Zion National Park
A classic location and composition, but I had good fortune with the light.
A classic location and composition, but I had good fortune with the light.
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Apr, 2019Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was capture from a bridge going over the Virgin River in Zion National Park in Utah. There were over thirty other photographers taking photos at the same time here.Time
The time of day was very important to the look of this image. It is sunset. About 7pm.Lighting
Lighting in landscape photography always has the variable of chance. I was fortunate here. As I was approaching the location it was lightly raining with no sun visible, but just as the sun was finally setting, it broke through the heavy clouds. This added greatly to the final image, since the sky (clouds) are very dramatic here.Equipment
A Nikon D750 with a Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 G ED lens. I used a Gitzo Traveler tripod.Inspiration
This location is well known in Zion National Park. I love the natural composition this scene presents. The river leads the viewers eyes to the dominant mountain in the distance.Editing
This was captured as a RAW image file. This image does have a bit of post-processing. However, I do like to get a good, solid image captured in-camera rather than manipulate a poor original image later. This did have a little bracketed frames combined as HDR. The saturation and vibrance is emphasized. Selective color enhancements were applied to areas that I wanted to emphasize. I do dodge and burn. This ads more drama to the final image. All of this was done in Adobe Lightroom. No Photoshop post-processing was used.In my camera bag
A Nikon DSLR camera body. Currently a D810 or D850. I keep a RRStuff tripod bracket attached at all times. I use a Gitzo Traveler tripod. The lenses really vary a lot depending on the subject matter I am photographing. My go-to lens though is the Nikkor 24.0-70.0mm f/2.8. It has the most versatility. However, I do use macro, portrait, primes, and very wide lenses when called for. Additionally, I do port around lighting equipment at times. I have used speed lights and battery-operated Elinchrom lighting in remote locations. I also use small macro speed lights for much of my macro photography.Feedback
Yes! You really must rely on beautiful light when doing scenic photography. That means you must wake before the sun rises, skip breakfast and be at your location before the sun rises. The other prime time is as the sun sets or just after the sun sets. This will disrupt your evening meal. I would recommend scouting your location prior to your actual shoot. Particularly if it will be a sunrise shoot.
