A Return To Arches
In March, I spent a week touring Utah with short stints into Northern Arizona. It was a great trip, no matter how unrealistic the goals. Ya see, I wanted to photograph Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Dead Horse State Park, Monument Valley, Horseshoe Bend, AZ, Lower Antelope, AZ, Zion National Park, Bryce National Park and Escalante-Grand Staircase and I wanted to do all of that in a week. Ha!
The main driver for my April return to Arches national Park was to capitalize on a recent opportunities missed. On one of those missed opportunities, I attempted a star trail image with Delicate Arch in the foreground. On this particular attempt, I decided I was going to try a different method of capturing the image as compared to images past. On this attempt, I was going to try to capture 1.5 hours of image in a single exposure. The idea was to limit the amount of action my camera had to endure while still getting the image I was looking for. The process works fine, tho is a bit risky if you get your settings wrong…... which I did. I had perfect conditions, had the entire arch to myself and blew it, literally. I blew out my highlights which happened to be the entire Milky Way. Below is the result of those settings being wrong, in particular, my ISO was set too high.
A vertical Milky Way, blown out, behind Delicate Arch
This more recent April trip found me arriving late in the evening after a seven-hour drive from Monument, CO. Having checked on the night’s conditions earlier, I knew that the moon was going to be setting around 0330 with the Milky Way’s Galactic Core setting around 0450. To me, that sounded like almost an hour and a half of opportunity, but first I had to catch a few ZZZs while the moon was high.
Milky Way as seen through Delicate Arch
With the moon now set, it was time to being this adventure. On this trip to Delicate Arch, and under a night’s sky, I was determined to not repeat the mistake I made on my last attempt. After considering what I wanted out of this shoot, which was a single image of the Arch lit up with low intensity lighting as well as a star trail image that included the Milky way, I decided to set my camera’s exposure to just shy of where you could see the star’s motion blur. From here, I set my intervalometer to shoot continuously until interrupted. This allowed me the opportunity to stack all of the images in order to get star trails as well as the ability to pull out any one single image in an effort to display the Milky Way behind the arch without any motion blur.
Now, honestly, I do not recommend shooting star trails with the Milky Way in view. The reason is, I do not like the blurry section caused by the motion of the galactic dust moving throughout the different frames. Compare the above Milky Way shot to the star trail shot below. They are both from the same exact shoot. The Milky Way shot (above) is merely a single image pulled from the star trail stack seen below and slightly cropped.
Milky Way Star Trails behind a lit Delicate Arch
Notice (above) the Milky Way’s blur, from the Left Upper Corner of the image down towards the Lower Right Corner. I left this image uncropped in an effort to show the Milky Way blur in its entirety. I show this image in an effort to highlight the effect that star trails have when the Milky Way is included in the frame. This blur is unsightly to me. I’d much rather have Polaris, as a focal point, in the image’s background versus the Milky Way. This is a recommendation I make when teaching night photography. Tho, to each their own.
With the Milky Way shoot at delicate Arch complete, it was time to hike back to the vehicle and catch a few ZZZs before sunrise, which happened to also be a shot that I was here to “retake” in the hopes that conditions were better than the last attempt.
Sunrise at Turret Arch through North Window Rock
As previously mentioned, and as seen above, I previously went to the Windows area in an effort to photograph the iconic glow of the morning’s sunrise coming off of the North and South Window Rocks. As luck would have it, this particular morning ended up being overcast which lent itself to a nice pastel morning sunrise instead of the strong glow I was searching for. On this current trip, I decided I’d make another attempt at the glowing shot I was in search of.
The morning sunrise’s glow off of the North and South Window Rocks
Standing exactly where I was the last time I shot in this area, I stood awaiting the morning sun’s kiss. Before long, I was joined by a few other photographers as well as quite a few sunrise seekers. It is during these times that you’ve got to remind yourself that this is a National Park and that everyone has the same right to be there as you do; a point that I had to remind a fellow photographer who decided he’d yell across the canyon in an effort to get people to move out of “his” shot during the peak glow timeframe. This is where you’ve simply got to be both decent at photography and photography editing. With the access to cameras these days, the severe uptick in the number of individuals flocking to iconic sites has sharply increased and shows no signs of slowing. Pack your patience. Use this as a reason to become fluent in your favorite editing software.
Speaking of editing, the image above has had ZERO saturation added to it. The glow off of the rocks, as seen from the shadows, is simply stunning and I highly recommend anyone go see this highly accessible spectacle. With that being said, many will not be able to get to the exact vantage point that I have in this image as it is quite the climb. Many others will not be able to climb down through the North Rock Window itself. If you cannot make this climb, have no fear as all is not lost. Simply take the longer route around both the North and South Window Rocks and follow the myriad of trails that wrap around the backside of the Windows Section. If it is the glow of the sunrise off of the East side of the Windows that you are looking for, you should be able to see if from this area.
One last look back at the Sunrise at North Window Rock ** Prints Available **
As I was putting away my camera and envisioned one last shot involving the sunrise. I wanted to cross through the Window and shoot back towards the sun. With the morning becoming nothing but older, and people seemingly showing up by the busload, I scrambled into position and snapped the image as soon as the sun was in position. The entire image is dependent upon the position of the sun. With that being said, there is no concern of the people or things in your shot. The original image contained two backpacks and one individual.
Time To Kill
Between the morning’s sunrise and the evening’s sunset, I was itching to shoot. Often times, the daytime sunlight is a bit harsh for my taste. With that in mind, I headed off to Corona Arch as I thought I’d have my best opportunity to either block out the harshness of the afternoon sun or, if nothing else, shoot a black and white and use the harsh sunlight to my advantage.
Behind The Scenes at Corona Arch
Talk about a busy place. Walking up to Corona Arch, it looked as if someone kicked over a human ant pile. People were everywhere! It is times like this, as mentioned previously in the North Rock Window image, when you’ve got to take what you are given, decide what you want and figure out how you can best blend the two. With a tripod and consistent lighting, getting a decent image of a landscape should be pretty straight forward regardless of the number of individuals in your frame. Tho, getting a decent image with no people in it can be made a lot easier if those people are moving from one shot to another. More on that later.
Corona Arch and surrounding area
It is easy to see why this is such a highly visited spot. The views are gorgeous and the arch itself is quite large. Add to that the fact that the hike is more challenging than many, with its many cairns, cable holds and ladders, and you end up with quite a prized view once it is finished.
