When I arrived at Horseshoe Bend in Paige, Arizona in the mid-afternoon, I immediately knew that it would be worth the wait for sunset. I staked out a spot that I thought would be the most rewarding visually, and proceeded to wait. Two hours and one sunburn later, I had what I had envisioned; a golden canyon and clear sky.

Because of the low light situation, I shot in RAW with an ISO of 800, and a shutter speed of around 1/125. To capture all the detail, I set the aperture to around f.11. Later brightening and noise reduction was accomplished in Photoshop, while the tones were corrected in Lightroom.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.

Photo Settings: 18mm, f/14, 1/80 second, ISO 800.