Southwest USA; surreal landscapes
The Southwest of the USA exerts an enormous attraction on photographers. Virtually nowhere else you will find landscapes like in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California. Dry deserts, rock formations in surreal colors, deep canyons, and high mountain ranges. The variety of nature is unparalleled, and all of this in a relatively small and easily accessible area.
Southwest USA; slides from the past
I photographed a lot in this area, especially during the analog photography era, say, before 2004. Thousands of slides are a sweet reminder of my earlier travels in this unique region. Unfortunately, the quality of (scanned) slides is inferior to modern digital photos. That is why I recently made two photo trips to this area to see all those unique locations once again and capture them with a digital camera.
Photographic possibilities
In a single trip, as a photographer, you can photograph deserts, snow-capped mountains, impressive canyons, and rugged rock formations. The Colorado Plateau with the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce Canyon, is world-famous because its colors and shapes are almost unreal. This is a true El Dorado for landscape photographers.
Culturally, the region is interesting as well. Old Route 66 motels, abandoned gas stations, Native American traditions, and small desert towns give you, as a photographer, the chance to capture stories of history, freedom, and solitude. Many famous films and Westerns were shot here, giving the area an almost mythical status.
Lighting conditions often far from ideal
The climate in the southwestern USA is sunny and dry. Therefore the weather is predictable and you can work outdoors for long periods without any problems. However, a major disadvantage is that during the day, lighting conditions are often not optimal from a photographic perspective. The light is ‘harsh’ and all those clear blue skies eventually become quite boring. Beautiful light is often limited to the short periods around sunrise and sunset.
Tourist hordes
The southwestern USA is heavily visited nowadays. Unfortunately, this means that many highlights are overrun by tourists. For instance, the days when you could visit Antelope Canyon near Page in Arizona for US$ 15 and simply take photos freely for hours are truly a thing of the past. Nowadays, you pay at least US$ 250 for a one-hour visit in a group with some twenty other tourists. The use of a tripod is usually no longer permitted. The Southwest of the USA is still a great destination for landscape photographers, but you often have to search hard to avoid the tourist hordes.
In the photo gallery below, you will find a selection of images I took in the Southwest of the USA. A photo gallery with just under 40 images obviously does not do justice to the enormous diversity of this unique region. Therefore, on the blog pages, I will focus on a number of different areas in this region.
