July 11, 2016
The day after my first encounter with Milky Way photography I decided to return to the exact same location for some sunset photography, back into my comfort zone. Although, living in the flattest country in the world, photographing around sunset or sunrise in a mountainous environment like Zion NP isn’t actually that much of a comfort zone.
As usual I arrived well before sunset and took my time to explore the location. Unlike the night before, I could now actually see potential subjects. While finding my compositions, the guide that took us on the night photography workshop showed up with someone who was just learning all about landscape photography. While taking a couple of shots I was wondering if we would actually get some interesting light at all or that the cloud cover was just too thick. And then after a while colours started to show and I immediately knew: it’s game on! A quick look at the guide and her student… they left…
I had already made up my mind for my favourite composition here so I positioned my tripod, got the right filters, created the composition and while the colours were quickly intensifying I started exposing. And then all of a sudden it happened: the sky was full of beautiful colours that perfectly blended with the intense colours of the Zion NP rocks. I kept exposing and went for a few different compositions. It just lasted a few minutes and then the moment was gone. Luckily I adhered to one of the first lessons in landscape photography I learned: never leave early. It got me that amazing feeling: Got it!