A Doubleheader from Horseshoe Bend

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The sun breaks through foreboding storm clouds and lights the walls of the canyon at Horseshoe Bend outside of Page, Arizona.
The sun breaks through foreboding storm clouds and lights the walls of the canyon at Horseshoe Bend outside of Page, Arizona.
The first light of dawn bathes Horseshoe Bend and the clouds above in a soft, serene pink light outside of Page, Arizona.
The first light of dawn bathes Horseshoe Bend and the clouds above in a soft, serene pink light outside of Page, Arizona.

Well, officially I guess a doubleheader happens in the same day. I apologize to all the baseball fans out there. After witnessing the awesome sunrise in the previous post, I left Zion and started making my way back home. I thought the storm would be making it’s way over to the Page, Arizona area and decided to stop and see if I could get a shot of Horseshoe Bend with clouds. I have been shutout most of the times I have been there.

The first shot is from the evening I was out there. I got there about an hour and a half before sunset, and was glad I did. This was one of the first shots I took after getting setup precariously on the edge of the cliff.The sun broke through the clouds and lit up the canyon walls behind the bend. The storm was moving in rather quickly and I was hoping to have brilliant red clouds close to sunset. Unfortunately, it moved a little too quickly and it started to rain. I sat in the rain until well after sunset hoping for something to happen. That something happened a couple of miles away over Lake Powell. Sorry to say, but you can’t be in two places at one time! I like the brooding atmosphere in this image. It foretells of the storm that is to follow.

The second shot is from the next morning. I got all of my gear dried off in the hotel that night and was hoping the clouds would still be around in the morning. When I awoke, I saw mostly stars in the sky from the window. That didn’t bode well. I got to the edge of the cliff well before sunrise to get setup and wait while the cold wind blasted in my face. I set the tripod low to the ground to try to reduce the chance of shaking the camera. As dawn broke, I was surprised to at least have a few clouds. As the sun rose, the sky and the clouds turned a beautiful shade of pink. It made for this very serene image. Both these images are three shot panoramas created by shifting my 17mm tilt shift lens vertically. It makes for very large, very sharp images that can be printed very large!

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