2/3's of Delicate Arch

Sunday evening, July 24, 2011.
Sunsets at Delicate Arch during the summer are crowded. The crowds begin in the parking lot and you have to make sure that you get there early enough to just get a parking space before you can even begin the hike to Delicate.

The hikers run the gamut from kids in flip-flops to over-geared outdoor types in expedition hiking boots. The temperature is in the high 90's even though sunset is only an hour or two away.

Anyway, after 45 minutes of breathing thin air for a flatlander such as myself, we make it the familiar Delicate Arch at 4829 feet to join a couple of hundred other Arch worshippers. Reading Laurent Martres book on photographing Utah, I learned that Delicate Arch in summer falls in shadow during sunset. That along with the nuts who have to have their picture taken at the base of Delicate made me think that a partial shot of Delicate would be most effective.

I felt sorry for the German guy who kept yelling at the tourists posing in front of Delicate to get out of the picture. There was a bit of comic relief when one of them dropped their camera into the bowl next to Delicate.

Getting back to photo...I had planned this shot a couple of weeks previous, having been aware of the sunset shadow and the crowds as well as having been to Delicate previously. When I finally took the series of about half a dozen shots, I was locked into the sunset lighting the top of Delicate and all of the crowds seemed to disappear. A beautiful experience to share with Cece and Eva.