Dew clings to the edges of this blade from a Cattail plant growing in the wetlands of Huntley Meadows Park. The weather today was headed for hot and muggy so I arrived early at the park to beat the heat. Most of the marsh plants were covered in dew drops, including the Swamp Rose below.

The park had a lot of wildlife activity this morning.  There were young Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers in the water, along with Beavers, Painted and Snapping Turtles, and Dragonflys darting around, like the Green Clearwing below.

The usual cast of characters, which can be seen year round here, were also present including Red-winged Blackbirds and pairs of Mallards.

All photographs above were taken using a 200-400MM f/4 lens, a very versatile lens.

With the workshop finished the day before, I had the whole day on my own.  It was a marathon session starting back at the North Window at Arches National Park to see if a ‘sunrise through the arch’ would be a possibility.  The sun made a gallant effort to peak through the clouds on the horizon.

Next stop was the trail to Delicate Arch, perhaps the most famous of the arches in Utah. This arch is best photographed at sunset but the threat of rain in the evening prompted me to make the hike in the morning, even though the lighting conditions would not be the best. Most people have seen this arch in numerous photographs, but no photograph prepares you for the scene before your eyes as you round the final wall of rock at the end of the uphill hike and come face to face with Delicate Arch.  Everyone that I saw come around that final turn just exclaimed “Wow” as they saw the arch. My photograph only documents that I was there.

The drive  through Arches is one incredible sight after another. A short walk from the road leads to the scene below which is called ‘Wall Street’.

Next, I left Arches and hit the road for Canyonlands National Park. The immensity of this park is staggering.  It almost seems as if you can see forever from the vantage point of the Island in the Sky district of the park.

I ended my marathon day of photography back at Arches National Park to catch the sunset. The image below captures the last light of the day at Balanced Rock, another of the amazing rock formations that make Arches a unique destination.

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The sunrise location on this day was Dead Horse Point State Park, near Canyonlands N.P.  The clouds, once again, had a part to play in hiding the sun from view this morning, but the clouds also offered a great backdrop to this Juniper tree with its graceful, sweeping curve.

Dead Horse Point has fantastic, panoramic views of the canyons and Colorado River, some 2,00 feet below. It is truly breathtaking.

This evening the group drove north of Moab, along the Colorado River to catch some great colors on the rocks.  A hard rain storm formed in the distance and we watched it cross the landscape.

This morning, the workshop group traveled to Mesa Arch for a sunrise shoot. Since I had been here two days ago, I concentrated  on photographing the scenery around the arch like the rock formation above known as the Washer Woman. I think using black and white better defines the various layers in this image.

Just before sunrise, the trail to the arch turned into rush hour as a bus load of visitors from China flooded into the arch viewing area.  No one could recall ever seeing this many people in this spot, this early in the morning.  All of the visitors wanted to have their picture taken under the arch and one by one, they each got their picture. It made for quite a comical scene. I was amazed so many folks could crowd into an area that I thought was crowded with 11 photographers when I was here two days ago.

After the mayhem had subsided, I took another image of Mesa Arch…

The group set out this morning for Arches National Park to photograph sunrise through the arch known as the North Window. However, the early morning cloud cover prevented any chance of seeing the sun come up over the horizon. The cloud cover did start to break up soon after daylight and we were treated to some fantastic light and cloud formations.  The image above is of Turret Arch which is located very near the North Window. Turret Arch offered many different compositional options and I spent a lot of time photographing it.

A little later, we noticed a storm forming and could see the rain falling in the distance. The cloud patterns along with the strange rock formations found here gave the scene below the appearance of belonging to another planet.

This evening we traveled to the ‘ghost town’ of Cisco.  An almost abandoned small town mostly composed of dilapidated homes and out buildings that have either totally collapsed or are just about to. The area is strewn with discarded items, old cars and trucks, looking like a junk yard with a lot of potential for growth.  Set against the background of the sunset, this area looked just as alien.

Since my workshop didn’t start until this afternoon, I rose early (3 AM) to drive to Canyonlands National Park, the location for one of the iconic landscape photographs, the sunrise at Mesa Arch.  It’s known for the incredible glow on the underside of the arch from the reflected light of the sunrise off the surrounding rocks. I was first at the trail parking lot but it was still pitch black outside.  A number of other photographers trickled into the parking lot before it was light enough to see the trail.  The arch itself is not very large and the area at the arch is fairly confined so the 11 photographers who were there to record the moment were pretty much shoulder to shoulder.  Everyone got their photographs of the sunrise and packed up and left.  I stayed behind and watched the sun rise higher and higher and took the image above just as the sun broke over the top of the arch.

After leaving Mesa Arch, I drove the park roads to check out the scenery.  I was here about eight years ago and always wanted to return to this spectacular park with its incredible views, like the one below.

My drive into Moab, UT, for a photography workshop, passed by several of the well-known landmarks in the area, such as the rock formation above called Fisher Towers. In the background is part of the La Sal Mountains which dominate the landscape here.  The workshop is concentrating on the landscape of this area as well as Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. On this day, my arrival into Moab was in the late afternoon with some very nice light firing up the color of the rocks.