Stormy skies over Cathedral Rock
Have you been to Sedona, AZ? It's a beautiful place, even in the stifling heat.
Last summer, we packed up the car and headed out on an epic 2 month road trip across the western United States. You can read about that here. We passed through 10 states during the trip, giving us the opportunity to really see some of the most gorgeous scenery this country has to offer (and we also saw Las Vegas, LOL).
One of the first places we made it to was Sedona, AZ. I had always heard that Sedona is a beautiful town, but I'm not much of a "Southwest" kind of person - I tend to prefer the rocky, mountainous landscapes, forests and beaches of the Northwest. Add in the heat that I knew would be present there in Arizona and I didn't expect to like it too much.
Wrong! I have to say that I really did find Sedona to be quite beautiful!
Yes, it was incredibly hot there - there's no getting around that. Luckily, as you have likely heard before, it is a "dry heat", so the low humidity made it more bearable. Here in Texas where I live, we get really high humidity and high temps, so it's a double whammy (though our temps are not as high as those in AZ). You definitely need a lot of water when you are out hiking, or taking photos.
Anyways, the first place we visited when in Sedona was Cathedral Rock. I had seen photos of it online and knew that I wanted to shoot here - I just didn't know exactly how to get the best view. Thanks to some tips from locals, we made it to this park, and the ranger pointed me in the right direction - and I was off!
Lucky for me, there were storms a-brewin' that day, which let me capture these dramatic clouds in the sky. I love having dramatic clouds - I just find that it adds a lot more interest to a photo. We shot here until sunset and while driving home, we got caught in a crazy rain and wind storm. It was beautiful, with lightning firing everywhere. It was a great start to a few days in Sedona.
And one more thing - that top photo is the subject of my latest YouTube video in my "Making the photograph" series. It's a series where I take a photo and process it during the video, showing the various steps I take to create the shot. It's quite fun for me, and feedback has been good, so you will see more of this. Here's the video if you are interested:
