Photographing Bryce Canyon National Park

First Visit

Sunset Point Detail

As I indicated in my previous post, my first trip to Bryce Canyon National Park in November, 2016, did not go quite as planned due to my Ford Explorer transmission failing. As a result, even though I spent almost a week in the area (at Panguitch, Utah) I ended up only spending about 2 and a half hours at Bryce Canyon National Park.

I did not visit all of the view points. I did not even drive to the end of UT 63, the road through the park. I visited the visitors center, the Sunset, Bryce, and Inspiration view points, and North Campground. My sample of the park is limited.

Photographing at Sunset

As I discovered while researching the park before my visit, Bryce Canyon mainly runs north and south. The park is located on the west rim of the canyon. This means that, from the view points, sunrise is probably the better time to take photographs. My short visit was at sunset.

Sun Setting at Sunset Point

At sunset time there can be a lot of shaded area and because the cool hoodoos are mainly close to the west rim, they can be in shadow when the eastern part of the canyon is still lit. You can see this in the photograph at right.

This  makes the photographs hard to post process and basically not terribly attractive. The red of the hoodoos just isn't as spectacular as when they're lit directly. And, as in the picture at right, the near hoodoos are more striking than the distant landscape and should be the focus of the image however, due to them being in shadow, they really don't command the attention in the photograph.

One solution is to crop out the lit areas or to not include them in the crop at exposure time. Another reason to use a longer lens for landscape photography. The crop of the photograph at the top of the page is somewhat different - I was able to get the interesting formations while they were still lit by the sun and to include the "bank" behind them which was in shadow. I'm happier with that composition.

My Favorite View Point

Again, my time at Bryce was limited. But out of the 3 viewpoints I stopped at around sunset, Inspiration Point was my favorite. I felt it provided a nice place to fill the image with hoodoos.

Shot from Inspiration Point

This shot might actually be better in mid-day light. This shot is basically looking north from the view point, perhaps 5 or 10 degrees east of north. I didn't see it at sunrise so I can't say for sure how it would look, but the sun would be hitting the right side of the hoodoos. Perhaps during the winter months the sun rises far enough to the south that it might get more direct sun as it rises.

What's Next?

I definitely want to go back when I am not focusing on my automobile issues. I want to see all of the viewpoints, including the Natural Bridge. From the rim, all photographs have a perspective of looking down at the hoodoos. All of the shots I took are very similar, at least from that perspective. I think you need to hike down into the canyon a bit to get different perspectives.

I think there are probably a lot of good photography opportunities there, and I know it is a destination for a lot of photographers. Personally I didn't find much diversity. Yes, it's different than a lot of other areas but it just struck me that there is really only one subject - the red hoodoos.

Frankly, I think I got spoiled by Yosemite and Sequoia / King's Canyon National Parks. I really like the diversity of subjects at Yosemite - the granite, the valleys, and the rivers and water falls. I had the same lack of enthusiasm at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in October, although I did get to shoot some bison photographs there. I'm trying to keep my enthusiasm up for non-Yosemite landscapes!