Usually, after returning from a photo trip, I tend to limit the extent of my involvement with these new files to importing them into my master Lightroom catalog and backing them up on-site and off-site. I find that it helps with my own creative process to take a step away from these freshly minted photos and let everything just settle. This holds mostly true even with the trip that I just returned from… I just couldn’t resist finding one photo to edit and share. :)

Earlier this morning, I landed back home after spending about five days roaming the Arizona and Utah desert regions. In that time, Chris Lazzery, Moe Chen and I visited two states (Arizona and Utah), two National Parks (Zion and Grand Canyon),  two National Monuments (the Vermillion Cliffs and the Grand Staircase-Escalante) a State Park (the Lost Dutchman) and drove well over 1,000 miles. It was, for lack of more effective words, one of the most prolific trips that I’ve ever taken as far as my photography goes.

I have no doubt that in the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more photos taken at White Pocket, part of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Both my comrades and I agree – we could spend weeks exploring this area alone and it easily was the most impressive place we had photographed on the trip (although the Grand Canyon is a very close second). We also witnessed the most marvelous sunset of our lives here. I wanted to start with this photo, illustrating an early phase of this sunset. I’ll spend more time sharing my experiences at this location soon, but for now, I wanted to share this magical place and this magical moment.

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