Most Beautiful Photo spots in Sedona-Prints & Photo Workshops

Sedona, AZ is unique for landscape photography because it’s a bustling town located directly within a wild oasis. You can reach world-class landscape photo spots via short drives or hikes to city limits. In contrast, photographers usually face long drives beyond the town they’re based out of to reach their target destinations. Sedona’s marriage of beauty and proximity comes at a price. Many trailheads have restrictive hours that exclude shooting at sunrise and sunset. Nabbing a trailhead parking spot in the first place can be impossible. Finding overnight camping, and lodging in general, can require significant luck and research. Fortunately, these challenges are all navigable with local knowledge. With sufficient planning, Sedona can be a landscape photographer’s paradise. Below are some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken in Sedona.

To the north, Sedona’s main landscape features are Capitol Butte and Coffee Pot Rock as seen here from Sugarloaf Mountain. They provide diverse photo compositions as you approach from different angles on the trails emanating from town. Sedona’s other unmistakable icon is Parry’s Agave. Despite their tender appearance, the leaves are hard and stiff because of a wood-like internal matrix that provides skeletal support. Their skin is smooth, and each frond is tipped with a sharp, rigid spine that can deeply puncture flesh if hit. More info about this Sedona photo print here.
I had a long shoot with this gorgeous Agave after early morning storms rolled through Sedona. Usually, late-morning light is sub-optimal, but the low, fast moving clouds created spectacular drama in the sky and dappled lighting on the rocks. I used a 10-stop neutral density filter to force a 20-sec exposure. Long exposures like this capture movement like the wild motion of these clouds. More info about this Sedona photo print here.

Schnebly Hill Road is a high-traffic destination for Jeep tours in Sedona where countless people have have experienced the half-day adventure. This image is a panoramic composite of five, 60 megapixels photos which produce a giant file that can be printed extremely large with fine detail. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.
Sedona’s Seven Sacred Pools is a heavy-hitting composition and easy to reach spot along Soldiers Pass Trail. This view captures the south faces of Coffee Pot Rock and Capitol Butte. I returned to this spots several times over the years at dawn to finally capture it with clouds. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.
The quality of light makes, breaks and defines photos. A mere 10-minutes between pink predawn and golden sunrise vastly differentiates the mood of this shot. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.
Devil’s Bridge is a world class sandstone arch on par with any formation in Arches NP. It’s notoriously difficult to photograp because there’s always a crowd of people queued up to have their picture taken on it. To capture this shot I had my composition framed and ready to for short between groups of people exiting and entering the bridge. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.
View of another impressive Agave from Brins Mesa overlooking red rocks during a lovely sunset afterglow. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.Perhaps inaccurately named, Soldiers Arch is more of a dissolved chamber within the westerly sandstone face of Brins Mesa. You must precariously shimmy up a narrow crevasse to ascend into the cave’s interior. Once inside, 2 natural catwalks lead through the cave. A wrong step can make you slip through the window and crash on to the rocks below. More info about this Sedona Photo Print here.

Sedona Photo Workshops

I’ll be adding group photography workshops in Sedona soon. For now, I offer private photo workshops in Sedona and many other western locations.You can also check out all upcoming group nature photography workshops.