Lisa goes behind the lens

“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.”

— Annie Leibovitz

Lisa’s got a talent for finding the right location and scene for a photoshoot.

This was our second day in Zion National Park and while I was interested in capturing the sun rising behind me and casting the low light on the canyon walls, Lisa had another idea. I was so focused on East Temple turning yellow and orange during golden hour, Lisa was sure there was a sunrise to capture behind me.

So, I set her up with the tripod, gave her a quick lesson and she was off. The result was the sunrise shot at the top of this posting. She’s a natural.

While this wasn’t the most strenuous hike physically, it was stressful to get to the location of the photo shoot. And that’s because we hiked up while it was pitch dark outside. Well before sunrise.

The only shot I got of the hike up, was this quick snapshot when Lisa shined the light down over the edge of the path that we were precariously navigating.

With nobody in front of us to lead the way and nobody behind us taking the same route for confirmation, we weren’t even sure we were on the trail. We felt we were right on the edge of cliffs from time to time, but it wouldn’t be until we descended that we had a full appreciation for it.

After Lisa captured the sunrise, I realized that I still had some time until the sun was high enough behind me before it illuminated the canyon walls. But the light was perfect for some portraits, so why not practice in a beautiful setting.

Lisa’s never happy with these early morning photo portraits (no shower, no makeup, no fixing of the hair), but she’s a trooper.

“It’s all to give perspective”, I tell her.

We awoke at 4:30, drove 45 minutes to the trailhead, hiked in the dark for another 45 minutes and now the moment had arrived. The sun was doing its thing. And I was doing mine.

At our location, we had the opportunity get up close and personal with the formations just across a narrow portion of the canyon, at pretty much the same height as us.

Confident that she had already captured The Shot of the morning, Lisa sat back, relaxed and watched it all unfold before her eyes.

Me? I had to keep working. Just a couple of more compositions from the top.

After hanging out chatting for a while with some other photographers that had arrived, we decided it was time to descend and see what that the trail actually looked like.

A quick peek to the side confirmed that there were some dangerous dropoffs along the trail.

Lisa led the way, as usual …

I paused to capture an Arch or a Bridge in the making. Give it another thousand years or so.

While I was looking back to capture more shots …

Lisa was processing our next steps in the descent …

This was one of the more interesting parts of the hike that we didn’t really get to appreciate on the way up in the dark. That dark dot in the center is Lisa.