The Canyonlands Icon: Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch. This is the big classic image all traveling landscape photographers want to add to their trophy collection when they head to Canyonlands National Park. (To see this classic picture well done–albeit with a somewhat boring sky–go to Alain Briot’s site here and scroll down to the third image. He is a great photographer so his print, I’m sure, is spectacular.)

So, yes, I went marching off to Mesa Arch as well…but with very little hope of capturing anything better than what has already been done before by folks with much more experience and talent.

Here is one image I came up with that 17 degree morning–the obvious one–as I squeezed between the tripods of a Korean-American from Los Angeles with a huge panoramic film camera contraption and another guy with a normal DSLR, coincidentally also from Los Angeles…it’s basically a copy of the standard stuff you always see:

Sunrise at Mesa Arch. Canyonlands NP, 2013

I think I like to visit these iconic landscape photography sites more to pay homage to a beautiful place…and to just be there to experience the sunrise and the light, and enjoy the moment. If I happen to get great light and capture a nice image, that is a bonus. Meeting the other photographers and seeing how they look at things and how they set up for the shot is also quite educational.

However, here is the one big tip for you when you go to these places…Walk around and see if you can find an unusual perspective that is different from what you typically see. Like this, for example:

Dawn at Mesa Arch. Canyonlands NP, 2013

Or, how about this angle–can you locate the arch?:

Mesa Arch View #2. Canyonlands NP, 2013

For another heretical tip, you could even turn your back completely on the GREAT SACRED ICON (oh my, oh my!) and see if there might be another interesting image in the vicinity just waiting to be disrobed by your lens. By doing this, you revert to seeing as you see and not simply copying what others have already seen. You might find something like this, for instance:

Sandstone Abstract (The Near and Far). Canyonlands NP, 2013

One important practical note about photographing Mesa Arch. If it ranks high on your photographic bucket list, consider going in the off-season (try January or early February) or just as a storm comes in or breaks up and the weather is crap (you could get lucky with some great light and a light crowd). Or, if you absolutely must go during the tourist migration, wake up really early and beat the crowd to stake out your tripod space. (To see how this shoot can go down during high season, as well as how the photographer chose his angle and processed the image, go to Peter West Carey’s interesting article here on the Digital Photography School website.)