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I had an amazing opportunity over the summer to take a photography class in Capitol Reef for one week. We learned how to conserve electricity and water, and slept for a week in the heat of July without air conditioning. It was actually an incredible experience. We had a chef cook all of our meals for us so we could focus on hiking and photographing. We spent every moment with each other and built some great relationships. At first it was exhausting hiking all the time, but by the time we had to go home I didn’t want it to end. There was no cell service or wireless internet. It was just us and the earth with not a care in the world.

The first thing we did when we arrived was take a stroll around the field station to check out some pictographs and this waterpocket we call “the bowl”.

The next morning we awoke before sunrise to hike Hickman Bridge and had fantastic light.

We got an opportunity to camp in Cathedral Valley. There was a huge storm, which made for some great photographs, but a terrifying sleepless night.

Our night in Cathedral Valley, we shot the sunset near Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon. I used the same timelapse photography I use in most of my sunset images, but it was not as colorful as others.

On the way back to the field station we passed by an area with huge mud cracks and looked like a bunch of weirdos crouched on the ground photographing them.

We spent our last day in Escalante, at the Calf Creek Falls trail. For southern Utah it was so green and lush. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

This is the last photo I took before leaving Capitol Reef. It’s the view facing east from the field station around sunrise.

The class was only a week long, but I learned more in that week than any semester-long photo class. It has definitely made my list of top five classes I’ve ever taken.