Alhambra, The Red Fortress

Alhambra is the name of a castle in Spain as well as a geologic formation in San Juan County, Utah. The name befits both quite well. There are many stone monuments in San Juan County, and many are larger and more impressive, but none are near Alhambra. It stands alone in a vast amount of open space with only the San Juan River canyon nearby. This makes it quite noticeable, which has caused my wife to point it out to me on countless occasions. One evening I decided to try photographing it from a viewpoint 2.7 miles away. A long focal length of 600mm compresses perspective in this image, making the canyon rim look as if it is immediately in front of Alhambra when in there is actually over a mile between the two.

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