Okay, I promise not to post any more Parowan Gap stuff for a while. Although just remember that it is an ongoing project of mine, so I will eventually post more:)

I will be out there again tomorrow. I did a time lapse series tonight, but I realized I needed to be in a different spot to get the right angle.

Parowan Gap Summer Solstice

Update: I added a short time lapse of the sun setting through the gap. This time lapse was taken on June 20, 2010. I didn’t make this one HD, so it doesn’t look real great. I plan on posting another one from tonight that is going to be in full HD.

The sky was mostly cloudy with patches of sunlight peaking through the clouds. As we were driving away, I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw this. I pulled over immediately and grabbed the shot. I love it. My favorite shot from the outing.

So every time I go here, I am secretly location scouting for portraits. Although it isn’t very far from Cedar City, a photoshoot out there involving other people will be longer than my typical 1.5 – 2 hour photo session. I will need to find the right subject(s) to take out there. To be perfectly honest, this is the type of stuff I long to shoot. People in settings like this.

So back to the purpose I originally went out there for, rock art. I tried various things. I took a bunch of bracketed shots to see what rock art would look like in HDR. My results failed miserably. Turns out the purpose of HDR is to blend a wide range of exposures. I knew that, but it wasn’t until I tried turning a fairly tight shot of rock art to HDR that I realized it was just the wrong application for HDR. There just isn’t a wide enough range of tones to make it work. Now, if I were shooting much wider and including more sky with the rocks, then HDR might be the trick. Anyway, I scrapped the HDR idea.

Instead I shot some wide angle like this.

Zoomed in on just the rock art itself.

And zoomed in really tight on specific details.

Not sure which I like best. I guess they each have their place. I’m not sure what I’m after really. Ultimately, I want to have a really nice collection of rock art images and hang them on my wall. Which would you rather see hanging on a wall?

Parowan Gap has become one of my favorite places to go. I like to go there for a number of reasons. First, I am always fascinated with rock art. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring places just in search of it. I grew up in Emery County Utah where you can find a plethora of cool writings.

Second, Parowan Gap intrigues me. Specifically, the theory about the Gap being used as an ancient calendar. Ironically, another place considered to be an ancient calendar system is the Rochester Panel in Emery County, a very unique collection of rock art. I have yet to visit the Gap on any of the solar events, but I plan to. Definitely need photos of the sun right smack in the middle of that gap. I’ve seen some on the interwebs elsewhere and they suck. I can do better:) I have lived in this area for almost 10 years now and I only recently went to Parowan Gap.

Also intriguing to me is that Chief Wakara is said to have referred to Parowan Gap as “God’s own house.” There is definitely something special about this place. It keeps drawing me back to it.

It is also a really great place to take photos. It even makes an awesome setting for portraits. Interestingly enough, there is an art exhibit opening at Southern Utah University soon with works inspired by Parowan Gap. So, I am not the only one drawn to it.

This is a view looking South toward Enoch from the West side of Parowan Gap. The Gap is just out of frame to the left in this photo.