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Dead Horse Point before Sunrise
Dead Horse Point
by Yi Jiang

Dead Horse Point State Park is a state park of Utah in the United States, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park.

Came Back Again to Watch the Lighthouse
Pigeon Point Lighthouse
by Milton Sun

/ Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Northern California

Thank you in advance for stopping by and viewing!

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Emily Dickinson.

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With today's shot, I want to make a case for getting off the bed early to watch scenic vistas in the beautiful light of the morning golden hour. To the uninitiated, the golden hour happens about an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. During this time, the light is exceptionally warm in color tone bringing landscapes to life. Since the sun is at its low orbit, the light also tends to come from the side rather than overhead and side lighting is more flattering than the overhead variety. If you have any doubt, check next time a wedding or portrait photographer set up their light for a photo shoot.

As a landscape photographer, the side lighting and the warm tones are invaluable as there is no way to recreate them by any sort of artificial means. While I tend to agree with Forrest Gump's statement that “And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heavens stopped and the earth began” its hard not to let the colors overwhelm the composition. Sunrise, on the other hand, provides a more subtle version of the same conditions, which helps in telling your story in a better way. In general, the scene has natural warm colors. I tend to prefer to shoot it in the morning and if it has colder tones then during sunset. There are other elements like the direction of light and elevation that often influence this decision, but that’s a topic for another day. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this beautiful sunrise at Utah’s Dead Horse point State Park.

Bryce Canyon Amphitheater
Bryce Canyon
by Maurizio Fontana

USA 2011 - Bryce Canyon

Sydney Splendour!
Sydney Harbour Skyline
by J. Chea

Mrs Macquarie Chair Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, New South Wales

I found this old image hidden deep within my archives when I was organizing my photo collections. It was taken just before the Sydney fleet review 2013 fireworks display took place (see the photo named 'Sydney Celebrations'). I was shooting through a fenced barrier which lined the whole waterfront. I remembered being very annoyed about that as it severely restricted the composition of the image. That's probably why I didnt post this image then because I wasn't entirely happy with the balance of the scene.

Irregardless, I have to say that was the best sunset I photographed in Sydney thus far. In terms of the vibrancy in the colors and the festivity surrounding the event. Living further away from the CBD now and other commitments, I seldom wander down to the beautiful harbour.

1 exp shot Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop!

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Voltaire.

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One of the coolest things you can do at Dead Horse Point state park in Eastern Utah is to check out the canyon rim to find Trees with interesting shapes. It’s especially thrilling to do so while the sun is rising and you are short on time and you have a heavy camera and tripod to lug around and jump around near cliff edges. Great fun when you consider the fact that the canyon rim is at an elevation of 5,900 feet.

Anyways, after scaring myself half to death, I came across this beautiful tree which had a shape that perfectly complemented the shape of the canyon. Thankfully I also had great luck with the light but the clouds didn’t cooperate as much. Hopefully, someday I get to come here again when the sky is spectacular.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves…
Mather Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Shakespeare.

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When we first visited the Grand Canyon’s south rim, I completely underestimated the scale of the place. I had a whole list of places earmarked for photographs but only later realized the amount of time needed to get from one point to the other. A lot of the photos we took on our first trip ended up being from the spots near the visitor center.

Mather Point is one of the easiest spots to reach from the visitor center and it provides a nice panoramic glimpse into the magic that is Grand Canyon. Yavapai point nearby has a better view but Mather point is easy to get to when racing against time to get a sunrise shot. The sunlight was peaking through as we were setting up. The sunrise is always magical at a canyon even where there is not much drama in the sky. The light was pouring over the canyon rim and creating fantastic drama against the shadows.

Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon
by Maurizio Fontana

USA 2011 - Bryce Canyon

Sunrise at Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Yi Jiang

Dead Horse Point State Park is a state park of Utah in the United States, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park.

Attendendo il tramonto al Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Matteo Rinaldi

"giocando" con le luci sui canyon sottostanti al Dead Horse point, in attesa del tramonto... che poi non si è visto perchè è svanito dietro alle nuvolte. Ma sicuramente anche questi istanti sono stati molti belli.

Scatti realizzati durante il viaggio fotografico con www.viaggifotografici.biz attraverso i parchi Americani dell'Ovest.

The sky lovingly smiles on the earth and her children…
Mather Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry Morton Stanley.

