The images in this portfolio are all from a week in Zion National Park (Traditional and ancestral homelands of the Southern Paiute and Ancestral Pueblo peoples) park at the end of October 2023 and, as you will see, there was a wealth of opportunity for photographing intimate landscapes, always in the presence of the most glorious and vibrant, grand desert landscapes.
Autumn colour was spectacular over the course of the week, with many species of trees in various stages of their fall regalia simultaneously. The maple leaf colours were more vivid than I remembered and I lost count of the number of leaf litter images I took (though Lightroom likes to remind me it is just shy of 200). The lines and patterns in the sandstone appeal strongly to my aesthetic senses and help convey a strong sense of place. Stories abound – the ways in water shapes creeks and canyons is etched, quite literally, into the stone emulating the curving lines of water flow. The circle of life is visible in still pools of water whose surfaces are covered in a film of colourful oils from decaying organic material. Even the lifeless bodies of insects lying in these pools are fascinating to observe. Seeds find their ways into nooks and crannies, where they can grow roots safely from the winds. On my final morning in the park, Sarah Marino and I found a patch of milkweed plants. Their seeds were just hanging on, waiting to be whisked away by the wind, and sparkling in the sun. Having not really experienced milkweeds in this way before, I was mesmerised by the way the seeds danced in the breeze (though of course this proved more challenging to photograph!).
