Eroded Formations, Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Wildly eroded sandstone formations in morning light at Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.
During our early-April week-long visit to Utah, I discovered several things. For one, Utah is an amazing place to do photography. I just wish I had gone there much sooner – but now I’ll certainly have to return. For another, it is a big place and no one-week visit could possibly do it justice. Our main focus was on Zion during the first part of the trip, and then the area around Moab, including Arches and Canyonlands, for the second part. This meant that in between we unfortunately had to pass by some beautiful places with barely time to look at all. (Though we did get a chance to see a handful of such places enough that we know we want to return to them.)
One of the places that we only visited very briefly was Bryce Canyon. In a state full of visual superlatives, this is yet another almost unbelievable location with its high central area dropping off to lowlands by means of the famous rugged cliffs. We were in the park literally on a few hours and during more or less the middle of the day. Fortunately, there were some high clouds – and this was enough to soften the potentially harsh midday sun a bit. One thing I’ve come to look for when shooting in terrain like this – steep towers separated by narrow gullies – is the light the is reflected from the sunlit side of the towers into the shaded portions. It can produce a wonderfully colorful glow. To get this, it is necessary to shoot a bit later, when the sun is high enough to shine down into these gullies. It is also a good idea to shoot into the sun, with the subjects back-lit, as I did here.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.