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My second shot from Mather Point. While its customary to take the shots at this location pointing west as the sun slowly lights up the North rim walls, the massive boulder standing eastwards piqued my interest and I went to take a shot of it before I took the picture I posted yesterday. It did cost me the prime spots at Mather point but I really loved the texture of this rocks and the glow of the sky. I wish now that I had spent a bit more time here for the sun to actually rise.

Anyways if you find yourself at this location don’t make the same mistake I did and see if you can get some interesting shots facing the sun, trust me you won’t be disappointed. Thanks for visiting and your wonderful comments and faves, and have a nice Thursday.

The End of the Day at Pigeon Point
Pigeon Point Lighthouse

See the lighthouse up close.

Unremarkable sunset, unfortunately, and I was afraid I didn't get anything of use at all (as complained about in the...

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Sydney Australia
Sydney Harbour Skyline
by Dominic Nessi

Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts…
Bryce Canyon
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Hazlitt.

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Today we woke up in Southern California to a chilly morning and it reminded me of the amazing sunrise we witnessed at Utah’s Bryce Canyon national park. A winter storm had just passed through. We didn’t know about the storm and reached the park at night as the snow was still falling. Our first day at the park was pretty much a goner but the second day we woke at 4 am in the morning and it was -12F outside. After a bit of questioning my sanity, we decided to bundle up and head outside anyway. Once we were outside the beauty of the morning totally made up for the cold. The air was crisp, and the morning sun was perfect. There was almost no wind and most important of all we were the only people at the popular sunset point.

This shot is a panorama stitch of about three images. I used a slightly longer focal length to bring out the details in the snow-covered hoodoos that make Bryce such an interesting location. I used an ND grad filter to balance the exposure between the bright sunlit areas and the darker canyon parts. Moral of the story is I have rarely regretted getting up at 4 in the morning even when the temperature outside was crazy low.

Grand Canyon
Mather Point
by Matteo Rinaldi

Scatti realizzati durante l'ultimo viaggio in America con www.viaggifotografici.biz

Lower Yellowstone Fall
Lower Falls - Yellowstone N.P - Wyoming - USA
by Birgit M.

(_7120759) OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

November Sunrise in Dead Horse Point SP, Utah
Dead Horse Point
by Adelheid Smitt

Everything about this photo looks warm, but standing there early in the morning at -10°C it was probably the coldest photo I ever took. I had been hoping for some more colour in the sky, but was still pleased with the warm glow of the landscape. Looking down you can see the Shafer Trail, one of the highlights of my previous visit some years earlier.

Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of non-knowledge…
Grand Sunrise
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer.

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One of the dilemmas I faced as I got more into landscape photography, is about getting overwhelmed by grand vistas. While reviewing my images from past trips, I have noticed that there is a trend of going for the broadest possible view of the more iconic photo spots. The problem with this approach is you often come back with the same photo that has been taken over and over by a lot of talented photographers. There is no stamp of authenticity or a unique vision.

As I grew as a photographer, I started to train myself not to get overwhelmed and be okay with not taking all the possible image combinations. My wife immediately noticed the change in my behavior, and she even commented that the photo trips are getting more enjoyable. Today’s shot is from one of those rare moments of control, and it happened at a location which was my top one place since I was a teenager, the Grand Canyon National Park.

The day was rather misty and cloudy, but I noticed that the dew had made the rocks especially vivid, but the grey sky was washing out my wide shots. So, I decided to concentrate more on shots that showed the patterns on the rock and to altogether avoid the sky. Later I learned that this is a technique used broadly by landscape photographers when shooting canyons, but at the time, I didn’t know about this practice. So moral of the story add learning about techniques to your preparation bucket when traveling to your dream location.

Grand Canyon
Mather Point
by Matteo Rinaldi

Scatti realizzati durante l'ultimo viaggio in America con www.viaggifotografici.biz

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry Miller.

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As a landscape photographer, you often get to travel to some absolutely gorgeous locations and, if you are lucky, get to watch them in perfect conditions. Coastal fog rolling into a redwood forest, massive sequoias in snow, Yosemite after a storm are all great examples of this, and it is hard to pick a favorite. But if someone presses me, I guess my pick would be sunrise at either a desert or a mountain. I especially cherish our desert golden hour shoots, especially when it's at a location like Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. This tiny state Park will rival any other park in the US southwest in beauty, and I was glad I managed to shoehorn a visit into our tightly scheduled trip to Utah.

