I used my hand, held out above and in front of me, to shade the lens and prevent undesirable lens flare, which would have washed out the photo. The result was exactly as I had planned. I took this photo while the foreground was in the shade of a passing cloud. The shade really seemed to bring out the red of the sand, which is normally quite washed out in photos taken during early afternoon. I was quite pleased with the results.
Clouds are a tremendous asset in the desert.
This was taken well after the sun had gone down. The sky was getting quite dark, and the total darkness of night was quickly descending upon Arches National Park. I used a 1 second exposure, taken with the camera on a tripod. The resulting photo has a bluish cast, which is actually quite representational of the original scene. Burr Trail Collard Lizards are quite plentiful in the Moab area.