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Tom Stotler (www.treynoldsphotos.com) probably doesn't take mediocre pictures like the one above. The shot has no color, no engaging subject, and a nasty lens flare. It's not bad, but Tom knows better: He seeks out those circumstances that should result in a great photograph: The right composition in the right location at the right time. Tom has researched great places in southern Utah, taken the time to learn when they look best, and – for a modest fee – he'll take you there. All you need is a little technical proficiency and the ability to press the shutter.
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Clive photographs Mesa Arch
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Walking through gorgeous BLM canyons in the Utah desert on a pleasant Autumn day to seek out classic, obscure Anasazi ruins to photograph has GOT to be one of my favorite perfectly legal things to do. And these weren't ordinary ruins, some of those we visited were recently popularized by other photographers; perhaps most recently by John Sexton in Lenswork magazine (#46, April-May 2003). Yes, I was thrilled to be asked if I wanted to attend this workshop, as I had been wanting to capture ruins in the same way (see my article "The Long Weekend of July 4th".)
I took Thursday off from work to make it into Moab, Utah, in the early afternoon, well before any of the five other attendees. Was my enthusiasm apparent? I checked in to the Apache Motel (where John Wayne stayed...twice!).
Thursday afternoon I went up Kane Creek Gulch to see check out some of the canyons and arches in the BLM area known as Behind the Rocks, which is just outside of Moab. This was uneventful. I had hiked up Hunter Canyon to find "Hunter Arch", but didn't see it. I turned around and drove back to Moab, but had a continued around, I understand that the road continues to a "fin" area much like the Fiery Furnace in Arches NP. After returning to the hotel room, Tom dropped by to torment me with some of the beautiful images he'd taken of the workshop locations, and said that we were waking up before dawn the next morning to set out for our first dawn shot.
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Shooting Flame House
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At 5 AM, we met in the parking lot, and as we did we were greeted by Jana, Tom's wife, who immediately offered coffee. We were then shuttled off to the Islands in the Sky, arriving well before dawn, to photograph the first light arriving at Mesa Arch. We encountered a little rain on the way, and indeed it was so cloudy that the dawn light lasted perhaps 3 minutes before entering the low cloud ceiling, not to return again while we were there.
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Navajo Arch
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Tom thought that the light at Arches could be nice with this cloud cover, and because two members of the group hadn't been there before, we set out for this National Park after a short breakfast back in Moab. A couple of us headed to Navaho Arch on my suggestion; it is about as good as you might hope to do in such a popular area at midday.
After killing most of the afternoon in Arches, we headed again to Islands in the Sky (across the road, in Canyonlands NP) to photograph "False Kiva", a location arguably made popular by Tom Till. Rumor is, though, that Tom won't tell you where it is. Indeed, you would probably never find it on your own, because even if you thought you could circumlocute it, you cannot see it until you're actually there. Perhaps it doesn't need to be a secret now, though: It might be that the "ruin" was actually created by some boys in the 1950's. It could truly be "False". Anyway...the dusk light didn't become as brilliant as we'd hoped, but I did use a split density filter for the first time. Yes, you can probably do the same thing in Photoshop. But it's just twelve bucks, and it takes seconds to use. After walking back to the road in the dusky light, most of us, extremely tired, went off to a Moab Brew Pub for dinner.
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Dawn near Potash, below Dead Hourse Point
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Saturday was the day I'd been waiting for: A trip even further into southern Utah to see where some of these great ruins were. After a short drive of about 70 miles (which, at high speed, take Tom & Jana about 50 minutes to accomplish), we arrived near Mule Canyon. Here, we entered an unmarked dirt road to hike up-canyon to our first shot of the day, Flame House Ruin. What a great hike! The smell of damp sage pervaded the cloudy, Autumn sky, and accompanied us during the mile-long walk through a beautiful shallow canyon.
Back in the car, we proceeded to "Three Room Ruin", whose Trailhead is located up Cigarette Springs Road off of Highway 261. After about a 1.5 mile hike, we arrived just before the noonday sun would begin illuminating the ruins, which would have wrecked the shot.
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Fisher Towers
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After returning to Moab for a bit of a rest, we drove down Highway 128 (at about 65 mph) to a handicap ramp where we could photograph Fisher Towers over the Colorado River. There were some folks already there, but after we careened to a stop and began pulling out tripods and camera gear, one exclaimed, "CBS has landed!".
Sunday morning we headed to "Potash", just outside of Moab, to take a picture of dawn light against a rock face looming over the Colorado river. A tricky shot, because it's easy to get uninteresting foreground in your frame...unless you get right up to the edge of the 600' cliff.
I think I learned a lot about photography on this trip. From the technical: Nearly everyone on this trip had carbon-fiber tripods, and three of these had ArcoTech's Ultimate Ballhead. Also, having a full-frame sensor, like the one on the Canon 1Ds, permits the 1:1 correspondence for the len's focal length: The Canon D60's 1.6 size factor turned my 17mm into a 27mm, reducing the field-of-view by several degrees. To the artistic: Everything in your photo should be interesting: You'll want stunning composition in perfect light. I think I succeeded on this count; this workshop delivered me - at high speed - to exceptional locations just in time for great light.
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