The Story Behind The Photo...
Have you ever stood in a place so majestic you could feel the worries of the world just fall away?
I stood on the foot bridge of the Virgin River, my feet planted firmly on the cool boards stretching across the gently flowing water below. The summer day had been hot, smelling of dry dust and sun-baked rock. But now, as sunset approached, the air grew still, carrying the scent of damp river willow and the faint, sweet perfume of desert blooms.
Before me, The Watchman rose like a giant sentinel, its jagged peak catching the last rays of sunlight. This is the view that greets visitors to Zion, a place early Mormon pioneers named for a “heavenly city of God”. It's a sanctuary and a place of peace. For a hundred years, people have stood in this spot, humbled by these same sandstone cliffs that have seen ages come and go.
Photographing a stormy sunset in Zion is a battle of hope and patience. The clouds were thick, and I worried the light would be swallowed before it could ignite the peaks. My camera was on a tripod, the shutter open for a long exposure to smooth the river into a silky ribbon of purple light. All I could do was wait.
Just as I thought the moment was lost, a break in the clouds let the sun pour through. The peak of The Watchman lit up like a burning coal. The sky behind it turned a gentle lavender that reflected in the calm water at my feet.
In that instant, I clicked the shutter. It wasn’t just a picture of a mountain. It was a picture of that feeling of peace found in the middle of a storm. A reminder that even when the clouds are darkest, we just need to wait for the light to break through.
