Last week the wife and I spent Spring Break in Moab, Utah, one of my favorite places to explore and photograph, jumping point to Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and several smaller yet also noteworthy areas. While in Moab one of things I wanted to do was catch sunrise at Dead Horse Point State Park, an area I hadn't visited yet. The park is known for a dramatic overlook of Canyonlands National Park and a section of the Colorado River known as the Gooseneck. I knew the time had come to see this in person.
We made the decision to head out to Dead Horse Point on the morning of March 31. Dawn that morning was 6:40AM, with sunrise at 7:06 AM (I'd like to take a moment and recommend SunCalc - located at www.suncalc.net - a free desktop app that shows sun movement and sunlight phases during any given day at any given location, with the ability to go back in time and look up sunrise/sunset times, which is a handy feature for people like me who don't always take the best notes). Knowing that the drive to the park from Moab would take about 45 minutes, and that I would want to be into position early to get the best spot to shot that morning, necessitated a 4:15 AM wake-up. Thankfully my wife is a light sleeper and early riser, so all I had to do was get up - knowing I could leave the driving to her...
We arrived at the destination around 6, and after a brief wait walked out to the overlook, took a look around, picked a spot, hopped over a wall, and got into position on a ledge overlooking the river at around 6:25 AM. I set up my tripod and mounted a 16-85mm mid-range zoom to my camera, so I would have a good range of focal lengths to work with...
With sunrise coming at 7:06 AM, now it was time to wait and watch the light. At 6:45 AM. I took a few shots of the cool, dawn, pre-sunrise light. When post-processing the shot later I used a Tilt Shift effect to give it a both a "miniature" look, and to help pull the viewer in...
A few minutes later the sun rose, then at 7:17 AM the sun started to hit the top of the ridge on the canyon's far side, opposite the sunrise. There were few clouds in the sky, but the light playing off the canyon walls was more than enough to get my full attention...
7:20 AM. As the sun rose higher in the morning sky, the light started working its way down the canyon walls and hit the ridge on the piece of land circumvented by the Gooseneck section of the Colorado River...
7:25 AM... At this point I switched to my wide angle (10-24mm) lens. The canyon lands were bathed in light now, with a strong reflection of the landforms in the Colorado River, and I wanted to use a wider angle of view to show as much of the light playing off the land as I could...
7:40 AM. The sun had risen high enough in the sky by this point that the light was starting to even out a bit, and although it was still a spectacular sight, the best shots of the morning had been taken. After breaking down my tripod and hopping back over the wall to the foot paths, I still had one more shot I wanted to get. On the way in I had seen this juniper tree, and I wanted to get a couple of shots with the morning light kissing it. Still using my wide angle lens, I zoomed all the way out to 10mm and walked up as close to the tree as I could while still capturing the sky behind it. I was probably two feet from the tree when I took this shot...
Dead Horse Point. What is there to say other than I want to go back, to catch another sunrise, to catch a sunset, to marvel once again...
All photos taken with a Nikon D7000, and Nikkor 16-85 DX VR and 10-24 DX lenses. Camera support provided by a Manfrotto 190XPROB Pro Aluminum Tripod with Manfrotto 496RC2 Compact Ball Head.
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