A Weekend at White Pocket, AZ

Vermillion Cliffs, AZ on the way to White Pocket

Part of the reason I've been getting deeper into landscape photography is because it aligns with my other interests as well as where I live. My other interests? Off roading, overlanding and camping. Been doing these things for years and I come across some rarely seen places. Now that I'm thinking like a landscape photographer, I'm seeing these camping and off roading trips a little differently.

For years I've been a member of the Arizona Land Rover Owners club (AZLRO). We've been to some amazing places. Some of our trips are simple day trips and others are longer, like 8 days in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. When I saw the White Pocket trip appear on the calendar, I jumped at the opportunity to see this other worldly location. Not only because the trip would be fun, but I could shoot some landscapes at a truly sought after location.

But, I knew the likelihood of getting good landscape photos on this trip would be 50/50 for a few reasons. For one, we had a group of 14 Land Rovers. That's a lot of chances for someone to have a mechanical problem. Also, a large group like this can move pretty slowly. Our route to White Pocket was not the typical path, we were taking a scenic trip and our guide had us arriving at White Pocket at 5:00pm. Not bad considering sunset was at 6:59, if we could pull it off that would allow plenty of time to scout for compositions.

As expected there were some Land Rover problems, nothing major and some delays in our route. We ended up arriving at White Pocket at about 6:05pm. Not much time to find compositions for photos. Not only that, but the sky cleared and all of the puffy clouds were gone. My morale was low but I had to book it up the sand hills to get to the rocks. I was huffing and puffing trying to find some kind of composition before the sun was gone. I couldn't find anything great and this sunset shot is all I could come up with in the few minutes I had left. It's not great.

I did manage to shoot this blue hour shot and I really like it, even though my foreground is not quite in focus (doh!). The funny thing is, there's a guy in a red jacket on top of the little peak toward the right.

Red "brain rocks" at White Pocket during Blue Hour

I'm looking at this trip like a scouting mission. Now I know how to get to White Pocket and I have a good idea of where and what to shoot when I go back. My plan is to go back in the fall with the express purpose of getting some great images of the place. Until then, I'll have to live with these quick grab shots.

What about sunrise you may ask? Unfortunately the sun rose behind a pretty large rock face, putting it quite high in the sky by the time it hit the rocks of White Pocket. Not great light.