Tim is right, Dave. No single image has ever come to represent multi-hued Zion in the way that Ansel's Half-Dome has come to symbolize Yosemite, or the view from Artists Point has come to stand for Yellowstone. Zion simply has an infinite supply of natural beauty enriched by dazzling colors, and Iris represents the endless task of somehow harnessing it with a camera. She seems overwhelmed, almost swept away by a river of red rock. Stiff-legged and persistent, she represents an artists struggle to tame the magic of Zion, but it can't be done. There is just too much color there. As Tim says, it is only the accumulation of images that releases Zion's magic on the eye.
This is a bit of an optical illusion! She looks as if she might be floating over the surface on which she stands since there is no shadow. If you didn't tell me that this was a photographer shooting, I'd have guessed that she was looking down, contemplating what was beneath. Love the vastness of the dune in this photo! And the silhouette works so well and is very nicely placed in the frame.
This could be a metaphor for our task as photographers - what I see is a photographer choosing a meaning, a vision in a vastly beautiful landscape - and I see that in an image made by another fine photographer choosing his way of punctuating the vastness. No single image can capture the beauty of Zion - it is the accumulated images that make it sing.
