One of the great things about living in such a large country as ours is the wide variety of environments. And that’s a huge advantage if you’re a photographer. From seashores to mountains, deserts to rainforests, you can find almost any ecosystem in the U.S. Of all the beautiful places I’ve been lucky enough to visit, the southwest is among my favorites. Wide expanses of arid lands, shaped by millennia of wind and water, it holds a naked drama that I find unique. Which is why I decided to hold a Moab photography workshop there last November.
For some workshops, just getting on location is a struggle. But not this one. Fly into Salt Lake City, drive 3.5-hrs and you’ll find yourself in the adventure capitol of the southwest. Moab offers everything from jeep tours to mountain biking to rafting, but I chose it because it also offers good hotels and lots of options for dining. And more importantly, it’s just a few minutes from Arches National Park, and less than an hour to Canyonlands National Park. That meant we wouldn’t spend a lot of time driving to and from locations.
If you want to pick two parks in the southwest that pair very well, Canyonlands and Arches among the best. In Canyonlands you’re mostly on top of mesas, shooting down and out into the vistas. With Arches, you’re at ground level, shooting up. Arches also has some of the easiest access to rock formations you’ll find. In both parks, many of the main features are just a short walk away from parking areas. The longest walk to any of the “big” sites there, Delicate Arch, is 1.5-miles (if you want to go to where the best photos are made). To be sure, it’s uphill most of the way in, across slickrock. And if you’re hiking in for sunset, which is the classic shot, it will be dark before you get back to the parking lot. For the most part, though, Arches offers easy access. Canyonlands does too, since most of its classic views have parking lots nearby.
Our itinerary was partly dictated by ongoing road construction in Arches. The park was closed from 7pm to 7am Sunday night through Friday morning. Since we wanted to do some night photography there, we arrived in Moab Tuesday night. That way we’d spend the first two days working the Canyonlands area, then Friday and Saturday have free rein in Arches, staying as late into the evening as we liked.
Enough talk. Let me show you, through photos, what we did over those four days. And I may run the same workshop again this fall. If you’re interested, let me know.
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Mesa Arch is probably the most visited arch in Canyonlands. It’s a comfortable 1/4 mile walk in from the parking lot, but during the regular season you can easily find a hundred photographers there waiting for sunrise. Going in the off-season, we had the arch almost to ourselves. And that meant we could take turns actually getting right up to the arch without blocking anyone, and make nice photos showing the view through it. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 64, 1/10 at f/22 in multi-segment metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor AF Zoom 14-24mm f/2.8G lens at 15mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Auto. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
After our visit to Mesa Arch, we headed to the Green River Overlook, which was still getting nice sidelight from sunrise. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/320 at f/7.1 in multi-segment metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 125mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
One of my favorite aspects of the Green River Overlook is all the other pictures you can make there. Getting in close to these worn rocks, and using the heavy shadows to create a framing device from the bottom worked well. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/160 at f/11 in multi-segment metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor AF Zoom 14-24mm f/2.8G lens at 14mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
Being a small group, working out of two minivans, made it easy to stop whenever we saw something worth shooting. This bit of fall color was along the road we took to get to Canyonlands. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/400 at f/5.6 in multi-segment metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 24-120mm f/4G IF-ED lens at 98mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
Dead Horse Point State Park is between Moab and Canyonlands, and well worth a visit. We stopped there at different times, both in early morning and late afternoon, to see it in different light. As with many landscape photos, having a strong foreground element improved the picture. This is also an HDR image, shot on a tripod with six different exposures to hold good detail in shadow areas as well as highlights. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 64, six frames with different shutter speeds at f/8 in multi-segment metering, Nikkor AF 20mm f/1.8G lens at 20mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
For our first sunset shoot in Arches, we picked the area of North Window, South Window and Turret Arch. That gave us three arches to choose from, all close together. I was photographing Turret Arch, seen here, when a man next to me started shouting for his wife, climbing into the arch, to wave at him. That human figure really made the photo. I thanked him. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 125, 1/30 at f/5.6 in multi-segment metering, -2.0 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 24-120mm f/4G IF-ED lens at 30mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
Delicate Arch was in shadow until the last few minutes of daylight, when the sun punched through the clouds. Sometimes you just get lucky. And, I’m happy to report that the people walking up to the arch to shoot selfies with their phones stopped doing that at this moment. Which problaby prevented a homicide from happening… Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 64, 1/25 at f/7.1 in multi-segment metering, -0.3 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 24-120mm f/4G IF-ED lens at 75mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
It was dark by the time our group got back to the parking lot from Delicate Arch, which fit our plans perfectly. From there we drove to Balanced Rock, to do some night photography with our tripods. Nikon D850, Manual exposure, 3850K white balance, ISO 1000, 30-seconds at f/1.8 in multi-segment metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor AF 20mm f/1.8G lens at 20mm, focus mode of Manual and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
Devil’s Garden is my favorite place to wander for a couple of hours. Lots of good, simpler shots to be made there, like this scene of light and shadow. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/1000 at f/4 in multi-segment metering, -0.3 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 200mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip, also made at Devil’s Garden. You can use Tunnel Arch to frame some rocks in the distance. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 160, 1/400 at f/7.1 in multi-segment metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor VR Zoom 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 105mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.
We made the most of our final evening of the trip, doing several night shoots. The most dramatic was here, at Double Arch. It’s in the same area as Turret Arch and the North and South Windows. making it a great area to spend time exploring. Nikon D850, Manual exposure, 3450K white balance, ISO 3200, 30-seconds at f/2.2 in multi-segment metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor AF 20mm f/1.8G lens at 20mm, focus mode of AF-C and Picture Control set to Standard. Photo copyright Reed Hoffmann.