One of my favorite places to explore photographically is the desert badlands in central Utah, USA. I usually spend several weeks there every year in the fall, hiking and exploring to take advantage of the cooler weather and colorful fall foliage. I have roamed around this area for decades with various cameras, but starting in 2018, I added a drone to my camera bag, and every year since, it has slowly become more and more my go-to camera. Furthermore, I know this region well, and this new camera vantage offers rich, brand-new photographic opportunities of already familiar places.
In the last few years, much of this region has been opened up to off-road motorbikes and vehicles, and I am devastated to see how this fragile land is now filled with scars from these vehicles. Tracks made in these clay formations can last for decades, so it comforts me that I can now explore here and other similar areas with my drone and truly leave no trace.
I first discovered this now-famous desert spire years ago, and for many years, I would visit and see no other people and virtually no footprints. Then Instagram found it, and the onslaught began. The spire is indeed in this composition, but it isn’t the focal point of the image. That point is the amazing ring of mesa formations surrounding it, all seemingly pointing to it, along with Factory Butte and the Cainville mesas in the far distance.
I knew exactly what I wanted for this composition, and this was the second year I tried to capture this image, but it wasn’t easy. First, I had to commit to being there before sunrise for basically just this shot. Even when I did, I needed a clear, intense sunrise with no eastern haze or clouds for that brief moment when the sun first hits the tops of the mesas. I camped there several times and got nothing before finally experiencing these brief, perfect conditions that were exactly what I had envisioned.
