Every once in a while, a landscape photographer must capture a version of the “money shot” for his or her portfolio.  These kinds of photos demonstrate the photographer’s skill at capturing a well-known scene.  This time, it was my turn to work with a “money shot” for a popular US national park.  Check out how it went.

It seems that every national park out there has some sort of “money shot” if you will.  It’s a particular view or vista which defines the park in photographic and video representations.  When you see it, you just know what park it came from.  For Yellowstone, that would be the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  For Grand Teton National Park, it’s the Tetons over a reflection at Schwabacher’s Landing.  At Bryce Canyon, it’s the view of the main amphitheater.  Yosemite has it’s Tunnel View featuring many points of interest.  You get the point.

Zion National Park has one such view as well.  This view features the Watchmen peak and the Virgin River.  When you see it, you know it’s from Zion.  I’ve been sitting on one such photo for a while.  Now it’s time to bring it out and show it off.

This story begins with astro landscape photography.  I’ve been working on learning how to shoot astro landscape photos of some of my favorite landscape scenes.  However, I ran into some problems.  While I solved the problem of a camera lens capable of capturing such a shot, I ran into different problems.  The first problem is how to capture the scene with a foreground.  I finally came to the conclusion that I must composite together in order to achieve the vision all in one shot.  This meant I needed to capture foregrounds.

Upon pulling this previously unprocessed “money shot” out of archives, I decided to work with it as-is for fun.  I didn’t think it would go anywhere, but it seemed worth the time and energy.  I had no idea that this simple foreground shot would turn into a “money shot” of its very own.  So, I’m delighted to add this take of the stereotypical view of Zion to my portfolio.

Remember, this started out with me wanting to add a starry view of this Zion scene into my portfolio.  So I wasn’t done yet.  But getting such a shot wasn’t as easy as setting up my tripod and calling it good with a 5 minute exposure.  Nope, I needed the foreground lit up and then the sky and Milky Way properly exposed too.  I pulled another blue hour shot out of archives to work with for the foreground.  However, I needed the sky to work out.  For that, I needed clear skies, compass bearings, and the right time of night.  Thankfully, the moon set early so it didn’t interfere with my Milky Way work.

With the necessary Milky Way shot in hand, the next problem was bringing the 2 images together and making them look like a single natural image.  That took some serious work.  I blended and color matched quite a bit in order to bring the different images together.  However, I feel I made a reasonable first attempt at it.  How about you?

Due to the darker nature of the photo, you might need to switch into dark mode in order to view it properly.  The white background here will naturally dim your view of the image.  There’s a switch in the menu to change over to dark mode.  It works for both desktop and mobile screens.

Perhaps I’ll revisit this take once my skill improves with time and experience.  Obviously, the foreground selection works well.

So, what do you think of these takes on the “money shot” in Zion National Park?  I know that this scene is heavily photographed so my particular take isn’t overly original, but still, what do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.