Painted Desert

• Paul Klee.

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In an earlier post about our trip to Petrified Forest National Park, I mentioned the lack of any distinct landscape features as you dive to the southern entrance to the park. In today’s post, I want to talk about a fantastic viewpoint that provides a stunning view of a significant area of the park. The outlook point right by the painted desert inn provided a view of the beautiful painted desert portion of the park. These badlands are pretty massive and is best accessed from the Petrified Forest NP.

I took this photograph by pointing my camera west but had to think a bit about the right focal length. It was tempting to use a wider focal length at this location due to the expansive nature of the landscape. But I noticed that the details of the desert were getting lost in all the chaos. The light was still quite harsh, but the clouds provided some diffusion. Moving to 70mm did wonders for my framing. The compression merged the puffy clouds while bringing more prominence to the desert's impressive red color and shapes. I also like the play between dark and bright areas in this scene.

Die Painted Desert im Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona).

Die Painted Desert) at Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona).

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