After a morning hike along Park Avenue, my buddy Zeke and I headed out again to catch the sunset at Delicate Arch. We hit the trailhead at 7:30 and made it to the Arch, a mile and a half mostly up steep slickrock, by 8:00. We were sweaty wrecks, and I wasn't quite sure at that point that it was worth it to lug my full-size tripod up there, but it turned out to be.
This is a combination of two exposures: one for the rock, one for the sky. The sky was mostly grey and largely flat for most of the time I was up there, but then the sun pulled one of its favorite little tricks: bursting out below a thick cloud layer just before sunset and igniting the sky with a symphony of color. It lasted less than ten minutes. The gathered photographers were abuzz with a flurry of clicking. Of course, this was also the time that the happy families decided that they wanted to stick their kids on the base of the Arch and take happy family photos, but some of the photog crowd was not shy about telling dads with PowerShots to get out of the way...
Although my editing is a bit coarse and could stand some improvement, I'm pretty happy with the way this looks--on my monitor, anyway. Some photos are pretty forgiving of the discrepancies in tonal and color reproduction from monitor to monitor; this one isn't. It looks very different on all four screens I've seen it on. I expect that to have a negative impact on my score, but I love Delicate Arch and this is definitely among my best photos from my three-week, 5500-mile trip from Pennsylvania to California, so here goes.
--
focal length 10.0mm
8:35 pm
--
Post: thank you for the high votes and all the great comments--and the points of criticism are well taken. It is an honor to win my first blue ribbon in a free study amid a field with so many brilliant photographs.
For those interested in such things, here's the original photo used for the sky:
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 259 Avg (all users): 7.3613 Avg (commenters): 7.8947 Avg (participants): 7.3229 Avg (non-participants): 7.5217 Views since voting: 5132 Views during voting: 253 Votes: 119 Comments: 44 Favorites: 7 (view)
Great image Damon. Congrats again the ribbon...and I think you did a masterful job of editing it to really give it some awesome pop. And had I been able to take such an awesome shot, I would have cloned out the tiny little people in the bottom left as well.
First, I should make it clear that I was simply watching and shooting; as my source photo for the sky.makes clear, I didn't ask people to move before I hit the shutter. Those photographers who asked families to move made their requests politely--more an exhortation not to linger longer than necessary.
Second, if I were to speak in defense of those asking folks to stay clear of the Arch itself, I'd say something like this: the vast majority of people, photographers and nonphotographers alike, were well away from the Arch and not impeding anyone's view. Only those few familes that placed their kids directly on the Arch were getting in the way of anyone else's view or photo--and there were probably fifty people there. What superior right of access does a group of three people have that would justify their monopolizing of a national landmark during rare and ephemeral conditions?
Edited to add: This message was primarily intended as a response to Christopher (former owner of the now-defunct Venser user account, author of the immediately preceding message), but also implicitly addresses comments by, e.g., Patsy (ancientimages).
Of course, this was also the time that the happy families decided that they wanted to stick their kids on the base of the Arch and take happy family photos, but some of the photog crowd was not shy about telling dads with PowerShots to get out of the way...
Unless you had a permit enabling you to monopolize the Arch, I would have told you to f*ck off. What gives you, or the other photographers, the right to tell the families that they're less entitled to their photos compared to your lot? Really interested to here the answer to that one.
After seeing your Original for the sky I have to wonder if this is going to be validated. There are people on the left side of the arch, and if they aren't there in the exposure for the Arch, then this isn't going to cut the standard mustard for combining elements.
Yeah, some of the rudest photographers I've ever had the misfortune to meet were at Arches... if you were "sweaty wrecks" making it to Delicate Arch, imagine how difficult it was for the "happy families" with kids who wanted to memorialize that achievement... They had just as much right to be there as you and the rest of the "photog crowd".
That said, it's a decent image and obviously appeals to the DPC crowd.
I have come back to this image a few times trying to come up with some words. I think the arch is competing with the deep valley to the right. I find my eye going back and forth when I think the arch could be the main focal point. The tones and processing are done well. Seems like there is a little too much darkness on the left and lower left. Overall, a very interesting work. 8
After the Rain
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
