Shooting in Arches is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing, because the Park has some of the most spectacular (and photogenic) landscapes around.  A curse, because lots and lots of photographers have made images of said spectacular landscapes. It’s easy to make images of beautiful scenery, but hard to make something original.  The image above is illustrates both points. Delicate Arch is beautiful and iconic.  But when I shot this image, I had to wedge myself into a firing squad of other photographers — all making more or less the same image as here.

The second image, above, is an attempt to break out of the photographic cliches of making “straight” photos in the Park.  This is balanced rock — another icon of the park.  I used the hazy clouds to make silhouette.  Not spectacular, but at least it’s not a cliche.

This is another attempt to break away from cliche. The departure here has more to do with the quality of the light (hard, mid-day light) rather than the composition or subject.  This is in Courthouse Wash (a great, spectacular, and kid-friendly hike).  Instead of shooting this in the sweet light early or late in the date, I tried capturing an image in mid-day light.  It says at least a little bit about the heat and hash light of the desert. (It also says that my kids won’t get up before dawn to hike so that I can shoot the sweet light, but that’s another story).

This image (of Turret Arch looking through the north window) is even more of a cliche than Delicate Arch.  All of the calendar shots you’ve seen of this image were all made from the same six-foot by eight-food ledge opposite the North Window.  Every one.   Most have better morning light than this one (as you can see, the sky was heavily overcast, and I never got the sweet light I was waiting for) but I like this image because the light is a little different than usual.

Full cliche warning here (Balanced Rock) but at least the clouds are interesting.