/direction of light, and the quality of that light, is so important in photography. That’s why landscape photographers seek to make the most of the ‘magic hours’ at sunrise and sunset. Prior to my trip, I’d looked up the times of sunrise & sunset for the days I would be in Moab. I also found some helpful charts that other photographers had put together, listing the best times (sunrise/early morning, late afternoon/sunset) to get shots of each significant landmark in Arches. With all of this information in hand, plus a map of Arches, I knew precisely what I wanted to shoot & when I wanted to shoot it, even before I left home.

Trying to include some foreground interest is another important consideration in landscape photography. At Arches, your photos will pretty much always be focused on one dominant feature of the landscape (an arch or a unique rock formation), so foreground details will help create a feeling of depth & distance in the image, and add an element of interest to the composition. It was actually pretty difficult finding some interesting foreground to include in my shots at Arches, because there in the desert you’ve basically just got a bunch of rocks & scrawny bushes to work with. But I did what I could. At Arches, sometimes it's actually the background that provides interest, if you get the distant La Sal Mountains in the composition.

The photograph that accompanies this post is a shot of Delicate Arch at sunset. Time of day was important with this shot, since the setting sun bathes the arch in warm red light. You will not get this effect, from this viewpoint, at any other time. And although there’s no foreground interest in the composition (there simply isn’t any to include!), this composition with the La Sal Mountains in the background can only be achieved if you take the trouble to hike up to this spot. You can see Delicate Arch, from a distance, from a viewing area you can drive up to. To get the shot pictured here, however, you have to earn it the old-fashioned way— by making the hike up across the slickrock, up through the sand, up across the ledges, up, up, up… but oh is the view ever worth it!

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. -Rich