Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon - EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 100

Shutter - 1/100 sec

F/stop - 20

Lens - 16/35 zoom

Location.

1. Mesa Arch can be found inside Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

2. The trailhead is marked and it is a pretty easy hike to the arch.

3. Drive time from Denver is about 6 hours.

4. Moab is a convenient place to stay if your not camping.

The Challenge.

Mesa Arch is located right on a cliff high above the valley floor, not giving you many different angles to shoot. So I wanted to see how many different pictures I could get from this location.

Solution.

1. First thing I decided was that I would visit the arch in the morning and then again in the evening.This would provide many opportunities, just with the sun in a different location.

2. In the morning the low light makes the bottom of the arch glow, very impressive, but the landscape in the background is back lit and not rich in color. I moved around the arch shooting many angles and used different lenses, giving me a variety of photos.

3. In the late afternoon, around 3 pm, the bottom of the arch is now black, but the west facing side is lit nicely. Also the background landscape looks beautiful. I again moved around to get different angles and used a variety of lens. I also used a off-camera strobe to light up the the bottom of the arch in one shoot. Don't go there to late in the afternoon, everything could be in shadows.