We took our time upon arriving at Snow Canyon because we had plenty of time there, right? We slowly checked out potential photo locations on the drive in, checked into our campsite, took showers, and had a late lunch/early dinner. We even took an exploratory hike, without our camera backpacks to check out a potential morning photo location. All was going fine until I started feeling aches in my joints. . . . Not again!

By early evening it was obvious I was getting sick again (twice this trip!). Since the strategy we used last time seemed to work I dosed myself up the remaining medications I had and I got to bed early. While we had the clock set for a normal wakeup time, we were assuming that the morning would be a flop. When the alarm went off, I told Ann I needed to stay in bed. She wound up getting up, doing some stuff and then went off in the dark to take a shower. When she got back, the pre-dawn light was just starting. She asked if I’d mind her going out to photograph and I said no. And off she went.

At one point I woke up from a deep sleep covered in sweat. I rolled over and realized that I didn’t feel so bad. I’d just broken a fever and, whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. I didn’t feel so bad; certainly better than I had a couple of hours earlier So I got out of bed and started my day. Not long afterwards Ann returned. She’d had a nice couple of hours photographing and I was . . . better. Ann decided to make a big breakfast (useful for the next morning’s early rise) and I decided to take a shower and start the day right.

When I got back Ann was still cooking and I started looking around the camp area feeling like a new man. I then saw a rock formation not too far away, and pulled out my camera.

I may have missed the early morning photo session, but I at least got to photograph something! And hey, one good photograph before breakfast is all one can really ask for!

We decided to try checking out the places I’d scouted prior to the trip and to test whether I was, indeed fine. So we headed up to an area in the northern part of the park.

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The rock formations here are more white than in the southern areas, and resemble Yant Flat in some ways. We hiked out to the rocks, which offered a range of views and, of course, subjects.

And we started climbing a bit. Our goal was a bowl area who knows how high up, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t stop along the way because when you see an image - stop to make it. You never know if the destination is what you hope it will be.

So we spent quite a while on the climb up to the bowl taking advantage of the thin cloudy skies that gave us constantly changing sun conditions. If you wanted overcast, just wait; harsh sunlight, just wait; diffuse but directional lighting . . . just wait.

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Sometimes I think we could probably just stop anywhere and find photographs. Part of how we work is simply to explore an area and the more you explore, the more you discover and the more you discover, the more you see. And that inevitably leads to photographs. So we kept our slow steady pace as we experienced the landscape.

Eventually we got to the bowl and it was less than inspiring. There was a “pond” in the bowl - low, silty and unattractive. And a couple of large groups of people were running around, which really killed any possibility of a wider view even if the pond had been lovely.

I did, however, see an image of one of the walls of the bowl.

There was an older couple sitting just below the bottom of the frame who asked me if I wanted them to move. I assured them that I was photographing over their heads, so I was fine, thank you. They then both looked up at the wall behind them, and then at each other, and said nothing. They probably thought I was nuts.

We hiked back to the car, stopping for a few more photographs, and then decided to head down to the south end of the park. There we took a short hike into a canyon, that in turn led to a small slot canyon.

While I managed one image, interesting more for the play of light than anything else, and the hike was beautiful, the lighting conditions were not ideal.

We were probably a couple of hours too late because even the slot canyon had lost any magic down in the slot. You could see some light reflecting back and forth in the upper part of it, but it wasn’t making its way downward. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes . . . the timing isn’t quite right.

Snow Canyon was well into shadow by the time we got back to Beast. And while the place is one of the most memorable pre-dawn locations I know of, in large part due to its orientation, that same orientation hurts it for sunset and post-sunset photography due to the cliffs on the west side of the canyon. The contrast between the skies and the canyon floor and walls is just too great at sunset, even with graduated neutral density filters. The best you can hope for is a spectacular display of light on the clouds - which we managed to appreciate from our campsite as we prepared for the next morning. But it doesn’t make for good photographs.

Earlier in the day, when we were driving from the north end to the south end of the park, Ann had pointed out where she thought we should go for our next morning’s image making. She had a particular image looking northward that she had in her mind, so she knew roughly where she wanted to be. To get the elevation we wanted, that would put us back on the petrified dunes that we’d photographed from previously, but well west of where we were the last time. That meant setting out while it was still dark, using flashlights to guide our way. Unlike Yant Flat, we knew what to expect, so had no issues about heading out in the dark. The problem was exactly where we wanted to be, and how to navigate the undulations (read: potential maze) in the dune to get us there.

It took us three stops - the first two just a bit too low or not enough to the west to get the separation of elements Ann wanted - but we eventually got there. I left Ann photographing northward, while I turned to face south.

Upon looking at my previous Snow Canyon photographs and some of my Yosemite night photographs, our Swiss friend we met in Torrey had asked how we made them. I mentioned that the moon, or light reflected from the atmosphere can be a wonderful light source, and that while it may be that in such early, low levels of light our eyes are using more light sensitive rods than color sensitive cones, that doesn’t mean that the color isn’t there. The sensor sees it even though the eye doesn’t (Well, barely does. If you’re really attentive, you begin to see the colors.) So while the above scene looked nearly black to the eye, I knew the sensor would get a lovely image - if exposed correctly. Thus the 20-second exposure needed to get this interpretation of the landscape.

