The Three Patriarchs of Zion

Court of the Patriarchs, Zion National Park, Utah

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Oct. 20, 2024 — We had been in the Zion area for three days, and overcast skies and rain had prevented any serious photography. This was going to be our last day at Zion, and I had been hoping for clearer skies and sunshine so I could do some photography in the morning. We woke to mostly cloudy skies, but with a hopeful weather forecast, we got up and walked to the bus station at the park entrance. One subject I had wanted to photograph was the Three Patriarchs. When we got off the bus at Stop 4, called the Court of the Patriarchs, we had nearly clear skies to the west with some intermittent clouds in the east. We took the short 50-yard hike up the hill on the east side of the park road to the overlook.

The four peaks from left to right are The Sentinel at 7,157 ft. (2,181 m), Abraham Peak at 6,840 ft. (2,101 m), Isaac Peak at 6,825 ft. (2,081 m) and Jacob Peak at 6,831 ft. (2,083 m).

I photographed this panorama at a 300mm focal length. The short distances to the nearest objects from the overlook required me to photograph all but the top two rows using focus bracketing. A total of 3,261 individual images, mostly focus bracketed, were combined to produce 301 images arranged in 7 rows × 43 columns and then stitched together to create the finished panorama. My settings were f/11, ISO 400, with the camera set to Aperture Priority mode to accommodate the wide variation in light between the sunlit peaks and the shadows in the valley.

The original image is:

• 6.78 gigapixels
• 42,362 × 160,071 pixels
• 141.2″ × 533.6″ at 300 PPI
• Approximately 3.78:1 aspect ratio
• Available as fine art prints, plaque mounts, aluminum prints and PlexiPlaq.
• Available as a Tri-Panel or Quad-Panel. Contact us for available sizes.
• Wall murals up to approximately 11 ft 9 in × 44 ft 6 in at 300 PPI, or 23 ft 6 in × 88 ft 11 in at 150 PPI.
• This image can be cropped to your desired dimensions.

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