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Inspiration Point Sunrise, Bryce Canyon NP, Utah

Sunrise at Bryce Canyon is one of nature's most perfect scenes. The brilliant orange sandstone of Bryce Canyon faces to the east, and the moment the sun crosses the horizon everything is bathed in a warm orange light to make the colors shine even more.

We started our morning in Bryce about an hour before the sunrise at Sunset Point to shoot the pre-dawn light. But before the actual sunrise we wrapped up and made the short trip around to catch the sunrise from Inspiration Point, which overlooks the densest collection of hoodoos, known as "The Silent City." We arrived at nearly just as the sun crossed the horizon which really allowed the colors to shine. With the intermittent cloud cover the light went as quickly as it came and we had to wait patiently for other brief breaks in the cloud to try alternate compositions.

I shot this on my large format camera because I knew from visiting the year before that this was precisely the sort of scene that could benefit most from the incredible resolution 4x5 film affords. I shot this on both Fuji Velvia 50 and Fuji Provia 100F, and it was a great side-by-side comparison of how these two slide films behave. I ultimately preferred the warmer hues of the Velvia in this instance, and that's what I've scanned to share here. I scanned this at 1800dpi and then scaled the image down slightly to about a 28MP image, for the version you see here.

Be sure to also check out more photos from Suad, John, and Scott as well, or check out our group photo pool.

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