After driving the Mt Carmel stretch of Zion, it occurred to me that this place would be a goof sunrise location. So I headed out early enough to practice my moonlight style before dawn. It was only a half moon, but that was enough to illuminate this bright rock.

I had to use a headlamp to see where to walk. I had to take one shot to see where the camera was pointed, then make a couple corrections to get the first shot shown.

As dawn approached and I could see better, I moved position to get that tree in the second shot.

A bit more maneuvering got that foreground rock by the time the sun hit the caprock.

That's a pretty awesome part of the park. My favorite lighting is on the first, but I really like that yellow cottonwood in the second two images. I've wandered through those washes quite a bit, and whenever I see the adobe colored alcove in the upper right portion of the photo, I can see all sorts of figures reminiscent of cave drawings. On the left, it looks like someone is riding a giraffe. :-)

Thanks Ben. I knew the tree was there from a day before scout. But was reluctant to scramble to where I needed to be for it until I got my bearings.

I tried this scene with a 15mm but the terrific amount of upward tilt caused it to distort too much so I put on the 17TSE and used shift for part of it and moving for another part.

Here is a shot that does not include the tree, but has a nice piece of rock foreground.

Nice shots and interesting changes in the lighting conditions. What a fascinating site.

Phil

Hey Ben,

It looks like you did good here. All of these are nice shots. I would pick #2 and 4 as my favorites. It looks like your scouting paid off.

Jim

Thanks Phil and Jim.

I think this location has promise. Next trip I will do some more daytime scouting for composition and know in advance that predawn light is perhaps the best. I waited for more sun on the scene, but by the time it got to the next cliff face it was pretty harsh and it was going to be mid morning before the entire scene was lit.

But other times of year may be different. And some pink cloud cover could be a game changer.

Nicely done, Ben. My pick is # 2 also. I'll have to give this a try next time out.

Nice set of images. #3 is my favorite.
Mark

Wonderful scenes, Ben! The light in the first is immaculate - maybe next time you can get the tree from #2 as well ;-) But they are all super and well worth the effort of getting there in the dark...
Lizzie