Day 287: Cliffs of Zion

Another shot from Zion National Park and the set from the Narrows entrance. This one is looking downstream nearby where I shot the one that I posted two days ago. It was getting late in the afternoon and the light was starting to make the cliffs show their true colours.

This brings to an end my North American Road trip tour. It’s by no means a spectacular photo in any way, but a humble record of the cliffs of Zion National Park. The day after I shot this photo, we drove from Zion NP in Utah, through Nevada and Los Vegas, to California and LAX. We departed the US later that evening so it was a long day! I did return to the US in December of 2010 and stayed for 5 months so I’ll begin to post some of them in the next few weeks.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 286: From Deep in the Hoodoos

Before I talk about today’s photo I want to ask you for some help. I’m planning on entering a photo contest but I’m not sure which is my best wildlife shot. I’d love it if you briefly scrolled through my photos in the Kenya category and comment on what you think is my best wildlife shot from some of the National Parks I’ve been to.

While we were at Zion National Park, we took a day out and drove over to the nearby Bryce Canyon NP. It is a very unique landscape with the canyon full of hoodoos. Today’s photo is from a short hike we took down into the canyon. This tree somehow found enough light in the depths to grow straight and tall to find some decent light.

I am nearing the end of my photo tour of North America with maybe 1 or 2 more shots to show in this chronological sequence before I go back to picking one at random. I have one from the Canadian Rockies sitting on my desktop that I really like but didn’t want to make you think it was taken in Utah haha.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 285: Virgin River

I was struggling to find any good images to post from Zion National Park until I found the set I shot near the entrance to the Narrows. We didn’t have a lot of time in the park and just stayed in the main touristy valley and used the shuttle. I’ve seen a number of great shots from the area, but found it difficult to find a nice composition from the vantage points we had during those few days. That said, I should also mention that since it was a family holiday, and we were nearing the end, we were almost tired of being a tourist. We just wanted to have fun… so we spent some good quality time tubing down the Virgin River. That made for some good memories that seem more tangible than a mere photograph of the place.

The shot above was taken at 18mm with a slight crop of top and bottom. I used my ND filter (2 stops) and closed the aperture down to f/22 to get an exposure of 2 seconds (this was about 4:30 in the afternoon).

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 273: Sunrise Panorama

This image is another one from the drive between Bluff and the Grand Canyon. Monument Valley is really quite amazing! Click on the image to see it twice as big. Stitched in Photoshop CS6 from 14 vertical images.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, Arizona, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 271: Veer Right

I think this was taken on the north side of the Utah / Arizona border placing this scene in Utah, but it’s so close, I’ll post it in both categories. We left Bluff really early hoping to see a cool sunrise somewhere in Monument Valley. It didn’t turn out too spectacular but we stopped on the side of the road for breakfast anyway.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, Arizona, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 267: Mesa Arch

Some of you may have noticed that I added a sticky post to the top of my home page that showcases the thumbnails of the five most ‘liked’ images I’ve posted. I am going to try to update it each day when I check the blog in the morning if necessary. I’d love to use a widget to show popular posts, but I don’t want to use a sidebar and the footer is too far to scroll… Do you think this is a good idea?

After viewing the sunrise and the way it lit up the cliffs at Dead Horse Point, we drove on to our original destination in Canyonlands National Park — Mesa Arch. Since the sunrise was over, we got this place to ourselves which was nice. It meant we could move around more freely for various compositions. As you can see in the image above, the sun was still doing its thing, lighting up the underside of the arch so we got a few photos.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 266: Delicate Silhouette

Today is Post 266. That means there are only 100 more photos until I reach the end of my project. Time is going by so fast!

We made the hike up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park for sunset hoping for some nice colours, but it was mostly clouded over so we didn’t get to see it light up like usually does. I still came away with a few nice photos though.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 265: 21 for 21 (so far)

Today WordPress released a Milestones feature that many of you would have noticed. I was kindly awarded two badges today by the friendly folks at WP — I passed 1000 likes (I actually have 1138 at time of posting but I guess they released the feature today) and it was my best day for likes so far (21 on March 21). Thanks for all the likes everyone — as WP said on their blog post, it really does make us bloggers smile when our posts are appreciated!

This photo is from Dead Horse Point in Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah. We were wanting to get to Mesa Arch for sunrise but weren’t going to make it so chose to go to this closer location instead. It was definitely not as crowded. There was maybe only one or two other vehicles in the parking lot that morning.

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

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Day 264: Balancing In The Wind

From Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, we continued towards Utah and Arches National Park. We chose a route that took us through Idaho just so we can say we’ve been there, but I don’t actually think I have any photos from those few hours. This is Balancing Rock in Arches NP just outside the town of Moab, Utah. As we stood here we watched the storm rolling in across the landscape. The wind was crazy, but I was able to get a couple of good shots with my tripod. This is an HDR image from three shots (-1,0,+1).

My book, On Safari in Kenya, is available from the Blurb online bookstore with photos from my safaris on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. You can also find me on Facebook or see more of my shots from Utah, the US and North America with these links.

Thanks for looking. Join the conversation below!

Day 149: Red Cliffs

Today’s photo comes to you from Arches National Park, Utah. I really loved the desert here. The heat isn’t great, but the landscapes are incredible. I was able to place the sun beneath a little overhang to make it appear like it’s shining through the corner of the rock.

More shots from Utah, the US, and North America

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Day 145: Delicate Arch

We hiked up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah to see the sunset. When the clouds aren’t obstructing the sun, this rock formation really lights up. Unfortunately we didn’t get the sun shining through but the storm still made for an interesting background!

More shots from Utah, the US, and North America

You can sign up to get these delivered to your email inbox daily or request a print or canvas of this image for your wall! Otherwise, I’d love to hear your thoughts below. Thanks for looking!

Day 130: Bryce Hoodoos

Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah contains some fascinating landscape. Today’s photo is of the main amphitheatre in the park. Unfortunately we were unable to be there during the golden hours of the day when this scene lights up from the low angled sun. These hoodoos are formed by wind and erosion over time. The Paiute Indians believed that hoodoos were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone.

Day 85: Road To The Cliffs

Utah is a pretty awesome state of America. There is something special about the desert. I think it’s the significant lack of people and wide blue skies. This photo is from Monument Valley on the southern border with Arizona.

Day 71: Zion Canyons

I was looking through my photos from Zion National Park today and realised I have a few more good ones than I originally thought. Hopefully I’ll be able to weed through them over the next few months. I think this shot was from near the entrance to the Narrows.

Day 33: The Red Sunrise

Here is the sunrise shot taken close to the photo I sent last Friday. This is in Arches National Park, Utah.