My buddy and I decided to take a mini photo-vacation to Southern Utah/Northern Arizona with 2 goals in mind: shoot The Wave (Coyote Buttes) and The Subway (Zion). After spending Saturday at Bryce National Park in a blizzard we left and headed to Page, AZ. From there we hiked The Wave, drove to Zion National Park, and hiked The Subway on Monday. We got a little bit of a late start to The Subway, took our time getting there (it took us about 4 hours to hike to The Subway) and then spent a while taking photos. At 2:30pm we decided we should prob. head back before it got dark. At this point we realized we prob. wouldnt make it back to our car in time to drive to The Watchman for sunset. Oh well.
My buddy and I are young, both in good shape, and both have been training for the upcoming ski-season. I tell you this because we BOOKED IT back from The Subway. After taking 4 hours to get to The Subway, we got back to our car in 2 hours and that includes the grueling 400ft climb up the canyon. We made it back to our car at 4:30, sped back to town, parked at the bridge for The Watchman and attempted to setup.
Little did I realize but the entire bridge for The Watchman was completely filled with photographers Willie happened to be at Zion too and had claimed his spot since 2:30pm Luckily for me two very very VERY nice photographers made a little bit of room (in the best spot on the bridge I might add) for me to squeeze in as long as I didnt bump their tripods. The sunset ended up being less than spectacular with very little color in the sky. The Watchman never lit up as we had hoped.
Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
52mm, f/16, 2.5 sec, ISO 160
Slow shutter for smoothness in the water
Exposure blend from 2 bracketed images (one for sky and one for foreground – filters werent enough)
