We took a long weekend trip to Moab to check out the annual Celtic Festival. This turned out to be a rather small event unlike the Scottish Festival that comes to Salt Lake City each year. But we did enjoy the festival, donned with our kilts, and had a great time listening to our favorite Scottish band The Wicked Tinkers.
On our second day there, we decided to get up well before to make our way into Canyonlands National Park with the intent of catching the sunrise at Mesa Arch. I have photographed this location before and you can see some great shots taken on Thanksgiving morning 2012 here. This location is very popular with photographers at sunrise as the bottom side of the arch glows orange when the sun crests the horizon.
Back in 2012, photographers were elbow to elbow lined up to capture the event. But a great respect was given to each other so that we all had a good spot to shoot the arch. This year was unfortunately a much different scene. A bus load of Japanese tourists were lined up shoulder to shoulder. But not the customary 25 feet away from the arch so that you can photograph the arch without anyone in your frame. Instead they were laying underneath the arch taking photos through the arch without even having the arch in their frame. Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to the foreigners…But…Uh…is it just me? Or what the heck? You come from the other side of the world to photograph Mesa Arch at sunrise and you don’t even include it in your photos? And you make it so that no one else can? So. instead, I moved off to capture some great shots of a rock formation known as Washer Woman. Oh well… Make the best of the situation, right?
The rest of the day in Canyonlands was spent hiking the rim out at Grand View Point and my favorite hidden gem False Kiva…
