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Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests...

by Sandeep Thomas
The Watchman and Virgin River
5/24/20155/24/2015, 2:15 PM (6 hours before sunset)
NIKON D800 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
24.0 mmf/8.0 1/200 s100

  • 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.