Shooting Camps in Southern Utah
(Part Two)

 by Michael and Allison Goldstein 

 

 Printer Friendly Page

 

 

This sort of photo is quintessential Monument Valley imagery - it’s “destination specific”, in that almost everybody will immediately recognize its location.  The foremost butte is the “main subject”, predominant in the frame, occupying an intersection of thirds. Secondary buttes offer a “repetition of pattern”. As the foreground overlaps the background, a dynamic composition is created, augmented by all of the buttes breaking the horizon. The fact that the tops of the various buttes form a diagonal across the frame hurts not at all.  This is late afternoon light, where a polarizing filter was used to saturate the colors.

We’ve been shooting at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, as well as Coral Pink Sands State Park, while we explore southwestern Utah. Now it’s time to pick up a cache of extra film (that we arranged to have waiting for us in Kanab) and head east to Capitol Reef National Park. Our route of choice is Highway 12, an amazingly scenic route through high country that takes us over “Hell’s Backbone.”  Photography here is difficult, because it’s not easy to compose with a foreground, but the views are fabulous.

 

We climb over Boulder Mountain just outside the town of Torrey, Utah.  The mountain is covered in aspen forests and, in the autumn, turns yellow and gray.  We can spend a whole day on the mountain, shooting yellow trees with white trunks against the dark blue sky.  Photography doesn’t get any better than this.  Here, we employ the same techniques we used shooting red trees in the Northeastern autumn--back lighting, polarizing filters, isolated compositions, and close-ups on a cloudy day without any visible sky.

 

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK

 

Our shooting camp for Capitol Reef is the Best Western Capitol Reef Resort, the closest accommodation to the park. They offer a huge swimming pool, the Red Cliffs restaurant, and laundry facilities. (You have to do something when the sun is high.)  Even the scenery from your motel balcony merits a few exposures.

 

We save our efforts for early morning and late afternoon. The effect of low-angle lighting on Southwestern scenery is so fantastic, we discard images made at midday. The exception to the no-midday-shooting rule is flowering cacti in the spring, as the blossoms open only after the sun is high and the day has warmed.  However, don’t put your camera away after the sun has dropped below the horizon.  Many of those fantastic Utah images you’ve seen were done with ten-second exposures, the rocks reflecting the last pink light of a western sunset.

 

Capitol Reef National Park offers good “drive-by shooting” opportunities, both on the scenic drive and on the main road through the park (Highway 24).    The route to Hickman Natural Bridge is a worthwhile hike. You can climb up and under the bridge, in order to shoot back through it, framing rocks and skyline. This is a good shoot both early and late in the day.

 

Incidentally, if you’re in Capitol Reef (or any of the Southwestern parks) in the spring, you’re going to find an astonishing array of wildflowers. If you enjoy macro photography, arm yourself with botanic reference books, so you can identify the plants you’re shooting. (We use Wildflowers of Southwestern Utah, and the National Audubon Society’s Pocket Guide to Familiar Flowers of North America West.)

 

GOBLIN STATE PARK

 

Goblin State Park can be reached with an easy side trip during the drive from Capitol Reef to Moab, Utah. However, detouring there during the drive always places you on-site after the sun is high.  Goblin is a huge collection of whimsical rock formations, most of them less than ten feet high, and a great place to visit. If you can deal with a two-hour round trip, head there from Capitol Reef in the late afternoon, returning to Torrey after dark. Photographs made in high contrast lighting will be “record shots.”

 

ARCHES / CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARKS

 

The town of Moab, one of the larger in southeastern Utah, is our favorite place to hang our hats while visiting Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.  There are several motels on the main drag.  We hole up at the less expensive of the two Best Western Inns.  Just down the street are two excellent Italian restaurants, as well as Tom Till’s photographic gallery.  For compositional inspiration, don’t miss seeing Tom’s work.

 

If you have only a short time in Moab, concentrate on shooting at Arches National Park, which lies only a ten-minute drive away.  Canyonlands is easily forty minutes distant and is vast. While most attractions in Arches are easily accessible by car, Canyonlands generally requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a knowledgeable guide. (The exception is Mesa Arch, well worth the trip at sunrise and sunset.  Be prepared to share space with lots of other tripod drivers.)  You’ll find acres of flowering prickly-pear cacti, both the yellow and magenta varieties, just outside the Canyonlands entrance gate in late spring. This is a super midday photographic destination.

 

Double Arch was photographed in Arches National Park. Two hikers arrived at a propitious time and location, just as the tripod was set up, to provide scale and human interest.    The image was slightly over-exposed so as to show the detail in the surrounding rocks. The darker arch was superimposed over the brighter background arch for impact.

One of the prime photo opportunities at Arches is Delicate Arch. You can get optically close to it by taking the “short” hike (Delicate Arch Viewpoint Trail), up a quick rise, then over easy ridges of rock to good telephoto range. Afternoon is best on a clear day.  You can get physically close by taking the “long” hike of several miles over a demanding trail with drop-offs that vertigo will not tolerate.  Don’t make this trip unless you’re prepared to stay to shoot at sunset and walk home in the dark.

 

To come home with memorable shots from Arches, be sure to situate a person for scale when you can and use the arches to frame other scenes.  It’s a good idea to peruse photo books of the area to gather ideas for possible compositions.

 

MONUMENT VALLEY

 

The only place to stay when you’re visiting Monument Valley is Goulding’s Lodge, so close to the Valley that you can snap memorable sunrise photographs from your motel balcony. Goulding’s is so famous, it appears on the Arizona state map, even though it’s in Utah!  Goulding’s offers various tours of the Valley and boasts the only civilized dining experience within many miles, so there really is no other choice. The story goes that truckers used to come from other states just for the Thursday night beef ribs special.  You think Duke Wayne and John Ford made all those movies in Monument just because of the pretty rocks?

 

You can find some grand images in the Valley by driving the tourists’ dirt road that winds down from the Visitor Center, but for a memorable experience, hire a photography-savvy Navajo guide and his four-wheel-drive. You’ll photograph arches and other formations you might otherwise have missed.

 

Be sure to visit Mystery Valley at sunset.  Take your flash to photograph Susie Yazzie in her hogan, and spend one sunrise and one sunset at the sand dunes with The Totem in the background. Put your camera away during the middle of the day, and don’t come back for supper before dark.

 

Contacts:

 

Best Western Capitol Reef Resort, Torrey, UT

(435) 425-3761

 

Best Western Greenwell Inn, Moab UT

(435) 259-6151

 

Goulding’s Lodge

http://www.gouldings.com/

(435) 727-3231

 

Wildflowers of Southwestern Utah

by Dr. Hayle Buchanan

ISBN 1-56044-074-0

Published by Bryce Canyon National History Association, Inc.

Bryce Canyon, UT 84717

 

Familiar Flowers of North American West

by Richard Spellenberg

ISBN 0-394-74844-1

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, NY

 

>>>>More Photos