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| Turret Arch thru the North Window |
I love shooting the classics of the Southwest. I don't always love the junk show that goes along with it. Scottie and I were headed down to meet my parents for our annual gathering in the Four Corners Area. I arranged my work schedule to get some work done in that part of the world on Friday. Fortunately, that allowed my some photo time in Canyonlands and Arches.
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| South Window Sun-up |
Not having a real plan on where I wanted to shoot Friday AM beyond "Arches", we got up before sunrise and got in the car. I scoped a few areas on the drive in and wasn't feeling the love at any of them. Knowing the geography and layout of the park I ended up, along with every other photographer in the park that day it seemed, in the windows section. The windows are most likely the best area to shoot sunrise in arches. The rocks face the right direction (generally east), and are easy to get to. As we got out of the car in early twilight, I could already see 1 person standing in the North Window. As we crested the hill, I saw what looked like 5-10 photographers lined up to shoot turret arch thru the north window. Ugh. Junkshow. So I started looking around. After about 10 mins, I found a spot that would give me some good foreground interest and a good view of the south window. I set up and waited. Facing west, I could see the sun working it's way up to the east. As the first rays of light touched the top of the sandstone, I snapped a few forgettable images, and waited for the rock to really light up. A few moments later, magic. The rock came to life as it always does this time of day. Five mins later, and it was over. The rocks got too hot and too flat. I was done.
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| North Window Reflection |
Not be be out done, all of my friends done with shooting Turret arch headed my way to see what was so interesting that I skipped the classic (I have shot turret arch a couple of times in the past). I was already packed up and headed out. As Scottie and I were walking, I noticed a very small puddle on the slick rock. A little light went off in my head, remembering and reminded of some of Tom Tills work. I pulled out my camera put on my widest lens, dialed up F22, bumped up the ISO and got down on my belly, my lens only an inch or two above the puddle. I hurried to fire off a few frames before anyone else saw what I was shooting.
The image on the right was what I got. I like it not because it's the greatest image I have ever shot, but because I took advantage of what was handed to me on that day. I'm sure that of all the other photographers there that day, nobody else got this one. That I can be proud of.
Until next time,
L
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| Getting the shot. |
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