Sunrise at Bryce Point, Bryce National Park, Utah.

I’m back from Bob Evans‘ photography workshop at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. It was an intense four days, consisting of getting up every morning in the pre-dawn hours to catch first light at our sunrise shoot, followed by critiques during the afternoon, then an evening shoot that started prior to sunset and kept going until the light was gone.

Amphitheater, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.

The craft of photography, when done right, is a simultaneous left-brain/right-brain affair—the left brain oversees the use of the buttons and dials, and the right brain composes the scene in the viewfinder. That strange mix of head and heart is difficult to master and maintain, and it’s easy to fall into a rut when you’ve been doing the same thing for a while.

Every so often, you have to push the envelope and better your best if you’re striving for excellence. The best thing about the trip is I had the opportunity to challenge myself a little bit and become a better photographer in the company of others who were doing the same. No matter how much you know or can do, there’s always a next level to take it to.

A word about accomodations and food, though for me, these tend to be secondary concerns on a trip like this as long as I’m not uncomfortable. We stayed at Ruby’s Inn at Bryce, a Best Western motel. No great shakes, but the rooms were clean. The hotel had conference rooms off the lobby, where we did our critiques following the morning shoots.

Watchman and Virgin River, Zion National Park, Utah.

There are two restaurants on the property, the Cowboy’s Buffet & Steak Room, which has decent food at reasonable prices, and the Canyon Diner, which is more like a McDonald’s, only with better food and smaller tables (the kind with the chairs attached).

At Zion, we were at Flanigan’s Inn, a major upgrade from the motel feel of Ruby’s. The rooms had balconies with tables and chairs, and the lobby had a seating area with comfortable couches and a large conference table where we did our critiques, complete with unlimited free coffee.

The Spotted Dog Cafe next door to the hotel is a real restaurant—complete with a real chef and a decent wine list. They do a good job. Another place we went for lunch a couple of times was Cafe Soleil, just down the road from Flanigan’s toward the park entrance. They had great salads, wraps, pizzas, soups… that kind of thing.

A word of caution. If you buy wine outside Utah and it doesn’t have a State of Utah sticker on it, you can’t bring it into a restaurant, let alone ask your server to uncork it for you.

Another word of caution… as of this writing, AT&T doesn’t have a signal in either Bryce or Zion. Well, okay, you get a burst of a signal every so often at Bryce, but nothing useful, and no signal at all in Zion. Verizon seems to work pretty well though. Fortunately, there’s wifi in both places, so you can get online, and if you have Skype, you can make calls. Or of course, there’s the good ol’ land line, but that doesn’t help with data.

I posted my shots on my photography blog during the workshop, as well as the slideshows from my SmugMug uploads.

Enjoy the images…

From along the Emerald Pools trail, Zion National Park, Utah.

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