Bryce Canyon - day 4

Sigh ... Colder than ... Oh Hell ... Damn Cold

My last evening in Bryce (finally) it got even worse. The wind wasn't quite as bad but it was impossibly cold and then, to add insult, it started to snow quite heavily. As is my habit, I went to the hoodoos and show another pano (not showing this one as I don't want to overwhelm you with Bryce hoodoo pictures). By the time I got back to my campsite, the road was icy and, for my little pickup, impassable. I tried but the little truck just jumped up and down on the slippery slope but made no progress toward my tent. I was forced to park at the hill's bottom and walk in. Normally this wouldn't be a big issue but I have asthma and the exertion drained me. I found my tent covered in wet snow but still standing (what a great tent ... Marmot I genuflect in your honor). I was too cold and too exhausted to do more than take off my outer coat and put on a warm pair of sweatpants before crawling into my sleeping bag. Unfortunately, it would appear the bag was damp inside meaning I didn't get warm all night and barely slept.

Morning was, superficially, glorious as the ground was covered in snow. I crawled (literally) from my tent and slowly started the uncomfortable process of moving my tent and belongings down the hill. It took 4 trips, each one taking just a little more of my diminished reserve of energy, to get everything into the truck and, call me crazy, one more trip to the hoodoos. I couldn't pass up this opportunity ... the amphitheater covered in snow and the sky ... it was grand. I met a pro photographer, Kevin Burk from LA, on the rim and we had a wonderful conversation about the art of taking landscape pictures. It was a great morning ...

Bryce Canyon Snowfall

This is probably the best of the panos I made in Bryce. It was damn cold and my fingers were frozen but how could I refuse. As Kevin and I talked I set up the camera and waited for the perfect light. It didn't take long and the image below is the result. I can't get enough of this photo. The dynamics just blow my sox off. I may be hard pressed to take any picture better than this during the rest of my cycle. WOW.

Bryce Canyon Snowfall - 16mm (1.6 crop), f/18, varying exposure, ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

You're familiar with the process by now but there was one rub. For some weird reason, Photoshop refused to crop the panorama. I'll place the crop box where I wanted it and hit return and the picture disappeared ... into the ether I guess. Nothing there. If I used undo there was just a black screen where my beautiful image had been. What do do? Imported the Photoshop file into Lightroom and cropped it there then took it back to Photoshop to finish off. Weird but you got to do what you got to do. Then back into Lightroom for some finishing touches and the result ... takes my breath away. Click on the photo for a larger version ... it's worth the effort I assure you.