After traveling 3 days of 450+ miles each day by car, I arrived at Zion National Park for a quick overnight stay. This was my first time visiting the park, and I was very fortunate to get a room at the Zion Lodge inside of Zion on a Saturday. Because this was the middle of summer, the crowd of people was very large, and on top of that, the temperature was over 95ºF or 35ºC. During Summer months, Zion only allows shuttle buses to access the different points of interest. At first I was disappointed to hear this, but as I quickly found out, the shuttles were very frequent and eliminated any traffic jams. When I checked into the Lodge, I mentioned to a very nice clerk at the front desk that I was a landscape photographer, only had a day to photograph, and was interested to know where the best angle of light was for sunset, and sunrise. This may have been a long shot question, but she was ready for me, and let me know where to go that evening, and the next morning. How lucky can I be? At about 5:30 pm I jumped on a shuttle bus and headed out making my way to several spots in The Weeping Rock area with the ultimate goal of arriving at the bridge at Canyon Junction around 7:30 pm so I could observe The Watchman while the sun was setting. The Watchman is a beautiful sandstone spiral formation that stands 6555 feet by the south entrance to the park. Because of frequent rain in the last month, the trees, and much of the surrounding area was still very lush with green growth, which allowed me to capture some very beautiful color. After I set up, I quickly found out that even with a 3 stop graduated ND filter, I was unable to capture the full range of light I wanted. I ended up merging 5 - 1 stop exposures to create this image in HDR. My wish always is to have clouds and warm light to work with. I wasn't disappointed and perhaps a bit lucky to have my wish come true. My 24 hours at Zion were a gift as everything seemed to go just right. Please let me know what you think of my images and I would appreciate your comments and support..
The Organ
The Watchman
The Three Patriarchs
