Photographing The Wave

Want to know how to go on more adventures?

Say yes more.

A few weeks back I was sitting in my office, minding my own business when I got a message out of the blue from someone in the local camera club.

“I got a permit for the wave on Friday. Any interest in going?”

I stopped, looked at the message, and immediately threw out all my plans for the next day. I was going to The Wave.

Sunrise

The sun was in my eyes, not my camera today. Leave time was 6:45AM so I could get to Hurricane to pick up the second person coming out on this trip (there were a total of 6 of us). The drive was exactly as expected, except the blinding light coming off my car hood, making me drive with my hat in my hand half blocking my field of view so that I could see the other half without glare.

Two hours of paved road and 30 minutes of a dusty road, I stood in a parking lot waiting for the other humans to arrive. I guess I was early leaving today. Soon, the others arrived, permits were handed out and gear was gathered. With windows showing permits, we set off into the desert to find The Wave.

Pro tip for traveling in places off trail/no trail, identify features in the landscape that you can use as landmarks to follow back to your car. Mine were the two boob rocks (featured below) that hug the side of the mountain, follow the cliff so that it is on my left on the way back and three signs spaced out across half a mile that point the general direction home.

Safety… checked.

Like everything else in the southwest, the good stuff seems to always be sitting at the top a stupid hill. The Wave is no exception. The final climb is about 200 feet of steep slickrock and sand dune. Luckily this path puts you directly into the Wave itself. Kind of a nice work to reward ratio.

The wave was… wavy, and it had a huge shadow right through the middle of it. I didn’t hike all this way to photograph The Wave with a big shadow through it. So after eating lunch, we set out to explore and find the diamonds in the ruff.

Side Channels

There are locations of interest in nearly any lighting and at nearly any time of day. Today’s location of interest was the Side Channel. The Side Channel, unofficially named by me at this given moment, is a curvy rock “slot” that makes up one of the three arms of the wave. It’s the one place I have photographed in the past that I was happy with. So I really didn’t need to photograph it again, but might as well get the first image of the day out of the way.

As mentioned in past writing and conversation, the first image is to get the average out of the way, and to get the creative juices flowing. After a few images I stumbled across some amazing striation that you don’t really find anywhere else except in this region of the Colorado Plateau.

The Second Wave

The second wave is literally a small ridge the has some waves. Seems simple, cause it is. But the light sucked here too. But as I stood there looking at it, I realized there was hope for this small section of rock.

A good photographer has to have some ability to prophesy the future. As I looked at the second wave, I could see the conditions that could lead to amazing images. So I took that mental image what could be and began to look for the next area of interest, Melody Arch.

Into the Unknown

Melody Arch is this place I have heard of, seen amazing photos of and yet really had no idea where it was. Google had put a mark where it was (stupid google) so I convinced the people I was with to follow me on an adventure into the unknown to find this arch

I lead the way and took us on a short cut over a sand stone saddle. Then I began land mark mapping. Follow the white ridge to the white tree. Note the vertical crack pointing to the trail. From the white tree go to the uphill side of the yellow haystack and follow the path through the middle of the hoodoos. Note the footsteps in the sand along the way.

Melody arch sits amongst a series of strange haystack formations. Its functionally invisible so I was lost. I first walked right past it and ended up at a cliff. I backtracked and followed Google (stupid Google) until I climbed up a short ridge that opened into a swooping series of swooshes with the end cul-de-sac being composed of Melody arch and The Window, an arch that is formed in the rock wall that overlooks the Vermillion cliffs.

Moral of the story I was at Melody Arch at the very wrong time of the day, and the photos look like it. That’s a reality of photography. Sometimes the light isn’t right, the sun is on the wrong side and you just have to come back at another time and give it another shot. That was the case on this day.

The Trip Worth Making

As we wrapped up photographing Melody Arch some of the group wanted to go back another way. I knew that was a bad idea because it would require us to drop low, move around the entire rock formation and then climb back up to the Wave. Sometimes you just have to stick to your guns, so I lead the way.

Apparently going to melody arch requires like a 600ft vertical climb. The byproduct of that, is the return trip was down hill, making the turn around time way faster than anyone was expecting. Since I am a wizard, I skipped the wave and found magic at the Second Wave.

The Second Wave in midday light is mediocre. The Second Wave during evening light is magical. The cliffs in the distance darken and the swirling rock just glows. I ended up taking like 80 photos here (you get to see one).

From there I began to work my way back to The Wave where conditions had dramatically improved. The harsh shadow through the Wave was gone and now the true color of the rock began to pop out.

Work It

A good photographer works a scene. Small adjustments, different variations, views from the right, left, low, high, forward and backwards. I ended up taking advice from another photographer and photographed the reflection pool. Holy cow that was really cool (see top image).

In the end I ended up sitting and waiting for a while at the reflection pool, looking for the moment the light breeze calmed. I wanted a reflection with perfectly mirrored water. In the end I ended getting a minute of calm glassy water. More than enough for a good photo. In the end I got about six variations of this view. Remember to work the scene.

The Long Walk Home

The light came and went in The Wave. I ended up getting a lot of really cool photos, but now it was time to walk back in the dark.

Temperatures dropped and the light faded quickly. All my landmarks were beginning to be shrouded in darkness. The cliffs ran true, but my female anatomical rocks were becoming nearly impossible to see. Luckily they were also next to the cliff so I just had to follow that and keep an eye out for sandy areas with footprints. Once we got to the boob rocks, the path was illuminated by small reflective signs in the darkness. Out in the sea of blackness were tiny floating squares pointing the way home.

The first one required faith to find as it was not obvious. Once seen, the path was like wayfinding from Moana. When in view, follow the signs, when out of view, follow a star in the general direction until the sign becomes clear again.

Hiking in the dark makes any trip feel long. The only knowledge of the passing of terrain is the steady change in plants that pass by and fade into the dark and the shifting of uphill to downhill. The air by the end of the hike had become nippy, but I was pretty happy about the overall experience. I finally got a photo of the wave that I missed out on last time. Hopefully it won’t be another 5 years until I return, but in the meantime I am satisfied with what I have.