Dappled light at a canyon overlook, Utah

Claudia and I are finally on our way home after our long road trip. It’s been a fantastic journey, and we really don’t want it to end, but we’ll be back on the road again soon, heading to the Oregon Coast. That’s one of my favorite places to photograph, so I’m looking forward to that already.

I’ve made lots of new images on this trip that I’m excited about. It’ll take some time to sort through and process them all, but here are a few photos from one stormy day in Utah.

Forecasts called for rain and possible thunderstorms that day, so we made a long drive over dirt roads to a viewpoint that I thought might look interesting in stormy weather. On the way we got dumped on, and in the middle of the downpour I jumped out of our car and snapped this photo of a rock formation with rain and sunbeams:

Thunderstorm over a rock formation, Utah

We soon left the rain behind, and arrived at the viewpoint just in time to see a thunderstorm passing over a canyon in the distance:

Rain falling over a canyon, Utah

Later spots of sunlight broke through and lit the canyon. The sky was almost completely overcast except for some small holes in the clouds creating dappled light in just the right places. Pretty lucky. You can see my favorite moment with that dappled light in the photograph at the top of this post.

I’ll post more images from our road trip as I sort through and process them. And I have lots of photos from Greenland I haven’t shared yet! Stay tuned…

— Michael Frye

Related Posts: Autumn Road Trip; Greenland Fiords

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.