It was November and I was in Zion.  There was a location I especially wanted to photograph after visiting it with my family several years earlier - Weeping Rock.  It's a place where water seeps out of the porous sandstone and drips down on your head. There's a little alcove that affords some protection from the water - not only for us human visitors but for the flora.  Seeds find little crooks and cracks in the wall as they are prone to do and with the abundant supply of water take root and grow, hanging above our heads.

The other thing that is remarkable about Weeping Rock is the lime deposits that form on the walls.  The water seeps down from above and picks up trace amounts of calcium which, when it finally emerges at the canyon wall, is deposited on the wall surface.  The limestone deposits can be very interesting and sometimes streaked with subtle colors.  So it was a combination of the hanging gardens and the limestone deposits that drew me to this place.

The best light for a location like this is open shade.  The soft light enhances the texture and draws out the colors.  So I waited until late in the afternoon when the sun had set behind the canyon wall across the way. 

Finding the composition is a bit daunting because there are so many shapes and lines and textures.  It can be difficult to find the compelling patterns in all the chaotic jumble.  So I used a device I make, a piece of mat board with a rectangular hole cut  in it the same proportions as the camera sensor.  Looking at the wall through the opening shut out the distracting elements.  When this image came into view I liked it at once.

Capturing the image required no special tricks.  Just a careful focus and exposure were all that was required.  I shot the image with the camera mounted on the tripod and tried to get it high enough that I wasn't shooting at an angle to the rock face.  This eliminated depth of field problems.  Because of the light the image was very low contrast, one of my favorite images to work with.

In the post processing I cropped the image to a 4X5 aspect ratio, something I had recognized in the field.  The trick was to pull out the texture in the rock and give it some dimensionality.  The plant also wanted to be emphasized.  It took a while to get the color of the rock just right but after making a print and living with it for a couple of weeks it eventually became apparent what needed to be done.

The obvious 'message' is delicate life in contrast with the hard rock.  But there are other elements I like about this image such as the lines that give it a sense of motion and the texture that makes it seem as though you can feel it.  And it is more than two dimensional.  The rock seems to have form and depth.  I'm very pleased with the results.