Photographing Arches and Ancient Ruins

Downtown Moab at last! I enjoyed walking around and browsing the the three(!) bookstores. It's great to see that even in an adventure and outdoor town like this there is a great demand for good books (and maps).


Last night during my excellent Mexican meal at Miquel's Baja Grill on Main Street in Moab, I called Jon Fuller of Moab Photo Tours.

I had picked up a postcard of his at Tom Till's gallery in Moab. This was one of the best decisions I made on the trip. While having only one day to see Arches National Park and not quite sure where to go first, I booked a full day (sunrise and sunset session) with Jon and it turned out to be a wonderful learning experience. I would book Jon online ahead of time next time since he's very much in demand and I just got lucky this time.

Jon is extremely patient and kind and took me to several outstanding locations for photography and at the right time for the lighting! I learned more about the area spending that one day with Jon than I would have blundering around on my own, and I've got some great shots that would never have been possible without Jon's help.

Thanks to Jon and his 5 a.m. start time, I photographed sunrise at the Twin Arches and with his assistance scrambled up to the perfect spot to get this sunrise shot near one of the Twin Arches. I also photographed ancient pictographs from ancestral Pueblo sites near Moab.

Look closely and you'll see the lizard against the sandstone.

Last night's sunset at Dead Horse Point Overlook was also great to watch, accompanied by lightning flashes.

Jon also helped me understand the strange (to outsiders) naming convention of the gridded streets in Moab. Apparently the Mormons needed to make sure that the streets were wide enough to turn a wagon around in. Center Street is the the center around which everything else is relative, so 200 North is the street with the position 200 north of Center.