My last stop on our photo vacation was Sedona, AZ home of the red-rocks. We knew that Cathedral Rock was completely over-photographed as well but you know what, everyones gotta have these photos in their portfolio so we figured wed head on over to Cathedral Rock and try to catch it glowing at sunset. When we arrived we walked all over the river bank trying to find a good spot. We had noticed a spot a little further upstream (to the left in this photo) that had great reflections of Cathedral Rock but we decided it was too over-photographed and went to this spot (note: eventually we did move back to the reflection spot and spent most of our time there, however, I preferred this photo once we were done shooting).
I liked this location because the rocks made an S curve in the water and eventually leads the eye into Cathedral Rock. A couple of guys and their dog were hanging out in the river keeping cool and I had to wait a longggggg time before they got out of my shot. I didnt mind the dog hanging around in the shot — it almost looks like a lion in the photo
Right before the trip I added the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens to my collection of gear and this was one of the first chances I had to put it to good use The 17-35mm was on my rent D700 and was just too wide for Cathedral Rock. I have a feeling im going to love this lens
This shot is part of my Arizona Photovacation Series. On our trip we stopped at Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon (Upper/Lower), the Grand Canyon, and Sedona.
Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
38mm, f/18, 13 seconds, ISO 125, Feisol Tripod
BW 3-stop grad Lee Filter Holder w/HiTech 3-stop ND, 3-stop ND Grad, and 2-stop ND Grad
Note: I didnt want to drop to ISO 125 (I wanted to keep it at native ISO 200) and I didnt want to go smaller aperture than f/13 but I wanted a long exposure for the water and that was the only way. I needed something like the 10-stop big stopper to have the settings how I wanted. There was just too much light even though I was adding in a roughly 11 stops of filters
