Devil’s Bridge, Sedona

While traveling last week, I consulted Volume 2 (Arizona) of Laurent Martrès’ book series, Photographing the Southwest.

As their name implies, the books describe a variety of locations for photography in the southwest, including directions and good times of day to photograph.  I’ve learned of places I probably never would have found on my own.

One place recommended by the book was Devil’s Bridge, a stone arch in the Coconino National Forest, near Sedona.  I drove a mile and a half down a rough 4WD road, and then hiked about one mile to get to the arch.  (I wasn’t going to let my injured leg dissuade me.)

When I arrived at the arch, it was still in morning shadow, but the rest of the valley was in full sun.  There was too much contrast to render the scene with a single image in my camera.  So, I tried my hand at some high-dynamic range (HDR) photography.  I’ve tried HDR in the past, without much success.  But I recently met Trey Ratcliff, an HDR expert and author of the blog http://www.stuckincustoms.com/.  I decided to try again.

So here’s a merged set of three different exposures of Devil’s Bridge.  (Click the image to enlarge.)

I plan to post a couple more HDR photos in the next few days.