That was the day of my driving trip through the Southwest when all my plans went down the drain.
I woke up before the sunrise in the town of Kanab (Utah) and drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where I was planning the spend the rest of the day including the sunset. You can imagine my surprise when I reached the Jacob Lake junction and discovered that the North Rim was still closed to the public. I guess I did not read the small print while planning my trip back in Montreal.
I had no idea the North Rim is closed for the winter for 6 months every year from November 15the through May 15th.
Since it was my last day allocated to Utah and Arizona and I had not backup plans and no time for emergency planning, I went to Zion National Park for help. At the Canyon Overlook Trail, I talked to the employees of the park and asked to recommend me something less obvious than Angels Landing. They pointed me to the Kolob Terrace is a lesser popular section of Zion, accessible by the Kolob Terrace Road.
The Kolob Terrace Road offers completely different perspective on Zion National Park. For 30-40km the road winding up and up until it reached the altitude of 2500m (8000 feet) from where you can observe pretty much the entire park in one panoramic view.
This is where I spent the entire day and took the featured photo just before the sunset.
Loc: 37.264811, -113.111445
Shooting
It was the typical “road trip” approach to photography. When I saw this magnificent view I just stopped the car and took a few shots from the side of the road. Actually, in this case, it was from the middle of the road.
Camera: Sony a6000
Lens: Sony-10-18
Focal Length: 18mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
ISO: 100
Aperture: F8
Shutter: 1/125s
Bracketing: 3 (-1, 0, 1)
Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442
Processing
It was a single RAW file editing.
The main goal for this photo was to convey the experience of the road trip through the Southwest. I used the road as the leading path into the composition.
The Point Lobos preset from my Landscape Collection does exactly that and it was an easy choice. I applied Point Lobos first and after I used TOOLKIT to boost colors and contrast.
The Lightroom Preset Editing Formula: Point Lobos (10, 17, 21, 24, 40)
Photoshop: color correction, contrast, cleaning. I used the Stamp Took to remove all distracting elements from the composition, including traffic cone, debris and the part of the fence.
Photoshop Plugins:
- Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce digital noise (sky).
- Topaz Clarity was used to enhance details and boost colors (foreground, mountains).
