The hardest thing about traveling and photography is timing. There is only one sunrise and one sunset each day. There are only so many places you can be at once. Getting the timing right to create a great photograph with beautiful lighting is hard.
There is only so much time on a trip and so many things to see. There are dinner plans, reservations, travel partners who might not as passionate about photography, weather and even perhaps trouble finding locations.
Everything came together for my wife’s photograph of the Grafton Ghost Town in Rockville, Utah just outside of Zion National Park. After a long day of travel from Las Vegas, Nevada and a 105 degree tour of the Valley of Fire State Park.
My wife is just starting out in photography but has been absorbing concepts of composition from me and from our son who attends an art and design college. I got her a more serious compact camera this year – a 20 megapixel Sony RX100 III 20.1 MP Premium Compact Digital Camera w/1-inch sensor and 24-70mm F1.8-2.8 ZEISS zoom lens (DSCRX100M3/B)
Juggling Photography, Touring, and Dinner
After a long day of travel and photographing who doesn’t like to relax at the end of the day with a nice cocktail, dinner or at least check into the hotel before nightfall.
Sometimes it’s tough to fit everything in during the best time of day. It helps if your travel partner is also busy taking photographs. Besides my wife captures things that I miss like the wonderful shot of the ghost town above. I was off in a different area.
She managed to capture a great view with the old homestead in the foreground, hills in the middle ground and a wonderful background of the setting sun and mesas.
By the time the summer sun was setting it was quite late. We still hadn’t found our hotel, found a gas station or a place to eat. Eating was to priority and luckily the Whiptail Grill was still open.
We didn’t even realize until later that we had lost an hour between our travel from Nevada to Utah. They took us in even though it was an hour past closing. After dinner we checked into the hotel for what turned out to be a less than 10 hour stay.
Two days later we’d be getting up at dawn on my wife’s assistance to capture the sunrise in Bryce Canyon National Park.
For the record my wife is an early riser. I am typically more of a night owl but I’m glad we grabbed the quilt off the bed of our cabin in Bryce and hiked over to see the sunrise. I had my camera on a Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB 100 Aluminum Tripod Kit and took bracketed shots with my Canon EOS 6D 20.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD (Body Only) – Wi-Fi Enabled.