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Delicate Arch        Images © Mark A. Chappell

  

Delicate Arch is one of Utah's landscape icons; it even appears on the state's license plate and is one of the most popular sites in Arches National Park. One can hike to Delicate Arch for an intimate view, or it can be observed and photographed from a distance (as here). As for many of the formations in Arches, the light is most attractive on Delicate Arch at sunrise or sunset.

For the photographer, one of the 'challenges' of Delicate Arch stems from its popularity: it's nearly impossible to compose a view without people in it. During the main summer season, one has two choices: wait patiently (and often unsuccessfully, except at dawn) for a human-free view, or use digital editing tricks to take the people out of the final image. I manged to get by with the first approach for the close-up view -- but this is the only image out of several dozen I made that was free of humanoid contamination. For the other photo, I had to use Photoshop to 'take out' one or two stragglers.

  • Canon 10D, 100-400 zoom at about 200 and 350 mm, (2003)