And as the sun approaches the horizons the exposure times increase, and the color of the light changes . . . quickly. On top of the petrified dunes we had a lot of choices for subject matter.

After making quite a few images facing southward, I turned to towards the direction Ann had been photographing. I realized then why she wanted this location and she was right to say the first to stops didn’t get us in the right location.

The bowl we had hiked into and photographed the previous afternoon is on the far side of those white rocks you see above.

I then turned back to the view to the south, which is simply stunning. Perhaps one of the most beautiful and intimate geologic landscapes I know of.

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The landscape up on the petrified dunes seem to present an endless range of possibilities.

We eventually decided to move on and, looking at the image below, be climbed down to the bushes to the left, and then up the face and out to the southern-most end (to the left) of that “dune.”

That brought us much close to the features to the south, which we took advantage of.

It also gave us different perspectives of the other “fingers” of the petrified dunes that extended alongside our east.

Being on the far end of a dune top that had drop-offs on three sides, we were fairly restricted in where we could place ourselves, so it became a question of different ways of framing the landscape around us.

And of looking at things in different ways.

As the sun rose, the clouds started shielding its rays in places, which always adds texture and depth to the landscape - that is if the sun appears where you want it to.

The sun eventually rose enough to fill the valley with light, and while the clouds still afforded some texture to the landscape, the shadows rendered flatter and flatter scenes. It was time for Ann and me to take the long hike back to the car after a good morning’s photographing.

We spent the latter part of the morning downloading images and cleaning our camera gear. Just after lunch, we headed out for our afternoon hike, which was an even longer hike than our morning one. It took the route we had explored on the afternoon we first arrived (and where Ann photographed the next morning). We’d been frustrated trying, and failing, to get toa grouping of black-topped hoo-doos to photograph (a Ranger told us that the black rocks are a layer of iron that formed on the rocks, and that they rust over time). So that afternoon’s hike was to get us either to the hoo-doos, or to get a closer view of them from the south.

The hike in gave us a wonderful experience in the landscape itself. We stopped for a couple of photographs along the way, but we had a destination in mind so kept moving onward. Eventually we got to a fork in the trail where we could either go upwards and get a view northwards, or we could continue the trail and photograph within the hoo-doos. We turned left and climbed.

The view was worth it. The added elevation allowed us to get a broader view of the landscape and to use the heavy overcast skies as an element in our images.

And the place we climbed too wasn’t too bad either. There we were exposed to the incredible colors growing on the rocks, and the black iron layer made for a great contrast. Not that this shot was easy, I had my tripod legs splayed horizontally with my camera essentially on the ground. That meant that I had to photograph this while lying on the ground - part dirt, part hard, very hard and pointy, rock.

The top of the hill offered 360-degree views of Snow Canyon, though the harsh, mid-day sun made effective image making difficult. That, and the first time excitement of discovering a place, which usually tends to yield less than fully satisfactory images. But at least there were clouds overhead and a very textured landscape to give us mass forms to work with.

And to my eye, there was the ever present compositions from the incredible rock formations calling out my name.

After awhile I moved to the northern part of the hill top to photograph the black rocks and the distant mountains. Suddenly I heard:

“Hey! Do you have a permit to make that photograph?”

I looked over and saw the couple we ran into at Red Cliffs hiking up the hill towards me. We started joking about running into each other again out on the trail and caught up on what they’d done since we met. They started off by thanking us for our Yant Flat recommendation - “The place was just out of this world! We were the only ones there and it was so peaceful!” To which I was thinking, “You Bastards!” but said, “Glad that worked out for you!” They had made a run up to Capitol Reef NP, only to get snowed out, and on the way back she got a call that required them to cut their trip short. They had stopped in St. George on their way to the Las Vegas airport and had recalled us mentioning Snow Canyon.

We started talking about photography, which he had done quite a bit of several years earlier, and about taking your time while out in the landscape. The conversation lasted for about an hour, which was fine for Ann and me because, in addition to interesting conversation, it was giving the sun the time to lower somewhat and to take the edge off its harshness. Eventually, they decided to head back to the petrified dunes (from where they had hiked) and to their car before it got too late.

Ann and I returned to photographing.

It really is a pleasure to simply be in a landscape, to take the time to look and see, and then to make images

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We realized that we really didn’t have a lot of time left so decided to stay on our hill top instead of descending down and wandering the black rocks. I guess that’s just one more excuse to have to come here again!

As the sun got lower and lower, the shadows cast from the side of the canyon started to work their way across the canyon floor.

Which caused us to start photographing south, and then west before we too were in shadow.

And then it was time to head back to Beast and a good hearty dinner. It was the end of a very good day of photography.

Phase 4 - Of Flats, Cliffs, Canyons and Domes Part 2

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Phase 4 - Of Flats, Cliffs, Canyons and Domes Part 2

Phase 4 - Of Flats, Cliffs, Canyons and Domes Part 3

Phase 4 - Of Flats, Cliffs, Canyons and Domes Part 1

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