Shooting Camps in Southern Utah
(Part One)

 by Michael and Allison Goldstein 

 

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

 

The hiking trails in Bryce Canyon National Park wind down and around the hoodoos, so that walkers are right up close and personal with the geology.  This photo was made from the Rim Trail during the middle of the afternoon in late May, as it takes a long time for the sun to rise high enough to light this area.

The alarm clock wakes us thirty minutes before dawn, the bright stars just beginning to fade from the clear sky.  We throw on lots of warm layers (sunrise at ten thousand feet is always cold!), lace up our hiking boots, and grab tripods and cameras.  Five minutes later, we’re looking out over Bryce Canyon.

 

A good holiday needs lots of planning. If it involves visits to desirable photographic locations, we want to schedule around the “sweet light” of dawn and dusk.  Being close to the action is very important.  Some photographers camp in their cars.  However, many of us are visiting with wives, girl friends, and/or kids who may have little interest in making images at sunrise. Their needs must be met, or the holiday is bound to be a disaster.  Sleeping in the car, in this case, is out of the question.

 

We’ve chosen to stay at the Bryce Canyon Lodge (make your reservations yesterday), the only accommodations available at the rim. Our cabin is comfortable and quiet, and the lodge food is great.  When the light is high and harsh, we can take a trail ride or a bus tour, enjoy a variety of wonderful hiking trails, or tour the scenic drive of the rim with its various overlooks.

 

We make a few exposures of the Canyon hoodoos before the sun hits them, hoping the film will respond to the salmon colors of the subdued light. (We’re shooting Fuji Velvia and have been amazed in the past at how this film reacts to dawn conditions.)  The sun peeps above the horizon as we walk the Rim Trail.  We come upon another early-riser, hunched over his tripod, his telephoto lens aimed out across the canyon, his silhouette outlined with rim lighting.  (Galen Rowell would have approved.)

 

Sunrise at Bryce Canyon is unique in that most of the good light is reflected from rock surfaces adjacent to those we’re shooting.  It’s like bouncing the sunlight from a huge pink reflector. This causes the pink-and-white rocks to take on a fluorescent quality, as though constructed of alabaster.  The effect is most noticeable in spring and summer when the morning sun is far to the east. Walk toward the sun, instead of away from it, and keep the sun out of your compositions. The effect is magical.    (The colored rocks at Bryce Canyon, with their eye-catching bands of pink and white, are Tertiary lake deposits of the Claron formation and are not unique to Bryce Canyon.  Descriptions of these and other geological structures can be found in the Roadside Geology of Utah, a publication that will enhance your visit.)

 

Plan to carry your camera down among the hoodoos.  Hiking in Bryce Canyon is a marvelous experience. You can frame other hikers with arches, and position trees and rock hoodoos against the sky.  Be sure to consider a scale reference when shooting the towering formations.  The trails are steep, so carry your lighter carbon-fiber tripod, and take lots of water. Try using a blue/yellow Cokin polarizing filter (P057) to enhance the glowing effect of the rocks against the blue sky.  Rotate the filter slowly until the rocks just begin to glow, and the color of the blue sky lightens.  Sometimes the effect is gaudy, but at other times, it makes for an eye - popping image.

 

(Note: During our shoots in Utah, we often refer to The Photo Traveler’s Guides to Southeast and Southwest Utah. They offer maps, photo op locations, directions, and--in at least one case--instructions on where not to go.)

 

Coral Pink Sands State Park

 

This image was made using a 500mm mirror lens (small, and easily packed!), from the viewing stand by the parking lot, at Coral Pink Sands State Park. The human figure provides a good sense of scale, and is placed at an intersection of thirds to catch the eye.   No filters were used on the lens. The image was made in the last light of the day, with two thunderstorms bracketing the Park while we were shooting.

Driving south from Bryce Canyon on Highway 89, we stop in Mt. Carmel Junction. This is a good place to gas up and have an air-conditioned lunch, complete with homemade pie.  The Thunderbird Resort, with its large swimming pool, is almost equidistant in time from Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and perhaps the best steaks in Utah at Houston’s Trail’s End Restaurant in Kanab.  If you decide to stay closer to Houston's and the Coral Pink Sands State Park (great sunset photography), the Best Western Red Hills Inn is just down the street.

 

One effective trick in shooting sand dunes is to position a human figure in your composition and use a telephoto lens, filling the frame with the figure and the dune.  You must have some method of indicating scale, or nobody can tell how large the dune is.  You can shoot dunes from the viewing area adjacent to the parking lot of Coral Pink Sands State Park. A 500mm lens is ideal.  Whenever we’ve been to this park, it seems to be bracketed by thunderstorms or rain showers, making for some awesome sunset effects.

 

Zion National Park

 

Exploring Zion National Park’s chief attractions can be done without a car. A free shuttle bus service runs up and down the park all day and can be used in the neighboring town of Springdale, where we found good shopping.  We picked up the shuttle across the street from Flanigan’s Inn, a pearl in the desert. Their Spotted Dog Café and Pub serves gourmet breakfasts and dinners, while the large swimming pool and hot tub soothed our aching muscles after a day’s hiking.  (If you like dark ale, try a Polygamy Porter.) Flanigan’s has its own small mountain on the property, from which you can shoot the dawn on the surrounding peaks.  The secret attraction of Flanigan’s, however, is the ability to photograph those same peaks as they turn a glowing pink in the sunset from the motel verandah,

 

While visiting Zion, we drove the winding road that leads back toward Highway 9 in both early morning and late afternoon. The play of low lighting on a wide variety of geological shapes and structures kept us shooting for hours.

 

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CONTACT SHEET

Bryce Canyon Lodge

(303) 297-2757

 

Flanigan’s Inn

800‑765‑7787

 

Thunderbird Resort, Mt. Carmel UT

(888) 848-6358

 

Best Western Red Hills Inn, Kanab UT

(800) 830-2675

 

Roadside Geology of Utah

by Halka Chronic

ISBN 0-87842-228-5

Mountain Press Publishing Company, PO Box 2399, Missoula, MT 59806 USA

 

Photo Traveler’s Guides

Published by Photo Traveler Publications,

PO Box 39912

Los Angeles CA USA

www.phototraveler.com