Five years ago, Mary and I saw Horseshoe Bend for the first time. We photographed it twice, I believe. There might have been one or two other people around us. Boy, have times changed. We did a sunset and sunrise shoot there on our recent trip to Arizona and were joined by well over a hundred people for sunset (and about ten people at sunrise). Here is why people come.
The parking lot for Horseshoe Bend is only a ten minute drive outside of Page. The parking lot is big, but at sunset there was overflow parking along the road. It’s a half mile hike up a hill and then down a hill (going up hill both ways kind of sucks). You really don’t get the view until you are right up on the edge…and what a view.
I think that evening there was a photography workshop there with about ten people and maybe another dozen serious photographers (they had tripods) and a hundred other folks just enjoying the sunset.
I really can’t say it was enjoyable or relaxing with all of the noise and hub bub around us. In fact, one guy tried to squeeze in between me and Mary until she shooed him away and another guy literally laid down on the ground between our tripods with his one year old while his wife snapped away on an iphone. I held onto my tripod for dear life as the small child was kicking away. I say all this because there probably is no “bad” spot along the rim and the rim is a good 600 yards wide. Come on, people…spread out.
Thankfully, sunrise only brings out the serious photographers. Mark and I suffered in a freezing wind for 30 minutes waiting for the sweet light which lasted about 7 minutes. Once the sun comes up, the show is over. In my humble opinion, direct light on the bend does not look very good, but you’ll see thousands of these photos on the WEB.
Cat gave me the term “combat photography” a few years ago when we were at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. See our popular blog post about “combat photography.”
To see more of (and buy) our photographs, please go www.pamphotoraphy.com.
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Seeing your tripod that close to the edge gave me a few heart palpitations! (No head for heights.) Beautiful photos, as usual.
It can be a little unsettling. Concentrating on the photo helps. Thanks for the note.