While I was in Arches National Park earlier this week I took a lot of photos—that was the entire purpose of my trip, after all. For the two full days I was there I was in the park by 4 am to photograph stars & the sunrise, and then out again by 6:30 pm to catch the sunset. It was the first time I’ve ever really done anything like this solo, and it definitely won’t be the last.

I brought a pretty good assortment of camera gear along with me … basically my full camera bag. The only time it was a little cumbersome was on the hike up to Delicate Arch, but even that wasn’t too bad. One of the lenses I brought was my Lensbaby Composer  (a no-brainer, really, if you know me well enough). The shot above was a quick grab-shot of the other photographers and tourists at Delicate Arch (the arch is to the right of the frame). I realized that I had seen a lot of photos of the arch itself before I made the journey on my own, and I didn’t know what to expect once I got there and this is a pretty good view of what it looks like when you are sitting up high to take photos. (I also have a panorama I’m working on … I’ll post it here when it’s ready.)

This is a good example of looking all around you and not ignoring some of the less obvious sights when you are out taking photos. It can be easy to be bewitched by all the beautiful landmarks and keep your camera pointed only in one direction when in a place like Arches National Park , but don’t forget to pause and look everywhere else, too. I was only there a few days and got a bunch of the “cliché” photos, but tried to keep my eyes peeled for other opportunities.

While I was in Arches National Park earlier this week I took a lot of photos—that was the entire purpose of my trip, after all. For the two full days I was there I was in the park by 4 am to photograph stars & the sunrise, and then out again by 6:30 pm to catch the sunset. It was the first time I’ve ever really done anything like this solo, and it definitely won’t be the last.

I brought a pretty good assortment of camera gear along with me … basically my full camera bag. The only time it was a little cumbersome was on the hike up to Delicate Arch, but even that wasn’t too bad. One of the lenses I brought was my Lensbaby Composer  (a no-brainer, really, if you know me well enough). The shot above was a quick grab-shot of the other photographers and tourists at Delicate Arch (the arch is to the right of the frame). I realized that I had seen a lot of photos of the arch itself before I made the journey on my own, and I didn’t know what to expect once I got there and this is a pretty good view of what it looks like when you are sitting up high to take photos. (I also have a panorama I’m working on … I’ll post it here when it’s ready.)

This is a good example of looking all around you and not ignoring some of the less obvious sights when you are out taking photos. It can be easy to be bewitched by all the beautiful landmarks and keep your camera pointed only in one direction when in a place like Arches National Park , but don’t forget to pause and look everywhere else, too. I was only there a few days and got a bunch of the “cliché” photos, but tried to keep my eyes peeled for other opportunities.

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Nicole is a photographer, published author, and educator specializing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography. She is best known for her books on food photography but is widely versed in various photographic genres, including landscape, nature, stock, travel, and experimental imagery.

6 Comments

  1. Ian Harding April 23, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Looks awesome Nicole. I’ve always wanted to visit Utah for both photographic reasons as well as to mountain bike. Someday I will visit.

  2. dav.d April 23, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    Now you need to photograph out all the people!

  3. Greg April 28, 2010 at 2:18 pm

    Hey what did you use to take your Panorama? Do you use a Pano tripod head?

  4. Nicole April 28, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    I just shoot a series of shots vertically, overlapping about 30% of each frame. Then I use Photoshop to merge them together.

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