Photographing Zion 2018 The Rest of the Story – Video and Journal

Photographing Zion 2018 The Rest of the Story- The Narrows Video and Journal

The two days after hiking the narrows, we continued to explore the washes of the higher elevations. While there was still good color, the trees were thinned as the fallen leaves began to carpet the ground beneath them. I was still finding subjects worth my time to set up the camera. Some of the images I took of the trees in their peak reds and yellows had too much saturation for the Velvia 50 film and so fewer leaves on the trees provided some relief and more texture to the images. I continued to be liberal with the numbers of images I took with at least two and up to four per day. While I knew some weren't worthy of showing, I saw it as a learning opportunity to improve compositions and better understand how the films respond to different conditions.

I have five images to share from the final two days of our trip.

The first, Lovely Scene, is a scene rich in color with enough of the rock behind showing to provide a good backdrop of contrast to the yellow leaves of the tree.

The second, Coexist, is an alcove with water at its base. Nestled in the center is a branch growing up through a delicate circle of yellow leaves and wedged between the branch and the canyon wall is a round rock. I was so intrigued with this scene as it is such an example of how the different elements coexist in the canyons.

The third, Fragility,  is a very cool large slab of stone that I had discovered last spring when I passed through on my way to Moab. I was glad to revisit it and seeing it this time with falling leaves sprinkling color around the red rock and the green mosses.

The forth is Zion Sunrise. For a change of pace we decided to shoot the Towers of the Virgin at sunrise only to find access to the museum location blocked off due to construction. So we drove up the highway and used a switchback below the tunnel as our vantage point. With a full moon sitting above the towers it was a nice scene for a panorama.

The last, Textures, was taken on our last afternoon. I had misplaced this negative which had gotten mixed up with some empty film holders. I like this scene for the varied textures of the canyon wall, the ponderosa and an evergreen amongst fall color.

As the last day of our trip drew to a close, we were both filled with appreciation for the beauty of Zion National Park. There are so many scenes unseen and many canyons unexplored that I am sure we will return in the future.

The last clip in the video shows Guaco and Mole having a little play in the Virgin river. Zion only has one location near the Watchman campground where dogs are allowed in the park on a leash. We took advantage of this the last two afternoons and took them for long walks to the river where they got to play in the water.

My film from Death Valley should arrive next week and I have already begun laying out the video clips in the timeline for each day. I look forward to sharing that trip and images with you soon.

Thank you for taking the time to share in our explorations and adventures!

To view high res images click here.