How I created this image from Zion

The Milky Way rising amongst a slew of atmospheric airglow from the Canyons of Zion.

I am usually one to try something different.

So when my buddy and I decided to head to Zion for a night back during the May New Moon cycle, the first thing that popped into his mind was a shot of the Milky Way rising over the Watchman.

This famous location is notable not only for how beautiful it is, but also its ease of access from parking. And with that in mind, I really just saw no appeal in getting that shot. That is not to say I do not enjoy others capturing it and sharing it, I just personally wanted to strive for something that spoke more to me conceptually.

So with that in mind, I got to planing. Using the techniques discussed in my planning tutorial here, I was able to come with an awesome off-the-beaten-path location to grab a unique perspective of Zion.

It was less than only 5 miles of pretty much flat hiking, with some minor bushwhacking at the end. Unfortunately, we only had just a few minutes to shoot as my buddy had to be back in Vegas to work remote the next day.

Oh also….. We probably lost some time because the both of our extremely intellectual minds mistook a deer for a mountain lion and were yelling at it to go away for 30 minutes. Welp, there is always a story to tell!

So back to how the shot came to what it is from a RAW file, I figured I would screen record a little bit of post production fun. I will have a later series of tutorials on post processing down the road, but I figured I would keep this short and sweet in a blog post for meow. Enjoy!

If you plan to visit Zion, please plan ahead and prepare, and remember to follow all Leave No Trace Principles!

-Dan