Badlands at Sunset

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

I discovered this location a few years ago in the winter while on a photographic trip with my great friend Kurt Budliger. We had a morning with amazing light and I loved the location and the potential compositions so much I made sure to return when I was out in the park this past May. I captured this image at sunset this time around. The light was mind blowing this evening and I was sure that my slide film would not handle the dynamic range of the scene. I was pleasantly surprised after developing the film a couple weeks late to find out that Kodak's E100 does an amazing job in really challenging light, so long as you properly meter the scene and place the tones in the proper zones. I used a 2 stop ND grad to hold back the sky a bit more making sure I had ample detail in the much darker badlands below.

Zone VI, Nikkor 75mm, Nisi 2 Stop ND Grad (hard), 15 seconds at F32, Kodak E100. Photo © copyright by Joseph Rossbach.

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