2007 Southwest Photo Workshop
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After the Las Vegas photography convention, Cheridy and I led a 4 day travel photography tour through parts of Arizona and Utah. We had five people total and piled our stuff into a van and hit the road. We started the trip heading to Zion National Park. Our hotel for the night was in Springdale (right outside the park) and we got up to watch the sunrise.
We caught the first glimpse of morning light in the park:
We then drove to the end of the park and started our way back as we waited for the morning sun to make it’s way into the canyon. The rock formations and color of the canyon walls was gorgeous.
We then hiked on the Emerald Pools hike. It’s one of the easiest and most popular hikes in the park and it takes you out to a seasonal waterfall that fills up some waterpools at the bottom of a three tiered waterfall. Unfortunately there wasn’t much water coming down from the falls when were there…just a trickle. But the walk was nice and the scenery was beautiful.
After the hike, we headed out of the park to Springdale where we stopped for lunch. We stopped at an old restaurant which had some cool old wagons out front.
After that we went to the Grafton ghost town which was a big let down. All the old buildings that we really would have loved to photograph were on fenced off private property so we really didn’t get to see much other than shooting some of the buildings with a long zoom lens. The mid-day light was very harsh so I had some fun playing with my infrared camera.
We headed back into Zion and hiked out on the overlook trail which provided a breathtaking view of part of the park.
After hiking back down and having dinner, we drove around the park and found some nice locations to catch the evening light.
We went to catch the sunset over the bridge looking back at the Watchman, but there were no clouds in the sky and we weren’t anticipating a very dramatic sunset. Before we left I found some beautiful light reflecting off the river underneath the bridge.
After that we hit the road. The next morning we woke up really early and caught the sunrise at over Bryce Canyon. The morning light is absolutely breathtaking as it lights up the strange rock formations.
After leaving Bryce Canyon, we were heading to Page and took a short cut through Grand Staircase National Park. Grand Staircase had a very unique and barren landscape that seemed to change around every corner. We drove down Cottonwood road which is a dirt road that crosses the park. One of the highlights was the Grosvenor Arch:
We just couldn’t resist taking our first group photo by the “dips” sign:
There is an old town called Paria where there was an old movie set where they filmed a whole bunch of wild west movies with a beautiful mountain backdrop. We were excited to see that but upon arrival we found that it had been burned down by vandals in August 2006. Instead we just shot a few landscape photos and took in the scenery.
We drove from there to Page, Arizona where we enjoyed some time at Lake Powell. I had forgot that all of Arizona is not affected by daylight savings time so when we crossed from Utah into Arizona I didn’t realize that the sunset would be an hour earlier. I planned on getting us to a nice spot for sunset on Lake Powell, but instead of having an hour, we only had a few minutes of sun left, but were still able to capture a few nice pictures from a nearby overlook.
Early the next morning we hiked out to Horseshoe Bend which is one of the most dramatic views in the area. Unfortunately the light was really bad and was causing some terrible shadows so the photographs that we got were not the best. Through combining multiple exposures to capture all the highlight and shadow detail, I was able to get this image:
After horseshoe bend, we went to Upper Antelope Canyon for a tour of the slot canyon. The slot canyons are famous for having beams of light shoot through the slots. They can be illuminated by throwing sand up in the air so that the light reflects off it.
After the slot canyons we rushed over to the Grand Canyon to catch the sunset from Hopi point:
The next morning we woke up ridiculously early (4:45 am) to pack up and head out to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. Although it was difficult to get up, it was totally worth it because it was one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen in a long time.
After a really early breakfast, we went back to the South Rim to see a bit more of the morning light.
Viewing the Grand Canyon was a very humbling and overwhelming experience and photographing it almost seemed pointless because there was no way to do it justice.
We left the canyon to begin our long drive back to Las Vegas. We took a detour down Route 66 to view all the old historical towns with old cars and diners that remind people of a different day and age. In a town called Seligman, we found a restaurant with an amazing collection of nostalgic items including old broken down cars and gas pumps.
We then headed to Hackberry, Arizona where there was another odd collection of unique things:
We then went to another old town called Chloride, Arizona:
It was time to start heading back to Vegas to catch our flights. We had a long delay crossing over the Hoover Dam but were unable to park to get any photos so we just headed back to the city and caught the red-eye flight home. I spent all day today editing photos, and now…it’s time for bed!!!