The Z 9 / Z24-70f2.8 never left the tripod and in fact, wasn’t off the entire time except for a few seconds while I was at Monument Valley last week. It was doing just one thing, making time-lapse of the view from our balcony 24/7. The Z 9 ran for five days busily taking 1 photo every ten seconds using my basic settings for Time Lapse at ISO1600, f2.8, Aperture Priority. The Z 9 is plugged into the AC via the EP-6a adapter. Other than stopping the Time Lapse every so often to “save” a few hours at a time and to wipe the rain off the front filter, the Z 9 just kept running capturing time passing in a timeless landscape.

I had arranged with Helen at Three Sisters months ago where I wanted to be this morning to greet the sun. At 05:45 she had us jostling down the road in pursuit of that sweet click, a photo I’ve long desired. We had left earlier than most as she had two stops she wanted us to make first. This is one of them. As a Navajo and resident, Helen had the knowledge and permission to have us at the right place at the right time. And photos like this come from that kinda planned luck. To get the shot, I merely had to stand up in the truck, dial in -1 exp comp, Aperture Priority, AWB, f4 @80mm, and go click. The sky from top to bottom is a gorgeous rainbow transitioning from night to day, the Monument Valley dust bringing warmth to the horizon. This doesn’t happen every morning, but it certainly did today, the magical rainbow.

Seriously, staying at The View, the hardest part of this photo was remembering to set the alarm! I had the camera already set up for the morning when I went to bed. WB 10K, -2/3, aperture closed down to f/32 was all it took. The alarm went off, I started to shoot with the Z 8 / Z24-120 bigger scenes watching the sun which I knew would be right over the “thumb.” Then when it was time, zoomed out to 400mm on the other rig, went click, and then sat in my chair and had my coffee. All I can say, all I wanted to say in my photo was, whata rock!