We visited Arches National Park today. It was a mixed feeling – on the one hand, I was super excited to be able to visit a national park again (only a few national parks are reopened during the government shutdown). On the other hand, I wasn’t quite sure when the best colors should show up.

Normally, sunset time is my preferred time to photograph mountains. But the Arches rocks are in perfect bright golden colors in the afternoon already. They almost don’t need any more “golden” showers from sunset. They were already perfect!

The following was taken at the Fiery Furnace during sunset. None of the mountains or rocks in the picture was Fiery Furnace but I found them to be more “photogenic” to be my featured image today.

Tips of the Day

Similar to photographing trees and leaves, I found the best color of the Arches are in late afternoon, but not evening. Since the entire park was mainly rock formation, the overlook typically cast a shadow on the rocks if you wait till the evening hours, which could cause exposure problems. The sun was higher in the late afternoon and strengthened the “golden” colors perfectly while leaving no shadows.