The day I visited the Bryce Canyon National Park I had two goals in mind. First, to hike down to the amphitheater, the bottom part of the canyon. Second, I wanted to photograph the famous Wall Street switchbacks. Wall Street is the series of steep hiking switchbacks that pass through the narrow canyon, surrounded by hoodoos.
Before visiting Wall Street in Bryce, I did not think much about the origin of its name. But when I reached the bottom of the switchbacks and looked up, I experienced the feelings comparable to the ones I had when I visited the narrow streets of lower Manhattan surrounded by skyscrapers, for the first time.
The featured photo highlights the very beginning of the Navajo Loop Trail that leads to the Wall Street switchbacks.
Loc: 37.622371, -112.165180
Shooting
For a day-long hike, I brought with me only one lens, Sony 16-70mm. And for the entire day, I felt it was not wide enough because of the vastness of the surroundings.
Editing & Processing
It was a single RAW processing workflow.
Lightroom (80%)
First, I used the Crop Overlay and the Transform Panel to fix the vertical distortion and to straighten up the capture.
I used the process I outlined in the article: How to Straighten a Photo in Lightroom. Next, I used the Natural preset from my Landscape Preset Collection as the base for Lightroom Rapid Editing. Then I used TOOLKIT to boost the Contrast and the Clarity.
The Lightroom Preset Editing Formula: Natural (9, 12, 16, 32)
Photoshop (20%)
In Photoshop, I used the Clone Tool to remove 3 hikers from the composition and cleaned up the debris in the foreground.
Finally, I boosted the details and reduced noise.
Plugins: DeNoise (noise reduction), Topaz Detail (local contrast boost).
Total Time: 10min
