The canyons of the American west offer many variations of color and shape and can propel the imagination into overdrive. While I was touring the western states early this year, I got to see a variety of the different desert scenery from the Grand Canyon to narrow slot canyons and the sheer walls of Zion, but one of the more unique looking canyons has got to be Byrce Canyon. The thousands of hoodoos spread throughout the canyon resembled a fortress.
I arrived at Bryce at around two in the morning, and there wasn’t a campsite to be had. It was about thirty degrees out and I was exhausted, so I pulled my sleeping bag out and decided to sleep in my car for a few hours then head to the canyon rim for sunrise. Though I didn’t get that great of a sleep in, I was glad to be at Bryce for sunrise. The way the golden light danced across the hoodoos was pretty magical. I even made friends with a German fellow who was a photographer as well. It seems that the Germans love the American Southwest.
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Behind The Scenes
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Lens: 24-105L
Focal Length: 84mm
ISO: 1000
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/500th
The Tools: 15 Inch Macbook Pro, Manfrotto Tripod
Location: Sunrise Point – Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Other Good Stuff: Lightroom 5, Nik Color Efex Pro 4
Workflow: The look of the this photo began with a 5 am wake up call to get the proper light. I hiked out to Sunrise point and setup my camera and trip to fix my gaze down into the canyon. Once the sun was in the perfect position I was able to capture that wonderful orange glow that really emphasizes the desert atmosphere. In post production I corrected some lighting inconsistencies by using a graduated filter to increase the exposure in the upper left corner of the frame. After that I brought the photo into Color Efex Pro 4 to bring enhance the orange glow with a sunlight filter and a skylight filter. I topped it off with a subtle vignette and called it a day.
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