See the Light

It’s all about timing. When the sun is lower in the sky (sunrise and sunset), the light is warm and gentle on your subject. Mid-day light is brighter and will lend a harsher feeling to your images. Don’t photograph into the sun. Instead, take your pictures of what the sun is illuminating. If you do shoot into the sun, put a person or object in the frame to capture “rim light” created by the sun around the object.

Frame of Mind

Great photographs generally have one main subject which fills most of the picture. Before you take a shot, zoom in so that an arch, gnarled juniper tree, or striated sandstone fills most of the frame. Experiment with putting your subject off to one side rather than the center. Get low and shoot high or find a vantage point and shoot down. Watch your step!

Find Your Focus

Experiment with depth of field. Usually, you will want to shoot with a narrow aperture (f/16 or f/18) and focus on the foreground to get the entire scene in sharp focus, or try a larger aperture (f/4 or f/5.6) to force the background out of focus. Use a large aperture, focus on a single wildflower, and the crisp flower will “pop” against a blurry background.

Shooting the Stars

Night photography is really cool, and doing it right is tricky. Having the right gear helps, and the new cameras on phones really make a difference.

Point and Shoot

A point-and-shoot or a phone camera allows you to concentrate on being creative. Just point, say “smile,” and click! With most phone cameras you can increase photo quality by touching the screen to focus on your subject. Today’s phones have so many new photography features; take some time to play and get used to them.

Go with the Pros

Bret Edge leads private nature photography workshops throughout the Moab area. He is passionate about helping photographers improve their skills and create dynamic images at iconic and off-the-beaten path Canyon Country locations. 602-571-4170, MoabPhotoWorkshops.com.

Bryan Haile Photography Tours offers full- or half-day commercially insured private tours of Moab’s most scenic areas. Landscape photography composition instruction for all skill levels. Night photography and Milky Way photography instruction under Moab’s darkest skies. 970-412-7464, BryanHailePhotography.com/moab-photo-tours.

Colin D. Young leads small group landscape photography tours in the Moab area day and night during the spring and fall, plus multi-day workshops for a deeper dive into the area’s red rock secrets. He specializes in helping photographers capture the Milky Way in our internationally recognized dark sky parks. 917-902-3063, RockLightPhotoTours.com.