Lynn WiezyckiMany photographers have a “bucket list” of places they want to photograph and the Moab, Utah area was definitely in mine! Colleen Miniuk has an annual Sheographer Workshop there, so I signed up!
Our Visit
On our first morning in Moab, we got up at 4:30 AM (pretty much the same every morning) in order to get to the morning’s photo location before sunrise! We drove into Arches National Park, driving to one of the locations that everyone passes! We parked just off the road before you pass the Towers. The actual parking lot is a bit past the Towers and the walk to the morning side would be a long one.
Courthouse Towers is not an arch, yet. Maybe someday way in the future! It is a huge monolith sticking up out of the rocky surface of this part of the park. We arrived in the morning twilight and as we hiked out away from the road, the light started to come up!
We were there in early March so there was still snow and ice in some areas with north-facing exposures but at the Courthouse Towers, the ice in the depressions had melted and still had not evaporated. These puddles made a great mirror for the towers as they were lit up by the early morning light!
I changed my lenses and cameras a few times as there was only a small amount of wind that morning (not something that was possible at upcoming locations!) so I made a variety of images of this big rock!
I then turned my attention to other points of view! I turned around and saw this with a much better sky!
I zoomed in on some details around the towers.
I love dead plants.
Then I started looking down. The rocky surface went on forever so there was a lot of textures to shoot.
I then went ultra-wide and very low.
Then I got even closer for a pure texture image.
At this point, I was very happy with what I had seen and I thought I had some good image possibilities but the group was still busy shooting so I decided to pull out my iPhone 14 Pro Max and lay down for a bit!
By lying on my stomach and holding my iPhone upside down right at the edge of one of the small puddles I got this image!
I had to lay as flat as I could and hold the iPhone out in front of me to keep my shadow from being in the image. It looks like there was a huge body of water and it was only about 2 ft by 3 ft!
I had put on a knee pad so getting up off that rock was not as bad as it could have been!
As we headed back to the cars I grabbed the IR camera one more time.
Then as we reached the cars I took the shot anyone who stops would get.
Photo Tip – Don’t just take a shot from the road! Walk a little and you may be surprised what you find.
I highly recommend a stop, and a walk to see and photograph Courthouse Towers. Note: The puddles may not be there at other times of the year!
To view larger versions of these images and others or to purchase prints and other photo merchandise, either click on one of the images or use this gallery link: Courthouse Towers Gallery
This was just the beginning of our adventures in Arches National Park in Moab, Utah.
My next blog post will take us to the other national park in the area, Canyonlands National Park.
That is all for now!
Lynn
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