Zion Waterfall

This spring, on our way down to California, we stopped off for two days to visit with our friends, Linda and Tim Tang in St George, Utah. We had a wonderful time with them, especially as they took us to visit Zion National Park. We were there from sunrise to sunset and I was in my element, taking lots of pictures. Anyone who has seen Zion, will know what a beautiful and awesome place it is, with amazing red rock cliffs bordering the canyon. At this time of the year, there were still pockets of snow at higher elevations, and the trees had yet to leaf out, so there were wonderful picture opportunities of stark trees, white against the dark cliffs. The weeping wall area was a riot of color. I took several pictures there and transfered them to black and white as abstractions, but I feel these particular pictures look better as color abstractions. This reminded me once again, that not all scenes make for black and white pictures. This week's picture was perfect for black and white conversion. This picture was taken looking north with the sun coming from the south west. The deep blue sky, made for a lovely dark sky with the waterfall beautifully silhouetted, brilliantly white. The cliff on the left hand side was fully illuminated by the sun, while the cliff on the right hand side was in shadow. but the lit cliff acted like a giant reflector and illuminated the shadowed cliff in soft light.

This picture is especially dedicated to Linda who had us all in stitches of laughter with her thoughts on what this scene reminded her of!! Enough said! I like the V shaped valley into which the water is falling and the black stark branches reaching up to the sky.

[photo for week of 17 May 2010]

© David Butts, 2010