All Good Things Come to — Seligman

Sep 10, 2010 | Landscape Photography

With that amazing sunset now a memory forever exposed on the thin emulsion our mind, we piled into the truck and headed to Vegas and Photoshop World. I guess the week of tranquility finally got to Russell. After a stop at Starbucks, Russell was ready to light up the town. The only problem is, the town we hit was Seligman, a locale we’d visited together a few times.

[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5901.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]

Even though this was a repeat visit, there is one place we’d always wanted to visit but never had and that’s the famous Snow-Cap Drive In. It’s a true Rt 66 treasure and the food don’t suck either! I mean the fries we good, the burger was killer but the shake, of the shake was to die for! But eating was only half the experience, ordering your food was the other. Here the owner (sorry, forgot his name) loves to have fun. He starts by greeting you with a gag mustard bottle that when squeezed, yellow string flies out. He got Sharon with that even though she had just seen it. He does other things as well, but don’t want to spoil your fun. But when you order a shake, be ready to shake hands. And sums up our week of colorful places, colorful folks and good friends. Can’t ask more from photography!

Photos captured by D3s, 24f1.4AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Oh Yeah Baby, It Paid Off!

Sep 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography

The clock, the bastard just never stops ticking when I need it to. Hard to start walking back across the dunes and to the truck. I never took my eye off that cloud as I went. I got back to “the” dunes and the color took one last leap into gorgeous.

[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5733.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]

With calls of hurry up floating across the landscape, I looked one last time to see this. There was no way of knowing 45min earlier that we’d even have a single cloud let alone this magnificent one. The wind storm off in the west kicking up a huge dust storm put enough particles in the sky for the killer color. What you see here is what I saw. Other than the camera set to Vivid, the processing was simply holding down the Shift Key and letting ACR do its stuff.

How many amazing photos go uncaptured because time is not invested? How many images go untreasured because the wrong guess is made that nothing will develop? There is nothing I hate more then to see a great sunset in the rear view mirror. Because of that lesson, seeing that great sunset behind me, putting in the time just comes naturally now. The rewards even if I don’t get the click are too great not to put in the time. In this case, I do have the click to share. I was very lucky, again!

Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

So Very, Very Close!

Sep 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography

You might be seeing this and saying to yourself, “That Moose is one lucky son a gun!” And you’re right, very, very fortunate but guess what, this is not the photo I wanted! Seriously! In the time it took from the last photo to this, we walked, no I ran 80yards across the sand dune to get to this position to make this shot. A thunderhead that was about 3-4 miles off and towering way into the sky ended up falling apart and was blown into the background you see here. And when did this all happen? Just as the sun set and the color came in. Wow, how lucky was that? Well the photo you see here is a 5frame HDR, yeap, taken handheld with a PC-E lens. That wasn’t luck, that’s good old fashioned well practiced hand holding technique. And even with this while thrilled with the turn of events, I wasn’t satisfied. I had lost the sand dunes from this position. I wanted that element. Would time play out?

Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

Was the Wait Going to Pay Off?

Sep 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography

[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5435.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]

So the shadows across the sand dunes get sexier and sexier as the sun slowly sinks in the west. It’s at this moment I ponder of leaving the D3s setup on a tripod on the rim doin a time lapse. Why? I don’t have a tripod to do any kind of HDR and dork me, I left my split grad back in the truck (idiot!).

Nope, Totem didn’t fall over while we were shooting. Yeap, I’m shooting the PC-E handheld and as the sun set, the wind came up and the sand under my feet kept settling. There should be a sign on my back about now…beginner!

The shadow kept creeping up the sand dune. The last thing I wanted was a foot print in this virgin sand so I didn’t creep up until the shadow did. After about 10mins, the shadow got me right up where I wanted to be. And look, a cloud, even though pretty darn whimpy, crept in. I still have the same tools but the light gods are starting to play with me. What will time do, will waiting until this day, the time to walk out into the dunes, will it reward us with the scene and then the photograph? The next few minutes will tell the whole story.

Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

Waited 30yrs for this?

Sep 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography

I had seen this amazing photo of the Totem formation in Monument Valley a long time ago. And I’ve wanted that photo for myself for a long time. So our appt with time this day was to get out into the sand dunes to get that shot. This is not it!

[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5426.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]

Clouds are ~everything~ and within minutes of arriving in the perfect spot (Thanks Jerome!) the one puffy in the sky as you can see blasted out of here! You can see in the top photo the Totem was in shadow from a cloud, you can see the one behind it but they all left. Isn’t the light on the sand dunes in the lower photograph sexy though! So, I’m shooting with a PC-E so there is no lean to the Totem. I’m shooting with the D3x to capture all the detail in the dunes and yet, the bald sky is doing me in. That’s the way it work sometimes and there is nothing you can do about it. I’ve been preaching a lot lately though about time, giving yourself and your photography time. Today’s postings, I hope to illustrate that point.

Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film