Looking for a photography tour to light up your portfolio? A Zion National Park Fall colors photo tour surely is what the portfolio is calling out for.

Artist and photographers have been drawn to Zion National Park forever since Daguerreotype process photography and paintbrushes came west to capture its infinite variety of moods.  The incredible landscape of Zion is a magnificent display of beauty that is a perpetual source of inspiration and renewal for nature lovers, artists, and photographers alike. Zion National Park has served as the stage set for more than twenty-five movies, including, most notably, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Zion’s Virgin River has carved its way through a couple thousand feet of Colorado plateau sandstone a 15-mile-long gash that reaches nearly half a mile into the earth, which provides a backdrop for one of nature’s unique autumn displays. The blessings of autumn fire up the bright yellows of the valley’s cottonwoods that line the river and brilliant reds of the mountain maple that grace shadowy hillsides. The sculptured cliffs of Zion Canyon provide visitors with landscapes of unmatched beauty and diversity. These unique sandstone cliffs range in color from cream, to pink, too red. Zion Canyon.

Checkerboard Mesa in the higher elevations offers up some variety to the valley bottom bringing the brown and white slickrock sandstone peaks, and high country washes that also host colorful cottonwoods and when lucky Desert Bighorn Sheep.

The Court of the Patriarchs The Watchman, Temple of Sinawava, The Preacher and the Pulpit, Big Bend and little bend all are great photo fodder during autumn’s colorful show. Angels Landing, and Observation Point, the Narrows and the Subway are a bit beyond what most photo tour participants ability but do make good after tour side trips for the ambitious and fit.

Zion’s extreme lights and shadow cast by Zion’s towering cliffs often create exposures difficulties and are tricky to photograph, We often need to bracket our images for high dynamic range processing (HDR) which we will go over during the tour. Zion National Park images can be some of the most scenic and visually rewarding when successful light, exposure and processing are achieved.

Zion National Park oozes the type of beauty that stops us in our tracks, gaping in awe. Zion is gorgeous any time of year but with that extra splash of the reds and golds of autumn make a fine exclamation mark to the grandeur that is Zion. Nature's extreme forces and the violence of wind, rain, wind, snow, and ice have created a perfect photographers destination.

Once you experience Zion, you will long to return again and again. Zion National Park with its breathtaking landscapes and incredible rock formations has enough photo opportunities to keep a photographer busy for a lifetime. I only wish I could be there more.