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Zion

The stars that have most glory have no rest…
The Watchman and Virgin River
by Sandeep Thomas
  • 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.

After Thunderstorm
The Watchman and Virgin River
by Yi Jiang

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.

The Watchman Under the Moonlight
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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Observation Point
Observation Point

It was my first and fairly strenuous hike to Observation Point. This uphill 4 mi hike with an elevation gain or nearly 2100 ft from the canyon floor...

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This world is but a canvas to our imagination…
The Watchman and Virgin River
by Sandeep Thomas
  • 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.

The man who has no imagination has no wings…
The Watchman and Virgin River
by Sandeep Thomas
  • 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..

the watchman
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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Moonlit Watchman
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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The Watchman Crowded Sunset
The Watchman and Virgin River

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...

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Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests...
The Watchman and Virgin River
by Sandeep Thomas
  • 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.

Oaths are but words, and words are but wind…
Zion National Park - The Towers of the Virgin
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Samuel Butler.

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As usual for this memorial day we decided to make a vacation to the beautiful Zion National Park. Unfortunately the weather didn’t agree with us and we were greeted by three days of rain and clouds. But on the last day the clouds cleared up and the winds were moving them across canyon walls at speed.

This shot was taken behind the Zion human history museum which has an amazing view of the Towers of the Virgin. When we reached there , the wind was moving clouds around and I got this shot when a big cloud was barging against the West Temple formation. Even though I didn’t get the usual time shooting images at the park we still came back with some amazing shots from the park. I hope to share the pics in the coming days. Thanks for visiting..

Zion National Park - The Watchman and Virgin River HDR
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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Canyon Junction
The Watchman and Virgin River

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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Zion - Towers of Virgin at Sunrise
Zion National Park - The Towers of the Virgin

Another classic Zion shot showing the West Temple, the Sundial and the Altar of Sacrifice. It gets quite busy here during sunrise :-)

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Zion!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Yi Jiang and Andrey Sulitskiy.