Postcard from Island in the Sky–Green River Overlook

As you know by now, my friend and fellow photographer Dave Forster and I were up in Moab, UT a couple of weeks ago, shooting the beautiful landscapes that are all around this southeastern Utah city. Late one afternoon, we were high up in the Arches National Park scanning the sky trying decide where we wanted to be at sunset.  It did not look promising.

The places we had on our list all needed direct sunset light, but the clouds in the west were becoming thicker and thicker. Our prospects looked bleak. Then Dave came up with the brilliant idea of going to the Green River Overlook in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. This is the same park where we shot Mesa Arch two mornings prior. With all the clouds in the sky, we might get lucky and have a fiery red sky at sunset…and this overlook is one of the most scenic in the park.

We drove about 40 miles to get there and arrived well before sunset. We scouted for the best view, then set up our cameras on tripods and just waited…and waited and waited.

The problem with shooting this scene was the canyon itself was already in deep, deep shadows before the sun even set. And if the sky lit up liked we hoped, the values between light and dark would be huge, far more than the camera could capture.  We both set up split neutral density filter…a glass plate that is very dark on top and clear on the bottom.  This allows less bright light into the camera helping with the exposure with no loss of colors. I also decided to shoot multiple exposures of each shot with a range of +1 to –1.  As it turned out, even these settings and filters were not enough.

After a long wait, the sun finally set, but the light still wasn’t right.  We had to wait even more to see if the sky would light up at what we call “second sunset.” Our patience was rewarded with a fierce red and yellow sky that looked like the entire sky was on fire. Both Dave and I shot, and shot, and shot until the fire died away after about 10 minutes. It was well worth the trip and a beautiful site to see.

After getting back to Tucson, I started working on the multiple exposures to try and create one HDR image. It turns out my exposure corrections were not quite enough.  Through the magic of Photoshop, I had to create a 4th and 5th exposure and combine them into one. It still was not enough to create the perfect picture, at least in my view. The canyons below were still too dark…which of course, gives them a bluish cast. 

So I played and played with some of my other filters to create the image you see above. It isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I do like it a lot.  It stands on its own. The ground picked up some of the red from the sky, which came out through the filters. And, of course the sky itself is amazing. But, at the time I shot this image, the ground was in total darkness to the naked eye. I am just glad the camera was able to pick up some light. PS: It took over three hours of playing to create this image.

And by the way, this is one of the best overlooks in the park. Don’t miss it if you happen to be in the area…sunrise, sunset, or any time in between.