The Watchman and Virgin River
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Zion, NP
Yes, I too stood on this bridge in freezing cold with about 300 other people last November. I certainly didn't come away with anything...
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It was taken at Zion National Park on September 14, 2015. Heavy thunderstorm caused flash floods in this area. Six hikers became the victims of flash floods within Zion National Park. I present this image in remembrance of them.
The last sun light was reflected on Watchman Peak.
It was selected by Earth Shots on Nov 8 2015.
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- Thornton Wilder.
| facebook | 500px | ferpectshots | How to deal with disappointment is probably one of the toughest issues one has to deal with as a landscape photographer. I had tried my hand at wedding photography as well as model shoots and while I didn’t enjoy the pressure you deal with in those type of photography, I felt that if you stick with it there is a clear path for self-improvement. What I found challenging about landscape photography is finding the motivation. Considering the money spend planning a trip and the amount of discomfort that nature can put you through, not getting the shot you pictured in mind is pretty demoralizing. I used to deal with the whole thing by getting angry and lashing out at everything. I am sure my wife found my behavior thrilling. Thankfully with a bit of help and retrospective, I found a better way. For about 2-3 months, I spend a lot of time just watching YouTube videos uploaded by landscape photographers. There we couple of takeaways at the end, all of them seems to enjoy travelling and they seemed to be thankful that they got to be there. It was a refreshing way to look at travel photography. It also reminded me that some of the best trips of my life happened when I didn’t have a camera. The fact that I am visiting locations that most people only see I pictures made it easier to get in line with the new found perspective and appreciation of my situation. So, in line with that little piece of self-reflection, I am posting today’s image which was taken during our second visit to the beautiful Zion national park. This shot is the very classic shot of the watchman towering over the entrance of the park with the Virgin river providing some excellent leading lines and foreground interest. The reason this view point is such a favorite among visitors is because the obvious shot here all the classical landscape elements. The only changing element here is lighting and may be the water level in the river. During both my conditions, flood conditions were prevalent in the virgin river so I had to be satisfied with the muddy water instead of the contrasty cascade style water. But I still keep my hope that one day I’ll come back and the conditions would be perfect, until then I ‘ll just savor the experience of hiking the narrows of Zion in high water. I am sure that’s a pretty special experience.
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- Samuel Daniel
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Another shot from the same night, this one is of the classic watchman scene. My friends were actually freezing at this pointed and wanted to go back to the hotel, so my wife gave me couple of minutes more to take another one shot before we had to pack up and leave. So I didn’t get my own sweet time to frame the shot plus the clouds were streaming into the canyon. There was quite a bit of light pollution coming from Springdale, UT which was to the right side of the mountains.
But I really liked how many stars were on display and when I switched off the cars headlights, they just came alive. Hopefully I would be able to add more star and night sky shots from now on. Hope you all enjoyed this one.
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A 25 second exposure of Zion Canyon, taken on a night with a brightly lit moon. All the light in this photo is from the moon (I took this at about...
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Sunset at "the bridge" in Zion National Park looking down the Virgin River to the Watchman in late autumn. On a recent trip out west I flew in to Las...
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This is a really a very popular spot - on a regular evening 30-40 tripods are lined up on this bridge over the Virgin river to take this iconic shot
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- Muhammad Ali.
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Another attempt photographing the Watchmen at sunset. I was at the Zion National Park for two days and both days I tried to get the Watchman peak at sunset and failed. I was hoping for a dramatic sky and some color and was super excited each day when I saw awesome clouds in the sky during the day time. But both days by around 5 pm thick cloud cover came I and completely blotted out the sun. Only the second day, I could see a slight sliver of the sunset close to the horizon with some colors. You can see how stormy the canyon was from the color of the water in the Virgin river.
Thanks for visiting and have a nice day..
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- Henry David Thoreau.
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The most imitated shot of Zion Canyon national park. The two times I have been to this location, it's been raining and I get dirty muddy water rather than the pristine clear water the virgin river is famous for. I think I need to comeback in winter to get some clean nice weather and clear water.
Thanks for visiting, have a great weekend.
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A reupload of sorts. Sort of. Kind of. Same view towards the Watchman in Zion as my last post from here, but I didn't like the processing job on that...
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While driving out of the Zion, i have stopped at Canyon Junction after looking at some photographers standing on the bridge shooting something. I...
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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...