Anand Rangaswamy Photography: Sunrise at Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park

You have gotta love Utah, if you love photography, rocks, and sunrise and sunsets.

Mesa Panorama

Mesa Arch is in Canyonlands National Park, about 60 minutes from Moab UT. This viewpoint is a short half mile hike from the trail head.The night before the shoot, I was looking at images online and I was particularly inspired by this blog. For what ever reason, this shoot kept me up for most of the night, I was nervous as though i was about to write an exam the next morning. The previous morning I was shooting Sunrise at Monument Valley and had again woken up at 5am. The original plan was to wake up at 5am and drive out to this point by 6:30 am. It turned out that I woke up at 3:45. I showered and waited for my buddy to wake up. Our respective wives woke up too in all the commotion and although cussing us for all the noise we made, they decided to accompany us even at this unearthly hour.

I visited this park in December 2011 and having lived in California for most of the last decade, I'm not used to temperatures below zero. The temperature that morning was 17 degrees F. We got to the trail head at 6:45 am and i started to run up to the arch as I was worried I might miss sunrise which was supposed to be at 7:15 am.

As i got there i saw at least 15 photographers lined up taking all the prime spots. To add to my woes, i would definitely need a wide angle lens-10mm at least to capture the entire arch.

I squeezed in next to this guy- who had fantastic equipment but was shooting in Auto mode! What was worse was his standing stance occupied atleast 1.5-2 feet and he wouldn't give me any space. As we waited for sunrise, a faint glow appeared and although it looked very beautiful I don't think any camera could capture that- something meant only for the eye. Within a few minutes the sun was rising and I could hear shutter clicks non stop. I clicked away cursing my breath for not investing in a wide angle lens. After taking many shots that captured part of the arch, I thought I should attempt to stitch the picture in post. I took many pictures in 3s. I got lucky that one of the 20 odd stitched pictures captured the panorama. As Craig Wolf mentions in his post, I hope I earned the right of passage with this picture.

About the photograph: Mesa Arch Panorama

3 photos stitched with Picasa.

ISO 200, 18 mm, f/13, 1/40

If I were to take this picture again, I would experiment with HDR to capture the canyon better. The glow surprisingly lasts for 30 minutes after sunrise, take your time. Sunstar picture at this location is a must!

About the photograph: Sunstar
ISO 200, 18mm, f/18, 1/80