I still remember the morning that day. We planned to make a quick trip to the park before starting our long drive to SoCal. But the stunning nature of the views surprised us, and we ended up spending quite a lot more time than what we budgeted. I was a little suspicious about getting any colors in the sky as there was a lot of cloud cover. Sunrises are usually not that stark as sunsets in my experience, and as the dawn neared, warm pastel tones filled the sky. Then the sun broke through and painted the rock formations in warm golden light: just a beautiful location and fantastic conditions.

Saying nothing... sometimes says the most…
Mather Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Emily Dickinson.

| insta | blog |

The Grand Canyon National Park has always been one of my favorite spots to photograph. The love affair started with the first visit when I was lucky enough to watch a perfect cloud inversion. Since then, every time we visit, we have had some of the best conditions. But even at such a spectacular location, photography can be a challenge. I have myself had quite a few experiences where I have been underwhelmed with the results.

When I first visited the park, I was quite intimidated by the dramatic variation in the scene's dynamic range. My first approach was to try HDR processing. While HDR images can pull out the texture's details very well, this type of processing makes the image look very unrealistic. I mean, if there are bright elements in a scene, your brain will expect dark areas. It took me a while to learn what was missing in my photography. The dark regions of the image are the part that adds mystery and depth to a scene.

I was not too happy with the composition as I believe I added too much sky in the image, but I love the details in the canyon part of the picture. You can see how the dark areas' presence brings the viewer's attention to the brighter areas of the scene and allows them to see the canyon's details. Learning this little secret has affected the way I see, compose, and edit an image.

Bryce Point
Bryce Canyon
by Yi Jiang

Bryce Canyon National Park From Bryce Point, one of the most scenic vistas of the full amphitheater and all its wonders amaze the visitor.

Dead Horse Point State Park
Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse Point State Park is perhaps Utah's most spectacular state park. Dead Horse Point is a promontory of stone surrounded by steep cliffs near...

flickr.com
Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Maurizio Fontana

USA 2011 - Dead Horse Point

Attendendo il tramonto al Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Matteo Rinaldi

"giocando" con le luci sui canyon sottostanti al Dead Horse point, in attesa del tramonto... che poi non si è visto perchè è svanito dietro alle nuvolte. Ma sicuramente anche questi istanti sono stati molti belli.

Scatti realizzati durante il viaggio fotografico con www.viaggifotografici.biz attraverso i parchi Americani dell'Ovest.

Not knowing anything is the sweetest life…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Sophocles.

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Here is another shot from the stunning Dead Horse Point State Park, near Canyonlands and Arches National parks. Because of the proximity to such illustrious and stunning National Parks this wonderful little state park get much fewer visitors. We scheduled it for sunrise on the day we were to drive home. Needless to say, we were late by a couple of hours to get home.

In this shot, I tried to just look for the sheer magnificence of the canyon, avoiding any distractions in the foreground, just a regular tourist shot taken with the best possible light. I also tried to avoid adding in any part of the sky just to focus on the stunning beauty of the Dead Horse Canyon and the Colorado River.

Dead Horse Point, Dead Horse Point State Park, morning
Dead Horse Point
by Birgit M.

View of the Colorado River from Dead Horse Point Overlook, (DSCN1583)

Attendendo il tramonto al Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Matteo Rinaldi

"giocando" con le luci sui canyon sottostanti al Dead Horse point, in attesa del tramonto... che poi non si è visto perchè è svanito dietro alle nuvolte. Ma sicuramente anche questi istanti sono stati molti belli.

Scatti realizzati durante il viaggio fotografico con www.viaggifotografici.biz attraverso i parchi Americani dell'Ovest.

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Butler Yeats.

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Today’s phot is a from one of my favorite locations in all of American Southwest, Dead Horse Point State Park. We were at Moab, UT as part of our 10-day long roadtrip across most of the Southern Utah. We passed this little state park on our way to Canyonlands National Park everyday. During our planning we only allowed a sunrise slot to this park because I knew that there was only really one composition here.

I am glad to report that this little statepark proved me very wrong, while it has only one composition what composition it is. We were quite blown away by the grand scene that unfolded in front of us during sunrise. Also, the sheer amount of foreground interests to compose at the park is just tremendous, all you must do is safely traverse to the ledge while keeping in mind about the sheer drop to the canyon.

This is a panorama shot made of stitching two images taken in landscape orientation. I used a 2 stop ND grad filter to balance incredible light in the sky and some of the cliffs to ambient light in the canyon. I also used a bit of the canyon ledge to provide some perspective to the sheer size of the canyon the Colorado river has created.

Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Alfred Sisley.

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When I told one of my photog friends that we are doing a south Utah road trip and were planning definitely to stop by at Moab. He told me not to overlook the Dead Horse Point State Park which is located just before the entrance to the Canyonlands National Park. I kept that advice in the back of my mind and while in Moab duly got seduced by the much-coveted spots in Arches and Island in the sky national parks.

So when we decided to get an early start on our final day, we decided to one more sunrise shot before leaving and decided to try out the tiny state park. And boy did it turn out to be a great decision, this tiny speck of land in southeastern Utah is beautiful beyond words. We learned that the unusual name of the park comes from the fact that it was used as a natural corral by cowboys in the 19th century, where horses often died of exposure. We had a perfect sunrise that day with stunning red cliffs getting saturated by bright warm morning light. This shot is a vertical panorama I shot of the main viewpoint. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this stunning park.

Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point
by Mario Calma

Canyonlands Utah

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Inge.

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Please press “F” if you like this image.

Today’s image was taken a few minutes after the photo I posted yesterday, just as the sun rose above the horizon and illuminated the canyon walls. You can see that the colors in the sky are gone. The light n the canyon walls are much more intense and has taken on a golden hue. The colors during golden hour in this area are usually so intense that I often have to desaturate my images.

When I started photography, I was always concerned about missing a view that I constantly moved from one spot to another. I didn’t want to miss out on an excellent composition for lack of trying. Later I realized that I was trying out many things hoping one would stick instead of planning and executing one good shot. So now I practice being more methodical and taking my time with my images. At Dead Horse Point SP, the canyon view remains the same, and all you can do is find exciting foreground subjects to add depth. But the other aspect that controls your images is light. This being a desert, the changes in light during a short period is often quite dramatic. So for this series of images, I focused on staying at the same location and capturing the change in light. I love how the light makes it feel like a different place.

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Frank Lloyd Wright.

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One of the interesting things I noted about Dead horse point state park was the sheer number of interesting juniper trees that grow along the rim of the canyon. There were so many of them that at one point I was just running around looking for interesting trees.

Now a soft kiss - Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • John Keats.

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Another shot from the Dead Horse Point state park. This one was taken just and the sun broke above the horizon line and started lighting up the canyon walls. The intense red of the canyon with warm light from the rising sun made for a very vivid photograph. I took this shot from a spot which is close to the entrance of the park, not really a photography hotspot. Other locations at the edge of the park were more popular due to many foreground interests available. But I wanted to take a shot of this geo formation in the canyon and this sport provided the best view.

Far horizons
Dead Horse Point
by David ruiz luna

Canyonlands National Park is a U.S. National Park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. The park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers.

This image is made from 'the Island in the Sky' and you can see the meanders of the Green River. The stage as a whole reminds me a lot of the series 'WestWorld' that's why I have titled it that way.

The Island in the Sky Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah, United States September 2016

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DESTACADOS THE LOOK RED DE LA SEMANA FEATURED ON THE LOOK RED August'21

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection…
Dead Horse Point
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Michelangelo.

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This is a year-old shot from our trip to southern Utah during a Christmas break. We started out at the magnificent Bryce canyon national park, endured a -10F blizzard and then started driving east passing through Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. One of the best vistas we saw during the trip didn’t belong to National parks but to a Utah State park, Dead Horse Point.

This one was not initially in the itinerary and we only managed to get is it on our last day. We rose super early in the morning and drove up to the park just before the sunrise. The vista from the park is truly stunning and pretty much all time is spend scouting out a good foreground interest to add some visual depth to the scene. I didn’t have an ultra-wide with me at that time, only a 24mm. So, I had to choose the frame a bit carefully. I those this beautiful tree as the foreground interest and set my camera up as the sun rose and lit the canyon walls in beautiful warm golden light. Hope you all like it.

Floating mosque, Melaka
Floating mosque, Melaka
by Adelheid Smitt

This is an image I had seen on Flickr and I made a point of stopping in Melaka on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Melaka is an interesting and historic town (UNESCO) with a rich past. The floating mosque sits on the waterfront and a little stone pier attracts a lot of photographers, especially when the sunset is as colourful as this one.

Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Point!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Yi Jiang, Matteo Rinaldi, Maurizio Fontana, Joao Eduardo Figueiredo and Andrey Sulitskiy.