The following images were shot last week(March 2014) in Southern Utah in an area of fabulous geologic features.  Since this area was under a sea of water over 200 million years ago, sediments were deposited into the landscape that formed various layers called sedimentary rock and soils.  The formation I photographed is referred to as the Chinle Formation and is seen throughout Southern Utah into Northern Arizona. The soil is made up of clay and shale. The colors that you see are deposits of minerals and chemicals left from the receding waters, rivers and lakes from a specific geologic time. Erosion has revealed these layers just for me to photograph. The Chinle Formation is only about 100 feet thick in most areas  as compared to other layers such as the Navajo Sandstone layer which is 100s of feet thick.The colors really pop in the morning or early evening or when the light is diffused through cloud layers. I used a polarizing filter to eliminate any glare from the sun.  None of these images were processed as HDR.  These images are available as prints or downloadable files at http://dawn2dawnphotography.com/  along with information regarding my Southwest Workshops that will get you to these hard-to-find locations.